Arch Linux

kuser

Member

Registered: 2024-01-25

Posts: 14

Resizing root partition issue

Hello, this is my first post.

I had a partition that looked somewhat like this

```
/dev/nvme0n1p1 512M EFI system
/dev/nvme0n1p2 20G Linux filesystem
/dev/nvme0n1p3 450G linux filesystem
```

My understanding was that the `nvme0n1p2` partition was the part of my drive allocated to my root partition and the rest was my `/home` directory. I needed to expand that so I made a live usb with GParted, then moved the `/home` partition 30 or so GB up, then expanded the `/` partition to take up the remaining space, I did so at the recomendation of this article (https://gparted.org/display-doc.php%3Fn … partitions).

Despite the warning given to me by the software I confirmed that changes and rebooted, my computer failed to recognize the resulting partition layout as bootable. I don't really have anything that I would be super sad to loose, some configs that I forgot to backup, but I can live with that. Is my system permanently unbootable warranting a reinstall? If so can I use the existing partition layout that now looks something like this:

```
/dev/nvme0n1p1 512M EFI system
/dev/nvme0n1p2 60G Linux filesystem
/dev/nvme0n1p3 410G linux filesystem
```

In that case would the `nvme0n1p2` partition be the swap partition? What point in the installation would I set it as the root partition?

As I am sure you can tell, I'm very new to this, but eager to turn this into a learning experience. I also am not sure how to make the code blocks, I will update it to make it more readable when someone hopefully replies.

Thanks for reading.

frostschutz

Member

Registered: 2013-11-15

Posts: 1,647

Re: Resizing root partition issue

can you mount the filesystems from a livecd? if not, then something went wrong when moving partitions... lots of things can go wrong unfortunately.

if you re-do the installation, consider using LVM... it allows you to resize without having to move things around. you can start with smaller volumes and grow them as needed.

alternatively a filesystem that does its own volume management (zfs, btrfs, ...bcachefs?)

kuser

Member

Registered: 2024-01-25

Posts: 14

Re: Resizing root partition issue

I seem to be able to mount the root directory, could you give me some keywords to look up in order to get my machine booting again. Also just confirming, from my root partition I shouldn't be able to access my home partition as it is on another drive correct?

I would also be interested in another filesystem, one that can manage its own volume sounds like it would remove headache, I'll look into my options, thank you.

kuser

Member

Registered: 2024-01-25

Posts: 14

Re: Resizing root partition issue

Just an update for those who find this thread, I solved it. somehow I was not only missing grub (boot manager) but I was also missing my linux kernal file. I booted into the arch install live iso, mounted my drives like in the arch install, arch-chroot /mnt to access my system. From there I installed and configured grub.