Larry C wrote: > > I started several weeks ago with the idea in my mind that I would > install this Linux thing to play around with but surely not get serious > about. Now I find myself dreading the thought of booting back into a dos > environment (should put some sort of warning about this on the CD > somewhere). My problem is one of improper disk space allocation for my > new OS of choice. What I would like to do is change the directory > structure so as to enable me to add more partitions (I have partition > magic and can easily reformat from fat32 into ext2) to my existing Linux > setup while at the same time preserving some sort of logical and > accepted order without wiping out the last few weeks of work. I have no > problems juggling things on the dos end to free up more space for Linux > but on the Linux end I am (obviously) confused. If anyone could point me > in the right direction (tutorials, how-to's, etc) I will be forever > grateful. > > Larry C If you just want to add a new partition, go ahead and make it. If it's a primary partition, it's named something like hda1,2,3 or 4. Extended partitions start at 5. Since you are adding the partition after the fact, you should know that DOS/Win looks at the ORDER of the partitions on the disk(s) and whether they are primary or extended/logical for name. Linux looks at the order they were CREATED on the disk(s) within the primary and extened/logical. If you create a new logical partition before another logical partition on a disk, DOS would name the new one before the old one (C-Z). If for example you had primary C and logical D in DOS, then split up D into two partitions with the new empty one first, your old D would be E. Messes up everything in DOS/Win. DOS/Win can't see linux partitions, so you wouldn't mess it up adding one. Linux would name the new one after the ones (5-N) so that any new partitions have a new name and the old ones aren't changed. You don't have the same problem you would in DOS with programs knowing where something is. For example, you have C-DOS primary (hda1), Linux Primary (hda2), D-DOS logical (hda5 if you mount it in linux), linux logical (hda6), Linux Swap (hda7). You change D to be two partitions, one linux first and one DOS. In DOS you would still have D since it can't see the linux partition. In linux, you would have a new hda8 that is the one before hda5, 6 and 7. old: C primary - hda1 linux primary - hda2 D logical - hda5 linux logical - hda6 swap - hda7 new: C primary - hda1 linux primary - hda2 linux logical - hda8 <--new partition D logical - hda5 linux logical - hda6 swap - hda7 If linux doesn't detect the new partition when you boot, you might have to use mknod to create the device in /dev and mkdir to create a mount point. To find the info you need for mknod, at a command prompt (as root) enter: ls -alk /dev/hda* Look for the major/minor numbers for your partitions on the drive. For example: major = 5 for all partitions. Minor = 1 for hda1, 2 for hda2 etc. If you needed to create a device for hda8, then enter: cd /dev mknod hda8 b 5 8 Make the mount point you want: mkdir /mnt/hda8 Format the partition: mke2fs -c /dev/hda8 Then mount the partition and use it. You'll probably want to add it to fstab, so edit /etc/fstab and copy a line for a partition that is like it and change it's dev and mnt to what you need. If you made a primary partition, then it would be hda1-hda4. You'll have to change the names/major/minor to match your system.
