Resizing root?

tmcca · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 24 May 2019 Posts: 120

What is the best way to resize root without losing data?

I currently have 83% on my root partition.

RayDude · Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2020 3:05 am Post subject: Re: Resizing root?

Hu · Moderator Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 21621

Please post the output of df -Th, the partition layout requested above, and, if applicable, any LVM or RAID layer information.

In the abstract, the process would be to resize the block device that contains the root filesystem, then grow the root filesystem to fill the resulting block device. The specifics of how to do this vary by filesystem and by what block layers sit beneath it, which is why we need more information.

figueroa · Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2020 4:11 am Post subject:

How big is 83%? How much space is left in your 17%? Can some of the things in your current root be offloaded to another partition/drive? i.e. distfiles, personal files, junk, videos

The best and safest option is to restore your root to a new, larger partition from a current backup. If you don't have a current, tested, restorable backup you have bigger problems than being 83% full. And, if you don't have such a backup, you shouldn't consider trying to grow your root partition. Backups are essential to prevent future alligator tears.

Generic solution: https://gparted.org/
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NeddySeagoon · Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2020 10:25 am Post subject:

tmcca,

The best way to resize root is not to do it at all.
Your install can be scattered over as many drives and partitions as you like.
They don't even need to all be in the same PC.

Pay close attention to my sig too.
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Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

tmcca · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 24 May 2019 Posts: 120

Hu · Moderator Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 21621

Your current partition layout has no free space between the end of the partition holding the root filesystem and the beginning of the partition holding the /srv filesystem. You did not use LVM, so you cannot grow the device holding the root filesystem without overwriting the head of the device that holds the srv filesystem. Such an action would destroy the srv filesystem and lose all data on it. If you have a place you can temporarily relocate the contents of the srv filesystem, this might be acceptable. Otherwise, you will need to pursue the route Neddy suggested earlier: add new filesystems to host some of the content that is currently in the root filesystem, thereby allowing you to free those files on the root filesystem without losing their contents. How would you like to proceed?

Give up
Destructively relocate srv
Move files off root onto some other filesystem.

steve_v · Guru Joined: 20 Jun 2004 Posts: 388 Location: New Zealand

Gparted from a liveCD can resize and/or move partitions, assuming they are among the filesystems it supports and said filesystem supports resizing. ext4 should not be a problem.
Personally I like PartedMagic, but this livecd will also work (and is a free download).

Be aware this is a slow and potentially destructive operation, make absolutely sure you have a working backup before attempting it.

You will want to shrink the /srv partition moving it to the right, then grow the / partition into the free space. It will be slow as the data on /srv must be physically relocated. Interrupting the process will almost certainly trash your filesystem(s), consider yourself warned.

Whether this is any faster than simply backing up /srv and restoring it later is debatable, but as you will be backing up your data in any case I see no reason not to try it. It's easy, it's GUI, and IME it's pretty painless.
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dmpogo · Advocate Joined: 02 Sep 2004 Posts: 3267 Location: Canada

Jaglover · Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2020 7:58 am Post subject:

Maybe all that's needed is

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2020 9:01 am Post subject:

I was about to offer shrink /srv and make a new partition in the free space for distfiles and possibly packages.

I like Jaglovers solution better though.
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NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

figueroa · Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2020 3:32 pm Post subject:

How is the user's /srv partition being used? Why does it exist? I've never had one, never missed it.

How does the user backup his system/personal files?
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Andy Figueroa
hp pavilion hpe h8-1260t/2AB5; spinning rust x3
i7-2600 @ 3.40GHz; 16 gb; Radeon HD 7570
amd64/23.0/split-usr/desktop (stable), OpenRC, -systemd -pulseaudio -uefi

eccerr0r · Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2020 3:54 pm Post subject:

As of writing this message, I found that 20GB disk/partition you can still get a semi-usable full GUI Gentoo install if it's x86 and keep things cleaned up. Little to no space to store your mpegs however. My x86 machines with firefox (not firefox-bin) and xfce4 is still working with a 20GB partition. Running size is 10GB, and rest is for tmp space to build rust and firefox. I don't know how long this is going to remain true. It's already very tight when doing updates - juggling free space is tricky.

For 64-bit x86_64, it's no longer enough, binary and file sizes are significantly larger than x86 that there won't be enough tmp space to build rust/firefox.

But I would give a thumbs up for the gparted livecd, I used it several times to nondestructively resize partitions. I'd be very hesitant on using it on SSDs, you will lose a life across your media, not too big an issue with SLC/MLC but is a concern with TLC. However, resize with impunity on rust spinners.

And yes: read Neddy's signature very carefully.

BTW there needs to be a poll on what people call their directories for extra partitions. Seems a lot of people call it /srv, or at least it's not the first time I saw someone call it /srv... Perhaps this is standard for some other distributions? Dunno.
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NeddySeagoon · Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2020 7:43 pm Post subject:

The discussion on naming extra directories went that way --->
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NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

tmcca · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 24 May 2019 Posts: 120

after using eclean-dist it's now 62%

I think this be ok now. Thanks

Jaglover · Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2020 10:54 pm Post subject:

eccerr0r · Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2020 3:25 am Post subject:

If you have kernel sourcecode installed, make sure you clean up older versions in /usr/src too --

$ eselect kernel list

Unmerge the extra kernels and clean up the /usr/src/... directory.

In general you should also try emerge --pretend --depclean and remove extra packages you don't need like extra old compilers, etc.

Lots of little sneaky stuff adds up and fills up your disk...
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Intel Core i7 2700K/Radeon R7 250/24GB DDR3/256GB SSD
What am I supposed watching?

RayDude · Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2020 4:16 am Post subject:

Depending on how you build your kernels, you can save space by deleting the unused kernel modules in /lib/modules.
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szatox · Advocate Joined: 27 Aug 2013 Posts: 3134

figueroa · Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2020 9:02 pm Post subject:

I usually keep three kernel in /usr/src and /boot. I don't buy 6 GB.

Hu · Moderator Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 21621

I build the objects in a separate directory structure to keep the sources clean. Sizes vary by system, but my biggest is ~850M for the object directory. 6GB seems like either debug information was built into all the objects, or the kernel was built with huge numbers of optional features (like allyesconfig).

Anon-E-moose · Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2020 9:33 pm Post subject:

szatox · Advocate Joined: 27 Aug 2013 Posts: 3134

That particular 6 GB was for gentoo-sources-5 with a config from gentoo-sources-4 I created a long, long time ago for my virtual machines (qemu and vmware). I had more time back then, and now I am basically always in a hurry, so it sounded like a good idea.