How to use existing free space in Ubuntu 11.10 for dual booting without data loss?

[shankhaagt]

Hi,

I have a 120 GB SATA Hard disk and the entire hard disk has only Ubuntu 11.10 installed ,mount point is /. Below are the details of current partition:

sudo blkid
/dev/sda1: UUID="dcb382b9-c8aa-441e-8a16-8e2f81d3ec4a" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda5: UUID="4e2c2ec4-4b03-48a9-ac2f-6f6cc5b09393" TYPE="swap"

sudo fdisk -l:

Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2048 232366079 116182016 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 232368126 234440703 1036289 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 232368128 234440703 1036288 82 Linux swap



Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1 110G 59G 46G 57% /
udev 1.5G 8.0K 1.5G 1% /dev
tmpfs 604M 1.2M 603M 1% /run
none 5.0M 8.0K 5.0M 1% /run/lock
none 1.5G 428K 1.5G 1% /run/shm

Ouput of discus command :

anirban@Zion:~$ discus
Mount Total Used Avail Prcnt Graph
/ 109.06 GB 58.43 GB 50.63 GB 53.6% [*****-----]
/sys 0 KB 0 KB 0 KB 0.0% [----------]
+onnections 0 KB 0 KB 0 KB 0.0% [----------]
+rnel/debug 0 KB 0 KB 0 KB 0.0% [----------]
+l/security 0 KB 0 KB 0 KB 0.0% [----------]
/dev 1.46 GB 8 KB 1.46 GB 0.0% [----------]
/run 603.4 MB 1.1 MB 602.2 MB 0.2% [----------]
/run/lock 5.0 MB 8 KB 5.0 MB 0.2% [----------]
/run/shm 1.47 GB 428 KB 1.47 GB 0.0% [----------]
+infmt_misc 0 KB 0 KB 0 KB 0.0% [----------]
+block-fuse 0 KB 0 KB 0 KB 0.0% [----------]

Now I want to use the remaining 46 GB available space in /dev/sda1 to install Fedora 16 without losing any existing data.I

Please advise how to proceed
Please let me know if any additional details are needed.

[darkod]

1. You need to make a full backup of your data. Shrinking partitions always carries some risk of data loss.
2. Then you need to boot the computer with the ubuntu cd in live mode (not from the hdd), open Gparted and shrink /dev/sda1 for as much space as you want. Be aware that you can't shrink all of the 46GB free because ubuntu will not work if the root partition is 100% full. You can't leave it without any free space.
3. When you have unallocated space left after the shrink, install fedora onto it. I would select not to install a bootloader during the fedora install and after that during the first ubuntu boot just run update-grub and it will detect it and create an entry in the boot menu. That will leave grub2 from ubuntu on the MBR.

Make sure fedora doesn't install with LVM or something, I am not sure how it installs these days. That's your job to investigate and know what are you doing. :)

[shankhaagt]

Thanks darkod , i wouldnt have bother to leave any free space but for you...would have messed up...and that LVM too..shall try and update the post:)