Way to join all 4 partitions into 1? After doing auto-partitioning

yvonney · 2008-08-04 04:40:24

Hi... having a great experience with my latest install...

OBJECTIVE: to have the entire install in ONE partition and be able to backup the entire partition and use it on another PC. I am aware that due to harware changes there could be problems though that's fine.

I find that even on a 1 ghz old Dell laptop with 512 ram I don't use the swap file.
SO..... I'm thinking about 'joining' the 4 partitions (auto-partitioning creates a seperate boot partition)
OR.... joining whatever I can into one partition...maybe root and home and then somehow loosing the swap file....

That way.... maybe I could move the large single partition to another PC.. install grub and voila... my backup would work...???

yes, this sounds like a noob question.... though though I might get lucky and have a guru tell me about some trick for:

1) join my existing install (4 partitions as per arch's auto-partitioning which gives a seperate boot partition)

2) backing it up...

3) partimaging this backed up 'joined' single partiition to another drive and installing grub and having it work even without a swap file.

not asking for much am I ....???!!!!!

thanks for reading

pheon · 2008-08-04 06:29:27

Hi,

OBJECTIVE: to have the entire install in ONE partition and be able to backup the entire partition and use it on another PC. I am aware that due to harware changes there could be problems though that's fine.

Why only one partition? Tools like Norton Ghost, Clonezilla or Partimage can back up the entire HDs.

SO..... I'm thinking about 'joining' the 4 partitions (auto-partitioning creates a seperate boot partition)

The Arch-Installer allows you to manually set up the partition-scheme. Create one large partition and skip the swap-partition (you can create a Swapfile afterwards).

Depending on your current partitionsetup it can also be possible to delete and resize existing partitions and evade reinstallation of the entire system.
(Although this will include some fiddling with grub,fstab and so on). Check out GNU Parted

2) backing it up...

Norton Ghost, Clonezilla or Partimage

Regards

yvonney · 2008-08-04 16:45:57

Nice pheon !!!
I have only two empty folders in pne of the partitions.... I'm thinking I could delete it or somehow merge it...

I was hoping it might be possible to just:

1) delete swap partition
2) delete boot partition
3) backup root partition and/or merge it with the empty partition which is /home I believe (I run as root always which isn't a problem at this point)

THEN...

1) restore SINGLE partition
2) boot from live CD, supergrub etc. and install grub TO the actual partition (or drives MBR?)
3) play with fstab and whatever else to get it all working...
4) then create swapfile

I wonder if it will boot after deleting swap file IF I edit JUST the fstab?

great fun! thank you!

Last edited by yvonney (2008-08-04 16:47:05)

pheon · 2008-08-05 14:49:49

Hi,

I wonder if it will boot after deleting swap file IF I edit JUST the fstab?

The system will boot, but also produce errors in the boot-process (I guess something like "Mounting swap has failed...bla bla bla"), altough it will start (as far you have more ram than the min. amount required ).

I have only two empty folders in pne of the partitions

What is "pne"?

To be honest, I've never done something like this, but I'd go that way:

Asuming your setup is as follows:

/dev/sda1 /boot
/dev/sda2 /
/dev/sda3 /home
/dev/sda4 swap

1.) bootup from any live CD that includes GNU Parted

2.) delete swappartition (with the fdisk-variant of your choice)
make sure it is not in use by the current live-system! (check free and in case it is, use swapoff -a)

3.) mount root-partition
mkdir /mnt/root
mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/root

4.) mount the boot-partition
mkdir /mnt/boot/
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot

5.) copy boot partition to the root-partition
cp -a /mnt/boot/* /mnt/root/boot/

6.) umount boot
umount /mnt/boot

7.) delete boot partition (with the fdisk-variant of your choice)

8.) mount the home-partition
mkdir /mnt/home/
mount /dev/sda3 /mnt/home

9.) copy home partition to the root-partition
cp -a /mnt/home/* /mnt/root/home/

10.) umount home
umount /mnt/home

11.) delete home partition (with the fdisk-variant of your choice)

12.) adjust grub's config
- open /mnt/root/boot/grub/menu.lst with text editor of choice
- at the entry dealing with your arch-install change the root (hd0,0) to root (hd0,1)

13.) adjust fstab
- open /mnt/root/etc/fstab with text editor of choice
- comment out the swap-line
- merge line for root, home and boot (keep dump and fsck from boot, FS from root and the rest according to boot and common sense )

14.) unmount root
umount /mnt/root

15.) resize partition with GNU Parted

16.) reboot (boot again into live cd) reinstall grub (not sure if this step is really necessary, altough it won't harm
mkdir /mnt/arch
mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/arch
mount -t proc proc /mnt/arch/proc
chroot /mnt/arch /bin/bash
grub
grub > root (hd0,1)
grub > setup (hd0)
grub > quit

17.) create Swapfile
HOWTO

As said before, this is the way I would do this (without further research on that topic). You should probalby wait until someone confirms this steps before you mess up your entire system. Mind to adjust stuff like /dev/sdx to your current setup, do not just paste the comands I listed.

For creating an image of this partition and restoring this partition, you should read the documentation of the tool you are planning to use.

Best regards

Edit: I can't spell and...sorry for wall of text -.-

Last edited by pheon (2008-08-05 18:17:02)

yvonney · 2008-08-06 05:14:58

NOTE: 'pno' in my earlierpost was s'posed to be 'one' *one

WOW pheon .... i am so So SO grateful for ALL that !!!!!!!!!!

It will be used a LOT...
So: this past weekend... a few things happened:

I thoroughly trashed an old 1 ghz laptop I was arching ....
could be drive, cd, mobo whatever.... I've thought that for my plan it's too slow anyways.. I mean laptops are cheap and though I love older hardware my data portability thoughts/plans aren't gonna work going from a new laptop to an old one... So all's fine on the hours wasted...

Anyways!!!! my point... I decided to wipe the laptop, then it died... (badly)
So, now I have my desktop and my recently bought laptop.

I wiped everything and did ALL-IN-ONE single partition installs on both..
Having fun with openbox etc as I don't think I can gnome-it as I've learned so much thanks to the wiki, the forum and Arch and me.

RIGHT NOW.... I am studying how to use part-image/clonezilla/sysrescuecd etc .... so that I can MOVE these SINGLE partitions AROUND... It's going to be SO cool!!! I think ...hehehe

Besides discovering how to MOUNT my dvd AFTER clonezilla (partimage) is running in ram, and into the ram FS... that's the easiest part I expect...
NOW... I need to know the coolest ways to:

play with the UUIDs, fstab and whatever else goes funny when I RESTORE an image NOT made on the target PC..

I guess this would make a good new thread for some people...

pheon AGAIN... I am REALLY going to enjoy reading thoroughly...!!!

Thanks... hey, I'm gonna be learning a lot when I start going, hey. it doesn't work.... after RESTORING the installs to other PCs...

bet you'd have a bit to say about that!!! :)))))

might be rude of me not to start another thread though...

Then again I've sorta covered it here.... I don't know where the best place for the: Restoring cloned images thread would be... hmmm..

and now back to crazy busy!!!!!!

WOW!!!!! nice!

Last edited by yvonney (2008-08-06 05:50:23)

loosec · 2008-08-11 13:14:34

That could make for a really informative wiki-entry!

yvonney · 2008-08-12 15:11:45

Certain was useful stuff in there for me.... right now I'm trying to use clonezilla/partimage etc. to get an intel chipset P4 image to RESTORE onto my new laptop which is a mobile chipset intel pm965 and a core duo ..... it's complaining when I attempt the restore.... Could be the image itself though I strongly doubt it.... I figure ther'll be some clever tip or thing to do with the options or something that's stopping me...

the fun continues ...really!

Last edited by yvonney (2008-08-12 15:12:35)

Arch Linux

#1 2008-08-04 04:40:24

Way to join all 4 partitions into 1? After doing auto-partitioning

#2 2008-08-04 06:29:27

Re: Way to join all 4 partitions into 1? After doing auto-partitioning

#3 2008-08-04 16:45:57

Re: Way to join all 4 partitions into 1? After doing auto-partitioning

#4 2008-08-05 14:49:49

Re: Way to join all 4 partitions into 1? After doing auto-partitioning

#5 2008-08-06 05:14:58

Re: Way to join all 4 partitions into 1? After doing auto-partitioning

#6 2008-08-11 13:14:34

Re: Way to join all 4 partitions into 1? After doing auto-partitioning

#7 2008-08-12 15:11:45

Re: Way to join all 4 partitions into 1? After doing auto-partitioning

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