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Grove

Member

Registered: 2025-12-23

Posts: 4

Unable to Resize Root Partition (sda4) with GParted

Hello,

I am having trouble increasing the size of my root partition (sda4) using GParted. I was unable to enlarge sda4; the only option available was to shrink it. Only sda2 could be enlarged, which is unnecessary for my setup. I also could not move sda4 at all. From what I understand, GParted only allows resizing a partition if there is free space immediately to its right.

Is there any way I can increase the size of sda4 (root) under these conditions? Any guidance or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

Last edited by Grove (2025-12-23 23:53:55)

mesaprotector

Member

Registered: 2024-03-03

Posts: 197

Re: Unable to Resize Root Partition (sda4) with GParted

I think GParted can move partitions to the left. It looks more that the issue is you have a partition immediately to the left, /dev/sda3, that is blocking it.

Grove

Member

Registered: 2025-12-23

Posts: 4

Re: Unable to Resize Root Partition (sda4) with GParted

I think GParted can move partitions to the left. It looks more that the issue is you have a partition immediately to the left, /dev/sda3, that is blocking it.

Partition immediately to the left, /dev/sda3 is left over from the deleted swap partition. Is there any way to increase the size of the sda4 partition? What steps should I take?

cryptearth

Member

Registered: 2024-02-03

Posts: 1,970

Re: Unable to Resize Root Partition (sda4) with GParted

delete sda3 and sda4
ceate a new sda3 spanning the free space
start over from scratch

hint: you should backup your personal files first, of course

Grove

Member

Registered: 2025-12-23

Posts: 4

Re: Unable to Resize Root Partition (sda4) with GParted

Hi everyone.

My /usr directory takes up 10GB. I'm planning to create a new ext4 partition from the unallocated space and move /usr there.

My plan:
Boot from Live USB, create new ext4 partition (sda3) from unallocated space using GParted
Mount the new partition and copy /usr:

sudo mount /dev/sda3 /mnt/newstorage
sudo rsync -avxHAX /usr/ /mnt/newstorage/usr/

Add the new partition to /etc/fstab:

UUID=<new-partition-uuid>  /mnt/usr-new  ext4  defaults  0  2

Rename old /usr to /usr-old (as backup), create new empty /usr directory, then add bind mount to fstab:

sudo mv /usr /usr-old
sudo mkdir /usr
# Add to fstab: /mnt/usr-new/usr  /usr  none  bind  0  0
sudo mount /usr

Reboot and verify everything works, then delete /usr-old after a few days

Questions:
Is this approach safe and correct?
Are there any potential issues with moving /usr this way?
Should I use a bind mount or mount the partition directly to /usr?
Any gotchas I should be aware of?

My setup: Ubuntu, dual boot with Windows, /usr is currently 10GB on a 29GB root partition.
Thanks in advance!

frostschutz

Member

Registered: 2013-11-15

Posts: 1,610

Re: Unable to Resize Root Partition (sda4) with GParted

Don't.

Separate /usr causes way more trouble than it's worth.

Find a way to grow your / partition or use your new sda3 partition as / instead of /usr, if your original / cannot be grown in its current location.

My setup: Ubuntu

So I guess I don't have to mention the initcpio usr hook since it works different in Ubuntu?

Anyway, your commands won't work. You're mixing up live /usr with your install /usr (or you forgot to mention chrooting), if you intend to mount /newstorage as /usr later, there would not be a usr/ dir inside or you end up with your files in /usr/usr instead of /usr, and after mv usr usr-old, all subsequent commands will fail.

This is a bad idea as a whole, back to the drawing board