[SOLVED] Root partition needs resized

[jimmij]

Problem:
Error says that Root is full.
Disk Usage Analyzer and df -h confirms.

System:
Fedora 17, 3.4.2-4.fc17.x86-64
Acer Aspire 5251-1805 Laptop, AMD V120 2.2GHz, 3GB DDR3, 250GB HD, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250 Graphics.

When running AutoPlus to install video codecs, I received an error that the Root was almost full.
AutoPlus quit due to the error, and I checked the Root partition to confirm the error: Root is at 99%.
When I installed Fedora I followed the tutorial for a custom partitioning and made: root= 5GB, boot= 500MB, swap= 3GB, home= 220GB.
I haven't loaded many large programs onto the system (LibreOffice, Audacious, Gimp, AutoPlus, Deluge, Evolution) so normally just reinstalling the system wouldn't be a problem, but I can't loose my work files on the system and I don't have enough media available to back them all up again.

What I am wondering about is the procedure to resize the Root partition safely and what a good size would be?

Most of my work on the computer is Office applications, some graphics work, E-books, Internet (streaming and flash videos, research, Down/Uploading torrents), watching movies, music, and as for gaming: I mainly stick with old DOS games (Kroz still Rocks!).
Also, I am not a systems guru by any means, so step-by-step instructions would be great.

jimmij

[george_toolan]

What kind of "tutorial" was that?

The system will require about 15 GiB of space, so 20 GiB should be sufficient if your home is on a different partition.

You could try to move /usr to /home/usr and /var to /home/var and then create some symlinks. This way you don't have to resize anything ;-)

Originally Posted by george_toolan

What kind of "tutorial" was that?

The system will require about 15 GiB of space, so 20 GiB should be sufficient if your home is on a different partition.

You could try to move /usr to /home/usr and /var to /home/var and then create some symlinks. This way you don't have to resize anything ;-)

http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Soft...-usr-is-broken

[stevea]

Originally Posted by george_toolan

You could try to move /usr to /home/usr and /var to /home/var and then create some symlinks. This way you don't have to resize anything ;-)

duct tape and baling wire.

Just boot a live gparted cd and resize.

[jimmij]

Thanks for the prompt answers, much appriciated.

I am reading about symlinks and the link from Yellowman right now. The link's article is written a little above my head in the technical respect, but researching as I go along, the article seems hint that there exists a solution... but unless you are at the authors level of knowledge there is not much to go from.


Stevea, I am also reading about the GParted CD right now. Do you think that it has a reasonable chance to commit murder to my other files? If I loose all my lesson plans there will be happy students and one P.O.'d Principal for me to deal wiith.

Also, thanks for the quick response. I just installed Fedora yesterday and have not had a chance to finish reading the book on it that I bought, your help is a lifesaver in me being able to get back to work quickly.

P.S. This is the guide I used for installing: http://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/...ide/index.html

[george_toolan]

Just boot a live gparted cd and resize.

Just make a backup first ;-)

[bepaald]

Also, just a quick heads up because both me and my brother did similar things not too long ago: resizing large partitions (you will probably need to shrink your /home in order to grow your /), will take hours. Seriously, if you are pressed for time and for some reason you have to use your computer or can't leave it turned on for the rest of the day, don't start the process. My brother did it on his laptop once when he didn't have the power adapter with him. Needless to say, the laptop battery wasn't going to last the full 5+ hours it took (and that was not even a 220G drive). Anyway, I'll tell you what I told him: anytime I have to do this, I ignore the problem until I go to sleep, then right before bed I start the resizing. Usually all will be done the next morning.

[stevea]

I've never seen gparted fail on a linux file system. I've seen it mess up an NTFS shrink once years ago when the NTFS revs were changing.

If you are using LVM then gparted won't work (it just won't find the file systems)
If you move the starting point of the root fs, (or /boot if you have it separate) then you will have to run grub-install to boot again.
Yes 'MOVING' partiitons is slow. Copy/deletes of partition better, shrinking better.

[Haphaeu]

Originally Posted by stevea

duct tape and baling wire.

Just boot a live gparted cd and resize.

Just be aware that if you move the _start_ of the root partition, your system might not boot.
Make sure you re-configure whichever boot loader you're using after resizing - and before re-booting!

[tashirosgt]

jimmji, If you become root by using "su -", you will be put in /root directory. Then if you do some big download, the files, they will end up there. If this is what's filling up /root, you ought to do a cd to another directory before you download big files. I think the advice you see about setting the size of /root is based on the assumption that /root is not doing to be the dumping place for the files you download.

[george_toolan]

I'm pretty sure when he says "root" he means the root file system "/" and not just "/root" ;-)

[jimmij]

Sorry for the late delay in getting back to everyone. I tried using GParted even though I knew it would not accept LVM from your posts- No-go of course. And since I was crunched on time, I backed-up with what little media I had and did a proper custom re-install. It looks to be in working order for now, and I also made sure that if this issue should ever arises again that the partitioning scheme is GParted compliant.
Thanks for all your quick answers!
-jim