Repartioning more space for opt??

Message

cstegmann · Post by **cstegmann** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 5:54 pm

Hi there, i had no idea where to put this thread since i already succesfully installed gentoo.
Now i recently wanted to install UT2004 but i couldn't get it to because i didn't have enough space on my opt partition (in the handbook i read it was only used for mailservers and a few small programs like limewire, so i made it tiny). I have a lot of free space on my home partition. How would i re-assign some of that space without formatting the whole home partition?

Or alternately, could i put all the /home data on a external usb harddrive. Format the home with qtparted, assign more space to opt and then create a new but slightly smaller home. Then copy all the other home data back into the new home partition? Would the system have the exact same settings with a smaller home, or would linux just not work without a home partition (qtparted especially)?

Anyone know what i can do for this? And also how much space should i make my opt drive have, i'm planning on installing UT2004 and when Quake4 comes out i'll get that as well. Thanks a lot.

p.s. here's the output from my "df -h"

Code: Select all

Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda5             278M  213M   51M  81% /
udev                  506M  180K  506M   1% /dev
/dev/hda2              47M  5.0M   40M  12% /boot
/dev/hda6              12G  7.9G  2.6G  76% /usr
/dev/hda7            1008M 1008M     0 100% /opt
/dev/hda8             3.7G  1.8G  1.8G  50% /var
/dev/hda9             3.3G  187M  3.1G   6% /share
/dev/hda10             45G   22G   21G  52% /home
/dev/hda1              10G  8.4G  1.7G  84% /mnt/windows
none                  506M     0  506M   0% /dev/shm

LubosD · Post by **LubosD** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 6:02 pm

I have a good hint. Maybe not everyone would agree but:

Do not use so many partitions if you don't have a really good reason to do so.
Copy all data to external drive, delete all partitions, create only only / and /boot (for example) and copy all data back.

By doing this you'll get rid of most partition problems in future.

Nil_Spaar · Post by **Nil_Spaar** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 6:30 pm

As quick ugly hack you could use symlink magic to get ut2004 installed. Create something like "/opt/ut2004 -> /home/me/myexternaloptforut2004". That way the ut2004 files would end up on the home partition.
But I can only agree with LubosD: partitioning your drive to pieces only creates unnecessary problems for a desktop system without giving advantages. I would estiamate ut2004 + quake4 to be in the 10-15+ GB region so you can hardly afford having unused space lying around on lots of different paritions.
Do what LubosD suggested and use only one / partition (and maybe an extra /boot)

ruben · Post by **ruben** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 8:09 pm

Contrary to the previous posters, i do think there are advantages to use seperate partitions (it allows you to limit fragmentation by grouping heavily changing directories in the same partition, in addition it allows you to use an optimal block size, or an optimal file system for the data on the partition). I do not understand why you advocate to seperate /boot out on a different partition. Instead, i would seperate /home out on a different partion, so you have: swap,/ and /home. When you have to reinstall some time in the future, at least you do not have to mess or seperately backup your own data. And yeah, i would also say that for now you can solve it with a symlink.

erikm · Post by **erikm** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 8:20 pm

ruben wrote:Contrary to the previous posters, i do think there are advantages to use seperate partitions (it allows you to limit fragmentation by grouping heavily changing directories in the same partition, in addition it allows you to use an optimal block size, or an optimal file system for the data on the partition). I do not understand why you advocate to seperate /boot out on a different partition. Instead, i would seperate /home out on a different partion, so you have: swap,/ and /home. When you have to reinstall some time in the future, at least you do not have to mess or seperately backup your own data. And yeah, i would also say that for now you can solve it with a symlink.

I also agree that a partitioned OS has a number of advantages, but I suggest using LVM to manage it ('emerge lvm2'). LVM also makes resizing relatively uncomplicated.

SteakTheMooCow · Post by **SteakTheMooCow** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 10:34 pm

I was actually going to suggest, if you have an unused hard drive, to mount it as /opt/ut2004 ... the game is huge, but not massive, so partition the new HDD...

A symlink would work I suppose...