change the size of the root partition?

[xakh]

the part of the system that isn't the home partition on my pangolin performance is ridiculously small, weighing in at only 10 gb. I would like to up it to 20 gb, is there a way I can do this, without totally destroying everything?

[dai_vernon]

Yes, just not while you have booted from it. Download an ubuntu live CD and go to system > administration > Partition Editor and resize from there

[jdb]

the part of the system that isn't the home partition on my pangolin performance is ridiculously small, weighing in at only 10 gb. I would like to up it to 20 gb, is there a way I can do this, without totally destroying everything?

The operating system would normally never use 10G.
Ubuntu/synaptic/apt puts stuff in /, if you put your stuff in /home then / won't run out of space.

jdb

[sharon.gmc]

just download an ubuntu live CD.

[thomasaaron]

This tutorial is about dual booting windows, but the partitioning part should give you a good idea of how to use Partition Editor from a live CD.

http://knowledge76.com/index.php/Windows_-_Add_MS_Windows_to_Your_System76_Machine

[xakh]

Cool, thanks for the help. are these non destructive resizings? as in, do I not lose data?

[thomasaaron]

Yes. But it is good practice to create a backup anyway.