Partition troubles (Trying to shrink the /home )

[irockster9]

Hello all, looks like ran into my first problem that I couldn't solve myself. I had intention of with installing fedora to install it first so all its data goes towards the front of the drive ( I heard the front is faster then the back of the drive) after Windows then shrink the Fedora /home drive after installation to create a media partition to dropoff all my music photos dropbox movies and etc for Windows and Fedora to share. Unfortunately that's not looking up to being an easy task.

So i downloaded and booted up a gparted live cd, and was ready to resize the storage (/home) partition of the Fedora installation, but when i looked at it, it said all the data was used (160.83 GB) and 0.00 B unused. The file system is labeled as lvm2 pv (wasn't mounted I made sure of that) and a quick google search showed me that its something called Linux Volume Manager (which might have something to do with it?). This is a fresh installation and I've been placing small files to test on that partition and it works fine so I know that not all of that data is being used something with the file system or LVM is restricting access. How will I be able to go about this: shrinking the 160gb HD space to about 60gb?

Thank you to anyone that has a spare moment and would help me out here.

[george_toolan]

The latest version of Parted Magic should have a new version of GParted with LVM support. See http://partedmagic.com/doku.php?id=downloads

[secipolla]

The gparted live has the latest version, I think (0.14): http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php

There's a GUI tool to manage lvm in Fedora

# yum install system-config-lvm

http://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/...diting-lv.html

Also you may try to google 'resize lvm'.

[irockster9]

Thanks but thats not my problem, found my solution here though http://fedorasolved.org/Members/zcat...-new-partition

" A default installation of Fedora will use all available free space to create two new partitions: a small /boot, and all the remaining space for a single LVM physical volume (PV). This sometimes poses problems for those who later wish to make room for more regular partitions, to install Another Operating System into, for example. The short solution: reinstall Fedora with custom sizes to leave free space; the long solution: this howto. "

I love how all over the internet it is boosted how "powerful" and "easy to use" this LVM is, I say pain in the ass.. this would of been a 5 minute project without. Reinstalling linux now because the long way is well long and I don't think I'm capable of doing without screwing up.. *sigh*

Thank you for your replys though

[mikee]

Do you know the shell?
If you can bring up a shell, do the following commands and post the output:

/usr/sbin/pvs
/usr/sbin/vgs
/usr/sbin/lvs


This will show how physical volumes, volume groups and logical volumes are allocated.
I presume all the space is allocated to a physical volume, but there could be free space that could be
allocated to a new volume group/logical volume for /home.

It is also possible to shrink existing filesystems with resize2fs and the logical volumes/volume groups (lvresize and vgresize commands) to free space.
You just have to be very careful!

[6e617a696d]

shell command knowledge is highly recommended . It's not knowledge, i mean experience. Not to be afraid of black screen and blinking cursor. You should not mess with LVM with other third-party tools. You should read more about Logical Volume Management concept before doing anything with your system. LVM has its own GREAT tool set.

https://access.redhat.com/knowledge/...efinition.html

https://access.redhat.com/knowledge/...omponents.html

---------- Post added at 11:50 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:45 PM ----------

BTW LVM management is on RHCSA/RHCE exams

PS. Don't be afraid to break stuff eventually you will fix it

[mikee]

Originally Posted by 6e617a696d

shell command knowledge is highly recommended. You should not mess with LVM with other tools. You should read more about Logical Volume Management concept before doing anything with your system.

https://access.redhat.com/knowledge/...efinition.html

https://access.redhat.com/knowledge/...omponents.html

---------- Post added at 11:50 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:45 PM ----------

BTW LVM management is on RHCSA/RHCE exams

that is a good answer about shell knowledge...
I am a 25 year sysadmin, and sometimes I forget that not everyone has messed with the nuts and bolts!!

[secipolla]

Have a look here: http://www.linuxbsdos.com/2012/07/19...for-fedora-17/

edit - if you go for re-installation, but you might want to use the advices above to try to use the current one.

[irockster9]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. I think I'm just going for the re installation however, with ubuntu 12.10 as I think I'm not ready to use something as advanced as Fedora at this point in time. I've had a couple hiccups with hardware and software . Although I wanted to make Fedora work I will try again at a later time maybe when F18 hits. My only previous linux experience was with Mandriva 2008.1-2009.1, arguably one of the more nanny distros.

Happy hats!