1st time creating separate /Home partition, + more. Help?

[Rasa1111]

Hey all,

I've been wanting to do this for awhile now,
But just got around to having the time/energy to do it.

Getting a separate /Home partition is my main goal,
But Ive got a couple others as well.

I've never really done much work manually editing/extending/creating of partitions,
Soo Im going to need really simple, noob-like instructions if possible.

I'd love to get this on the first try without having to start all over..
So I come to you first, before I just jump in and start clicking things.

Ok, Heres what I want to do..

right now, I have 3 installs,
2 of which I want to keep,
and then make a /home partition.

My Main install is Ubuntu 11.04. [sda1] (want to keep for now~ and shrink)
second install is Ubuntu 11.10 Alpha 2 [sda6] (want to remove)
third install is gNatty 11.04 [sda8] ( want to keep and make larger)

gParted shot~



So,
My thoughts are,

First~ I'd like to delete the 11.10 install (on sda6) , and then give the space back to 11.04 on sda1. (Then I'd need to shrink it)

Second~ I'd like to extend the gNatty partition on sda8 to make it larger.

Third~ I'd like to create a new, separate /Home partition.

So I would have 3 partitions, Ubuntu 11.04/ gNatty 11.04/ and /Home.

Is this easy enough to do?
If so, Could anyone give me simple, explicit directions on how to do it?
Like, step-by-step? lol

I have read multiple web pages explaining how to create a /home partition,
but always get confused by other things they add in (like, “then make another /root partition, and a /usr partition, then edit fstab, etc etc)
and they also don't quite address exactly what I need to do here.

If worse comes to worst..
I guess I can just start all over again,
But I would really like to attempt this, and get it to work!

Man, that would be awesome.

Anyone with some extra minutes, a kind heart, and an intelligent mind that would like to help a brother out? You will be by hero. Lol

Last thing,
I would need/want to make it so that whenever I boot into either OS,
the /Home partition mounts with either one, automatically on boot up.

How does it look?
Doable?

Thanks in advance, Hope to hear from you soon.

[Rasa1111]

ohh yeah, Also..

Does 100 GB for /Home, and 30 GB's for each OS sound good?

HDD is 160 GB.

So,
/Home= about 100GB
11.04= 30 GB
and gNatty=30 GB

Does that sound wise?

is 30GB suitable for each OS if they are both sharing a /home partition?
So the space they would use would simply be for the installed apps/programs, is this correct?

If not, What would be best? lol

[Quackers]

Firstly you should find out which system currently has control of grub and which swap partition that system is using (see /etc/fstab in that system).
If you haven't changed the default order of the grub menu, this will be the first item on the grub menu.
Secondly you can free up almost 4GB of the extended partiton by deleting 2 of your swap partitions - not sure which 2 yet though
Thirdly, a separate home partition can be shared between 2 installations, but separate home folders should be used, with different names. I haven't done it, but others have. I personally have separate home partitions for each installation.
15 to 20GB would probably be alright for each system's root partition.

Now to your partition changes.
If you aren't 100% sure which system has grub control I would recommend that you boot into your 11.04 system on sda1 and run

sudo grub-install /dev/sda

Now you know that 11.04's grub has control.
Have a look in /etc/fstab in that system and see which swap partition it uses.

I would then run gparted and right-click on any swap partition that's locked and select "swapoff".
Delete the 2 swap partitions that the 11.04 system is not using.
Delete the sda6 partition.

Close gparted and run sudo update-grub.

This will simplify your partition setup for the moment.

You can then resize sda1 if you want, from gparted run from a live cd.
I would leave 11.04 with an integrated home folder. If you want to create a separate home partition for 11.04 you can, but you will then need to move your current home stuff to that new partition and mount it automatically by editing /etc/fstab in 11.04 (with the new home partition's UUID). There are guides on how to do this but as I haven't done it I would hesitate to give advice on that
The same steps can be used to adjust your sda8 installation and/or create a separate home partition (or the same home partition shared) for that. The home folder in sda8 could then be moved to your new (shared) home partition (using a different user name) and /etc/fstab adjusted to reflect the new home partition's UUID AND the new swap partition's UUID which will probably have changed because you have now deleted 2 swaps.

It's a lot of work.

I would leave your current installations as they are (except for the 2 swap partitions and sda6 deletion) and make the new arrangements for new installations only - but that's just me
See what you think.

[Rasa1111]

Crap, man..
Big, giant... CRAP!

Well I've already screwed something up.

Thanks for the reply Quackers.

Being the idiot I am,
I decided to go on ahead and open gParted,
and then proceeded to "delete" the 11.10 partition so that it was "unallocated".

I read something that said I could do that, and then extend/resize the smallest partition to use it's unallocated space.

Welp, Now I can't even boot / can't get to GRUB menu.

This is what I get for being impatient and screwing with things Im unsure of.

So, Now when i boot the machine, it gives me some "unknown" error, and then a command line to type something in, but i have no idea what.

I guess I'll reboot and find out what it says, then post it back here.

Gahh.
Right about now I'd say forget the /Home partition for the moment
if I could simply resize my gNatty install to use those 20+ GB of now "unallocated" space.

IF I could even boot into my 11.04 or gNatty installs.

man, it sucks being a r3t@rd. i swear.

[Rasa1111]

Alright, This is all I get when booting the machine~

a black screen with~

error: unknown file system
grub rescue> _

Any way to save this?

or should I just say to hell with it and do a fresh install of gNatty? (and maybe a /Home partition?
damn-it.

I do have all my data saved and backed up.
thats about all I have going for me right now. lol

[Quackers]

Sadly Rasa1111, that's how most of us learn stuff
It may be that you deleted the partition that had control of grub and therefore grub will need re-installing. If it does, from the 11.04 live cd desktop run

sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt  
sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt /dev/sda

and hopefully it should boot again.

[wildmanne39]

Hi, you need to reinstall grub using the livecd here is a guide to do that.
http://opensource-sidh.blogspot.com/...ubuntu-cd.html

[Miljet]

First~ I'd like to delete the 11.10 install (on sda6) , and then give the space back to 11.04 on sda1.

Although this can be done, it will be exceedingly difficult. You do understand that sda5 through sda9 are all included inside of sda2, don't you? You can't just trade space between primary and extended partitions.

[Rasa1111]

Sadly Rasa1111, that's how most of us learn stuff
It may be that you deleted the partition that had control of grub and therefore grub will need re-installing. If it does, from the 11.04 live cd desktop run

sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt  
sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt /dev/sda

and hopefully it should boot again.

Oh thanks!

Yes, you are right man. I guess that is how we learn.

Ok, *some* good news..
Got my GRUB back, and now booted into my 11.04 install, No problem!
Thanks man! Props to you. <3

Now, When I choose sda1 (11.04) from GRUB, it boots up fine..

But, when I select sda6 (which is now gNatty), I get this~

error: no such device
error: no such disk
error: you need to load the kernal first

press any key to continue..

lol, what?

wildmanne, thanks for the link. <3

Although this can be done, it will be exceedingly difficult. You do understand that sda5 through sda9 are all included inside of sda2, don't you? You can't just trade space between primary and extended partitions.

No man, I'm sorry, I did not know.

thanks for the replies guys.
Much appreciated. <3

[Quackers]

Lol Did you delete just sda6?
In 11.04 have you run sudo update-grub? Try that, it may fix gnatty. If not we can take a look.