Changing ext3 file system to ext2
Hello again, Ian. Well, gparted worked as advertised on ext3 file systems. Thanks so much again for drawing it to my attention. I have some questions arising, though, if I may. Here's what the output of fdisk now shows for the relevant drive. Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hdb1 * 1 13 104391 83 Linux /dev/hdb2 14 1318 10482412+ 83 Linux /dev/hdb3 1319 1449 1052257+ 82 Linux swap /dev/hdb4 1450 4865 27439020 5 Extended /dev/hdb5 1450 1462 104391 83 Linux /dev/hdb6 1463 4865 27334566 83 Linux hdb1 and hdb2 are respectively my original /boot and / partitions for FC3, with hdb2 now shrunk from 35 GB to 10GB. hdb3 is my new swap partition--it's functioning and I've added it my fstab file. However, I'm not quite sure what to do now about hdb5 and hdb6. I want them respectively to serve the same function for FC6 as hdb1 and hdb2 now do for FC3. In my fstab file, the entries for hdb2 and hdb1 respectively are as follows: LABEL=/ / ext3 defaults 1 1 LABEL=/boot /boot ext3 defaults 1 2 Do I make hdb5 bootable, label hdb5 and hdb6 respectively /bootfc6 and /fc6 and then mount them on mountpoints corresponding to their labels? Or (as often happens with Linux) am I missing some fundamental point about this? Thanks again, Leslie
On 3/18/07, Leslie Katz <lesliek(a)ozemail.com.au> wrote:
Hello again, Ian.
Well, gparted worked as advertised on ext3 file systems. Thanks so much again for drawing it to my attention.
I have some questions arising, though, if I may.
Here's what the output of fdisk now shows for the relevant drive.
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hdb1 * 1 13 104391 83 Linux /dev/hdb2 14 1318 10482412+ 83 Linux /dev/hdb3 1319 1449 1052257+ 82 Linux swap /dev/hdb4 1450 4865 27439020 5 Extended /dev/hdb5 1450 1462 104391 83 Linux /dev/hdb6 1463 4865 27334566 83 Linux
hdb1 and hdb2 are respectively my original /boot and / partitions for FC3, with hdb2 now shrunk from 35 GB to 10GB. hdb3 is my new swap partition--it's functioning and I've added it my fstab file.
However, I'm not quite sure what to do now about hdb5 and hdb6. I want them respectively to serve the same function for FC6 as hdb1 and hdb2 now do for FC3.
In my fstab file, the entries for hdb2 and hdb1 respectively are as follows:
LABEL=/ / ext3 defaults 1 1 LABEL=/boot /boot ext3 defaults 1 2
Do I make hdb5 bootable, label hdb5 and hdb6 respectively /bootfc6 and /fc6 and then mount them on mountpoints corresponding to their labels? Or (as often happens with Linux) am I missing some fundamental point about this?
OK - To me it sounds like you're wanting to have two separate installs of FC on your machine and be able to read them from each other but still keep them separate. Correct me if wrong. In this case you will have two /etc/fstab s - one in FC3 and one in FC6. In your FC3 you would have it as you outline. In your copy of /etc/fstab under FC6 you would label /dev/hdb1 /bootfc3 and /dev/hdb2 /fc3 and /dev/hdb5 /boot and /dev/hdb6 / As you seem to have worked out swap can be shared as it's just temporary data for virtual memory. grub should take care of working out where each is loaded but if it doesn't edit /boot/grub/menu.lst to put a root=/dev/hdb5 for your FC6 and root=/dev/hdb1 for your FC3. For example here is part of my grub menu.lst file: title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.20final_dccp root (hd1,1) kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20final_dccp root=/dev/sda2 ro savedefault (It is sda2 because it is a Serial ATA drive and a newer kernel) -- Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4 Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz WAND Network Research Group
Ian McDonald wrote:
OK - To me it sounds like you're wanting to have two separate installs of FC on your machine and be able to read them from each other but still keep them separate. Correct me if wrong.
I hadn't even thought of anything as sophisticated as that! All I wanted was to install FC6, but to keep FC3 on the machine, so as to be able to boot either into FC3 or FC6. The reason for keeping FC3 is simply that I have to be sure I can do all the things I do now in FC3 until I've got them going in FC6 as well. I have in mind particularly all my financial stuff. In other words, I'm just keeping a safety net for now.
In this case you will have two /etc/fstab s - one in FC3 and one in FC6. In your FC3 you would have it as you outline.
In your copy of /etc/fstab under FC6 you would label /dev/hdb1 /bootfc3 and /dev/hdb2 /fc3 and /dev/hdb5 /boot and /dev/hdb6 /
I know now that I was missing something fundamental, just as I suspected. There's no necessity in FC3 for me to have access to hdb5 or hdb6, so there's no need for me to have the FC3 fstab file refer to them. It's only in FC6 that I'll need access to hdb5 and hdb6. However, there's still one thing niggling at me, though, as I gather you use Debian, it may not be a thing you'd care to comment on. Say I boot from the FC_6 i386 DVD I have and start an installation. In that process, I gather I'll be prompted where to put things and it's at that stage that I'll identify hdb5 as my /boot partition and hdb6 as my / partition. When I've done that, I take it that the new installation will create a new fstab, that'll have in it just the common swap partition and hdb5 and hdb6. What I'm trying to get at in a roundabout way is this: there's no risk that the new installation'll just overwrite my existing hdb1 or hbd2 without asking, is there? Sorry to be such a pain, but my ignorance makes me scared of things! Leslie
On 3/18/07, Leslie Katz <lesliek(a)ozemail.com.au> wrote:
I know now that I was missing something fundamental, just as I suspected. There's no necessity in FC3 for me to have access to hdb5 or hdb6, so there's no need for me to have the FC3 fstab file refer to them. It's only in FC6 that I'll need access to hdb5 and hdb6.
OK - you can always add later if you want to get access to that data.
However, there's still one thing niggling at me, though, as I gather you use Debian, it may not be a thing you'd care to comment on.
Say I boot from the FC_6 i386 DVD I have and start an installation. In that process, I gather I'll be prompted where to put things and it's at that stage that I'll identify hdb5 as my /boot partition and hdb6 as my / partition. When I've done that, I take it that the new installation will create a new fstab, that'll have in it just the common swap partition and hdb5 and hdb6. What I'm trying to get at in a roundabout way is this: there's no risk that the new installation'll just overwrite my existing hdb1 or hbd2 without asking, is there?
When I've installed FC before it's always asked. The main thing though is when it asks for disk setup or disk partition don't select automatic or default but go in and choose which partitions (i.e. hdb5, hdb6) for FC6 to install in to.
Sorry to be such a pain, but my ignorance makes me scared of things!
Leslie
That's OK. Any real critical data I would back up but I would do that anyway. If you can't afford to lose the data from an install you also can't afford to lose it if the machine breaks or is stolen.... -- Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4 Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz WAND Network Research Group
participants (2)
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Ian McDonald -
Leslie Katz