Dynamically Resize An Ubuntu Partition

[LBattis]

I presently have two instances of Ubuntu (AMD64) loaded along with an XP installation for legacy Notes/Domino purposes. My principle Ubuntu partition is /dev/sda4 . When I originally installed it I goofed up and got the partition size wrong. It's too small. I missed a decimal place or something equally dumb. What I would like to do now is dynamically resize /dev/sda4 , by transitioning ~80% of /dev/sda2 over to /dev/sda4 . I have loaded QTParted, sudo'd it up in a terminal window and gone through the GUI looking for a 'Partition Magic,' function for dynamic sizing with no success. I've read from multiple sources that what I want to do is do-able. How do I do it? . . .


FDISK:

DEVICE BOOT START END BLOCKS ID SYSTEM

/dev/sda1 * 1 3891 31254426 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 3892 36187 259417620 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 38086 38913 6650910 5 Extended
/dev/sda4 36188 38085 15245685 83 Linux
/dev/sda5 38175 38913 5935986 82 Linux Swap/Solaris
/dev/sda6 38086 38174 714829+ 82 Linux Swap/Solaris

[dracayr]

you can't resize from the running system because you can only resize unmounted drives. You'll have to use a liveCD. In the case of the ubuntu liveCD: go System->Administration->Partition Editor, apply the wanted changes and click apply

dracayr

[chris4585]

You can do that or use the gparted livecd, i find it works very well

[LBattis]

you can't resize from the running system because you can only resize unmounted drives. You'll have to use a liveCD. In the case of the ubuntu liveCD: go System->Administration->Partition Editor, apply the wanted changes and click apply

dracayr

Worked beautifully, Thank-you.
Having had the experience I can add some caveats for Windows users who are making the transition over to Ubuntu.
The GParted (partition editor) software on the Ubuntu v.8.04 LiveCD requires a bit more attention as you're configuring it for your desired operation than Partition Magics I have used. You have to create space before you can expand another space. In other words, you have to shrink a partition before you can expand a partition. I also suspect that the partitions must be adjacent although I haven't tested this hypothesis as my partitions were adjacent to begin with.
With all that said, it was a reasonably rapid and very well executed process that left me with exactly the desired result.
Lovin' Ubuntu . . .