/var too small for upgrade to gutsy

[Námo Mandos]

Hi. I tried to upgrade from feisty to gutsy. But tragically, my /var is in its own partition, and that partition is too small! Anyway to redirect the upgrade to use another partition?

[forestpixie]

Try doing an apt-clean to empty the archive - that will get some space in the /var

sudo apt-get clean

[Námo Mandos]

It wants 1.2GB. After doing the clean thing, I only have 400MB. It's a small /var. Didn't expect this problem when I partitioned it.

[forestpixie]

Can you not resize it?

[Námo Mandos]

gparted is not happy with that.

[forestpixie]

What is it unhappy about then - I assume you're trying with a livecd.

[Námo Mandos]

Nope. But is there anyway to do this without changing partition sizes? Like via symbolic links or something? The drive is partitioned the way it is for a reason and I was hoping not to fiddle with the partitions that *do* have space.

[forestpixie]

I don't know I'm afraid you'll have to wait for someone else - never looked at symbolic links. Sorry :(

[Námo Mandos]

bûmp

[lemming465]

Yes, you can use symbolic links to rearrange things. Assuming you have enough space somewhere else, try this:

sudo -i
cd /var/cache
cp -a apt /some/where/else
mv apt apt.old
ln -s /some/where/else/apt .
When you are happy with the new apt symlink, you can do sudo rm -rf /var/cache/apt.old

[malapradej]

Hi, I also have the same problem upgrading from maverick to natty. I also partitioned my system like a server a year ago in ignorance when I just started using Linux Ubuntu.
It seems like it is the whole /var folder that needs to be symlinked, as the /var/cache only has 45MB of files and folders. My /var folder has its own partition of 1.9GB, which is exactly what natty narwhal needs to upgrade.
Is it possible (i.e. will I have a working system) if I symlink the whole /var folders content?

example:

sudo -i
cd /var
cp -a apt /some/where/else
mv apt apt.old
ln -s /some/where/else/apt .

and to fix it after upgrade:

sudo rm -rf /var/apt.old

Many thanks for the advice in advance.
Jacques

[malapradej]

Hi, I also have the same problem upgrading from maverick to natty. I also partitioned my system like a server a year ago in ignorance when I just started using Linux Ubuntu.
It seems like it is the whole /var folder that needs to be symlinked, as the /var/cache only has 45MB of files and folders. My /var folder has its own partition of 1.9GB, which is exactly what natty narwhal needs to upgrade.
Is it possible (i.e. will I have a working system) if I symlink the whole /var folders content?

example:

sudo -i
cd /var
cp -a apt /some/where/else
mv apt apt.old
ln -s /some/where/else/apt .

and to fix it after upgrade:

sudo rm -rf /var/apt.old

Many thanks for the advice in advance.
Jacques

Or is there another way to upgrade without starting from scratch as in reinstall the whole system?.

[dino99]

do you really need that custom install ?
here is the standard one:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=10161428&postcount=2