Fedora Partitioning
Updating my desktop to Fedora_23 continues to be a challenge. I figured out how to connect to the network. Now, it insists on a /boot partition separate from /home. This appears to be a new feature. I am trying to upgrade, rather than re-install everything. I don't recall how I managed to do this, but my root partition is /dev/sda1. My other partitions are contained in the extended partition /dev/sda2. Does anybody know how I can use the Fedora installer to split /dev/sda1 into two partitions /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda6?. I tried deleting /, and creating the two new partitions, and it did not work. Alternately, is there a way to use my root partition for booting? I have looked at my partition table using fdisk. It looks like I can delete /dev/sda1 and create the two new partitions sda1 and sda6. Definitely, this destroys my current setup, and my new install had damn well better work. Partitions sda1 and sda6 will be next to each other, followed by sda2. Has anybody done this safely? I have a Ubuntu DVD here. When I "Try Ubuntu", I was able to make it claim that my network was connected, but I was unable to ping the machine, or connect the browser to http://www.google.com. Is this how Ubuntu behaves in demo mode? The Ubuntu installer seems to over-write boot. If I play with it, I am forced to re-install something. Fedora_20 was a dead cinch to install. How did everything get so complicated? -- Howard Gibson hgibson@eol.ca howard.gibson@teledyneoptech.com jhowardgibson@gmail.com http://home.eol.ca/~hgibson
On Mon, Feb 15, 2016 at 6:06 PM, Howard Gibson <hgibson@eol.ca> wrote:
Updating my desktop to Fedora_23 continues to be a challenge.
I figured out how to connect to the network. Now, it insists on a /boot partition separate from /home. This appears to be a new feature. I am trying to upgrade, rather than re-install everything. I don't recall how I managed to do this, but my root partition is /dev/sda1. My other partitions are contained in the extended partition /dev/sda2.
Does anybody know how I can use the Fedora installer to split /dev/sda1 into two partitions /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda6?. I tried deleting /, and creating the two new partitions, and it did not work. Alternately, is there a way to use my root partition for booting?
I have looked at my partition table using fdisk. It looks like I can delete /dev/sda1 and create the two new partitions sda1 and sda6. Definitely, this destroys my current setup, and my new install had damn well better work. Partitions sda1 and sda6 will be next to each other, followed by sda2. Has anybody done this safely?
I have a Ubuntu DVD here. When I "Try Ubuntu", I was able to make it claim that my network was connected, but I was unable to ping the machine, or connect the browser to http://www.google.com. Is this how Ubuntu behaves in demo mode? The Ubuntu installer seems to over-write boot. If I play with it, I am forced to re-install something.
Fedora_20 was a dead cinch to install. How did everything get so complicated?
Its been year since I used Fedora so I'll let someone else give you fixing details but I can tell you welcome to systemd and uefi boot - - - the tow individually are a blast, both together well - - - - you are just beginning to feel the joy! It might be far easier to reinstall. Dee
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 An Ubuntu live CD should most certainly connect you to the network. Even most WiFi cards that require a proprietary driver such as Broadcom work, but it's possible your hardware isn't supported without additional drivers. The Ubuntu installer is easier to use than it used to be, but less flexible as a result, especially in how the hard drive will be preserved or formatted. I would proceed by performing an installation entirely on your root partition /dev/sda1. If the installer insists, create a 256 MByte partition /dev/sda3 and put /boot on that. Make sure the installer doesn't touch /dev/sda2 or any other extended partition. Once the install is complete you can edit /etc/fstab to mount /dev/sda5 as home (or whatever partition your /home is now) and you should retain all your files. - --Bob. Bob Jonkman <bjonkman@sobac.com> Phone: +1-519-635-9413 SOBAC Microcomputer Services http://sobac.com/sobac/ Software --- Office & Business Automation --- Consulting GnuPG Fngrprnt:04F7 742B 8F54 C40A E115 26C2 B912 89B0 D2CC E5EA On 2016-02-15 07:06 PM, Howard Gibson wrote:
Updating my desktop to Fedora_23 continues to be a challenge.
I figured out how to connect to the network. Now, it insists on a /boot partition separate from /home. This appears to be a new feature. I am trying to upgrade, rather than re-install everything. I don't recall how I managed to do this, but my root partition is /dev/sda1. My other partitions are contained in the extended partition /dev/sda2.
Does anybody know how I can use the Fedora installer to split /dev/sda1 into two partitions /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda6?. I tried deleting /, and creating the two new partitions, and it did not work. Alternately, is there a way to use my root partition for booting?
I have looked at my partition table using fdisk. It looks like I can delete /dev/sda1 and create the two new partitions sda1 and sda6. Definitely, this destroys my current setup, and my new install had damn well better work. Partitions sda1 and sda6 will be next to each other, followed by sda2. Has anybody done this safely?
I have a Ubuntu DVD here. When I "Try Ubuntu", I was able to make it claim that my network was connected, but I was unable to ping the machine, or connect the browser to http://www.google.com. Is this how Ubuntu behaves in demo mode? The Ubuntu installer seems to over-write boot. If I play with it, I am forced to re-install something.
Fedora_20 was a dead cinch to install. How did everything get so complicated?
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On Mon, Feb 15, 2016 at 07:06:08PM -0500, Howard Gibson wrote:
Updating my desktop to Fedora_23 continues to be a challenge.
I figured out how to connect to the network. Now, it insists on a /boot partition separate from /home. This appears to be a new feature. I am trying to upgrade, rather than re-install everything. I don't recall how I managed to do this, but my root partition is /dev/sda1. My other partitions are contained in the extended partition /dev/sda2.
Does anybody know how I can use the Fedora installer to split /dev/sda1 into two partitions /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda6?. I tried deleting /, and creating the two new partitions, and it did not work. Alternately, is there a way to use my root partition for booting?
I have looked at my partition table using fdisk. It looks like I can delete /dev/sda1 and create the two new partitions sda1 and sda6. Definitely, this destroys my current setup, and my new install had damn well better work. Partitions sda1 and sda6 will be next to each other, followed by sda2. Has anybody done this safely?
I don't think you can mix primary and logical partitions that way. It may be easier to create a new logical partition as /boot, though.
I have a Ubuntu DVD here. When I "Try Ubuntu", I was able to make it claim that my network was connected, but I was unable to ping the machine, or connect the browser to http://www.google.com. Is this how Ubuntu behaves in demo mode? The Ubuntu installer seems to over-write boot. If I play with it, I am forced to re-install something.
Fedora_20 was a dead cinch to install. How did everything get so complicated?
-- Howard Gibson hgibson@eol.ca howard.gibson@teledyneoptech.com jhowardgibson@gmail.com http://home.eol.ca/~hgibson --- Talk Mailing List talk@gtalug.org https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
| From: Howard Gibson <hgibson@eol.ca> | Updating my desktop to Fedora_23 continues to be a challenge. There are two odd challenges that I remember with Fedora 23. They can be disconcerting but need not be fatal. One has been true of Fedora installation for a while. After you select a disk, it analyzes it asynchronously so for a while you get a diagnostic message that isn't true (I forget the details). And it doesn't tell you that it is still working on the problem. Asynchrony, with consequences, but no indication, is a Bad Thing. The second is <https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1269298> I hit it when installing with a USB ethernet connected. I can dodge it by installing without the USB ethernet dongle. See comment 17. It is a simple fix but Fedora doesn't re-issue installation disks, even when they have errors. | The other is that it gets confused by | I figured out how to connect to the network. Other than what? | Now, it insists on a | /boot partition separate from /home. This appears to be a new | feature. I am trying to upgrade, rather than re-install everything. | I don't recall how I managed to do this, but my root partition is | /dev/sda1. My other partitions are contained in the extended | partition /dev/sda2. I've not been forced to create a /boot. But on an EFI system, you do need /boot/efi filesystem. That's a law-of-UEFI, not something originating from Fedora. I'm typing this on an F23 system with /boot as a directory within / and /boot/efi as a (FAT) filesystem. | Does anybody know how I can use the Fedora installer to split | /dev/sda1 into two partitions /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda6?. I tried | deleting /, and creating the two new partitions, and it did not work. Should be as easy as pie. Whether is the best thing to do is unclear to me. Alternatively, I often use a live F23 system, and run gparted to adjust partitioning. I don't remember if I have to install it ("dnf install gparted"). NOTE: if you use gparted to resize an ntfs partition, immediately reboot Windows. It might find some damage and repair it. If you delay booting Windows until after a few more steps, sometimes Windows won't boot. | Alternately, is there a way to use my root partition for booting? | | I have looked at my partition table using fdisk. It looks like I can | delete /dev/sda1 and create the two new partitions sda1 and sda6. | Definitely, this destroys my current setup, and my new install had | damn well better work. Partitions sda1 and sda6 will be next to each | other, followed by sda2. Has anybody done this safely? You might be able to get gparted to shrink /dev/sda1, preserving what's in it. But I don't comprehend what you are trying to do. | I have a Ubuntu DVD here. When I "Try Ubuntu", I was able to make it | claim that my network was connected, but I was unable to ping the | machine, or connect the browser to http://www.google.com. Is this | how Ubuntu behaves in demo mode? The Ubuntu installer seems to | over-write boot. If I play with it, I am forced to re-install | something. Normally Ubutu Live DVD's are very slick and automatic. You could debug the problem: after all, you have a full-featured Linux already working for you. I admit that networking is both intricate and complicated and can be difficult to debug. | Fedora_20 was a dead cinch to install. How did everything get so | complicated? It should be incrementally better.
On Mon, 15 Feb 2016 21:30:55 -0500 (EST) "D. Hugh Redelmeier" <hugh@mimosa.com> wrote:
| From: Howard Gibson <hgibson@eol.ca>
| Updating my desktop to Fedora_23 continues to be a challenge.
There are two odd challenges that I remember with Fedora 23. They can be disconcerting but need not be fatal.
One has been true of Fedora installation for a while. After you select a disk, it analyzes it asynchronously so for a while you get a diagnostic message that isn't true (I forget the details). And it doesn't tell you that it is still working on the problem. Asynchrony, with consequences, but no indication, is a Bad Thing.
The second is <https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1269298> I hit it when installing with a USB ethernet connected. I can dodge it by installing without the USB ethernet dongle. See comment 17. It is a simple fix but Fedora doesn't re-issue installation disks, even when they have errors.
| The other is that it gets confused by | I figured out how to connect to the network.
Other than what?
| Now, it insists on a | /boot partition separate from /home. This appears to be a new | feature. I am trying to upgrade, rather than re-install everything. | I don't recall how I managed to do this, but my root partition is | /dev/sda1. My other partitions are contained in the extended | partition /dev/sda2.
I've not been forced to create a /boot. But on an EFI system, you do need /boot/efi filesystem. That's a law-of-UEFI, not something originating from Fedora. I'm typing this on an F23 system with /boot as a directory within / and /boot/efi as a (FAT) filesystem.
Success! I read up on Fedora and /boot partitions. There was a lot of stuff on MBR versus GPT partitions. From the Fedora DVD installation, I logged in as root and I tried "fdisk -l". This revealed that my 2TB drive with my OS and working partitions, is "Disklabel type: dos". My 500GB Archive drive is "Disklabel type: dos". My new 4TB backup drive is "Disklabel type: gpt". I unplugged my 4TB drive, and the install went fine. Install done, I rebooted, I got the network working and I went "dnf -y update". With the update done, my network stopped working. The network tool claimed it was connecting. From dmesg, I could see that it could see my router's MAC address. Eventually, I set my IPv4 method to "Automatic". "Link-local" was what worked when I did the install. I will post all of this to my website in a couple of days. -- Howard Gibson hgibson@eol.ca howard.gibson@teledyneoptech.com jhowardgibson@gmail.com http://home.eol.ca/~hgibson
On Fri, Feb 19, 2016 at 10:00:47PM -0500, Howard Gibson wrote:
I read up on Fedora and /boot partitions. There was a lot of stuff on MBR versus GPT partitions. From the Fedora DVD installation, I logged in as root and I tried "fdisk -l". This revealed that my 2TB drive with my OS and working partitions, is "Disklabel type: dos". My 500GB Archive drive is "Disklabel type: dos". My new 4TB backup drive is "Disklabel type: gpt".
I unplugged my 4TB drive, and the install went fine.
Oh right, since 2TB is the limit for dos partitions.
Install done, I rebooted, I got the network working and I went "dnf -y update". With the update done, my network stopped working. The network tool claimed it was connecting. From dmesg, I could see that it could see my router's MAC address. Eventually, I set my IPv4 method to "Automatic". "Link-local" was what worked when I did the install.
I will post all of this to my website in a couple of days.
So having a gpt disk in the system confuses the fedora installer? How convinient. -- Len Sorensen
On 15/02/16 07:06 PM, Howard Gibson wrote:
Updating my desktop to Fedora_23 continues to be a challenge.
I figured out how to connect to the network. Now, it insists on a /boot partition separate from /home. This appears to be a new feature. I am trying to upgrade, rather than re-install everything. I don't recall how I managed to do this, but my root partition is /dev/sda1. My other partitions are contained in the extended partition /dev/sda2.
Does anybody know how I can use the Fedora installer to split /dev/sda1 into two partitions /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda6?. I tried deleting /, and creating the two new partitions, and it did not work. Alternately, is there a way to use my root partition for booting?
I have looked at my partition table using fdisk. It looks like I can delete /dev/sda1 and create the two new partitions sda1 and sda6. Definitely, this destroys my current setup, and my new install had damn well better work. Partitions sda1 and sda6 will be next to each other, followed by sda2. Has anybody done this safely?
I have a Ubuntu DVD here. When I "Try Ubuntu", I was able to make it claim that my network was connected, but I was unable to ping the machine, or connect the browser to http://www.google.com. Is this how Ubuntu behaves in demo mode? The Ubuntu installer seems to over-write boot. If I play with it, I am forced to re-install something.
Fedora_20 was a dead cinch to install. How did everything get so complicated?
I've used the major version upgrade mechanism to Fedora 23 from 22 and it worked without any problems. I've also done a fresh install on an existing machine on which I wanted to preserve /home and it was also uneventful and considerably faster than the upgrade. Here are the steps I recommend for your situation. 1. Disconnect drives that have data you want to preserve. I recall a bug with an installer in some popular distro years ago that clobbered partitions and since then, I've made it standard practice to disconnect drives I intend to preserve. 2. Install a small drive, I use a 32GB SSD for /boot, /, and swap and do a fresh install using the recommended partitioning scheme. (I'm assuming this is a personal workstation, not a server that can have more exotic partitioning and filesystem schemes.) There was an issue a few releases ago where the partition on which I had /boot was too small for the Fedora updater to work so the only option was a fresh install. I've since given up on trying to micro-manage partitioning and just accept the default for my workstation. 3. After the installation has finished, shutdown, reconnect the drive(s) you had previously disconnected, and start. 4. Run "fdisk -l" to determine the device names of the various partitions on your system. For example, /home is one big partition on a Western Digital Red 6TB drive on the machine on which I'm typing this so it's easy to distinguish it from the other partitions when I run "fdisk -l" (/dev/sdb1). 4. Run "blkid devicename" to get the UUID(s) of the partition(s) on the drives you had disconnected during the installation. For example, for the above drive: [root ~]# blkid /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdb1: LABEL="wd_red_6tb" UUID="b7ee533c-5179-47b8-a575-5a8e9e9135cb" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="2790351a-ce6e-46a3-96df-7f4be711d171" 4. Open /etc/fstab and edit or create the mount points for /home and any other partitions on drives that had been disconnected during the installation using the UUID from the previous step. Here is what I have for /home. # WD Red 6TB UUID="b7ee533c-5179-47b8-a575-5a8e9e9135cb" /home ext4 defaults 1 2 5. Reboot and you should be good to go. -- Regards, Clifford Ilkay + 1 647-778-8696
On Mon, Feb 15, 2016 at 07:06:08PM -0500, Howard Gibson wrote:
Updating my desktop to Fedora_23 continues to be a challenge.
I figured out how to connect to the network. Now, it insists on a /boot partition separate from /home. This appears to be a new feature. I am trying to upgrade, rather than re-install everything. I don't recall how I managed to do this, but my root partition is /dev/sda1. My other partitions are contained in the extended partition /dev/sda2.
Does anybody know how I can use the Fedora installer to split /dev/sda1 into two partitions /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda6?. I tried deleting /, and creating the two new partitions, and it did not work. Alternately, is there a way to use my root partition for booting?
I have looked at my partition table using fdisk. It looks like I can delete /dev/sda1 and create the two new partitions sda1 and sda6. Definitely, this destroys my current setup, and my new install had damn well better work. Partitions sda1 and sda6 will be next to each other, followed by sda2. Has anybody done this safely?
I have a Ubuntu DVD here. When I "Try Ubuntu", I was able to make it claim that my network was connected, but I was unable to ping the machine, or connect the browser to http://www.google.com. Is this how Ubuntu behaves in demo mode? The Ubuntu installer seems to over-write boot. If I play with it, I am forced to re-install something.
Fedora_20 was a dead cinch to install. How did everything get so complicated?
If sda2 is your extended partition, then ALL logical partitions (5 and up) must be within sda2. You can have sda1, 3 and 4 be normal primary partitions wherever you want on the disk (except inside sda2 of course). On the other hand it sounds wrong that it would insist on having /boot separate. I can't find anything that says fedora 23 requires such a thing, except of you use encrypted / or LVM for / -- Len Sorensen
/boot or UEFI system partition ? The latter has to a specific FAT-32 so would need to be separate. On February 16, 2016 5:53:46 PM EST, Lennart Sorensen <lsorense@csclub.uwaterloo.ca> wrote:
On Mon, Feb 15, 2016 at 07:06:08PM -0500, Howard Gibson wrote:
Updating my desktop to Fedora_23 continues to be a challenge.
I figured out how to connect to the network. Now, it insists on a /boot partition separate from /home. This appears to be a new feature. I am trying to upgrade, rather than re-install everything. I don't recall how I managed to do this, but my root partition is /dev/sda1. My other partitions are contained in the extended partition /dev/sda2.
Does anybody know how I can use the Fedora installer to split
/dev/sda1 into two partitions /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda6?. I tried deleting /, and creating the two new partitions, and it did not work. Alternately, is there a way to use my root partition for booting?
I have looked at my partition table using fdisk. It looks like I
can delete /dev/sda1 and create the two new partitions sda1 and sda6. Definitely, this destroys my current setup, and my new install had damn well better work. Partitions sda1 and sda6 will be next to each other, followed by sda2. Has anybody done this safely?
I have a Ubuntu DVD here. When I "Try Ubuntu", I was able to make
it claim that my network was connected, but I was unable to ping the machine, or connect the browser to http://www.google.com. Is this how Ubuntu behaves in demo mode? The Ubuntu installer seems to over-write boot. If I play with it, I am forced to re-install something.
Fedora_20 was a dead cinch to install. How did everything get so
complicated?
If sda2 is your extended partition, then ALL logical partitions (5 and up) must be within sda2.
You can have sda1, 3 and 4 be normal primary partitions wherever you want on the disk (except inside sda2 of course).
On the other hand it sounds wrong that it would insist on having /boot separate. I can't find anything that says fedora 23 requires such a thing, except of you use encrypted / or LVM for /
-- Len Sorensen --- Talk Mailing List talk@gtalug.org https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
-- Scott Sullivan
On Tue, Feb 16, 2016 at 09:09:46PM -0500, Scott Sullivan wrote:
/boot or UEFI system partition ? The latter has to a specific FAT-32 so would need to be separate.
Well UEFI would require GPT partitioning, so there is no logical/extended partitions to worry about, and yes you would need /boot/efi or /boot/EFI or whatever the distribution wants to call it, to be separate from / (or /boot). -- Len Sorensen
On Tue, 16 Feb 2016 17:53:46 -0500 "Lennart Sorensen" <lsorense@csclub.uwaterloo.ca> wrote:
If sda2 is your extended partition, then ALL logical partitions (5 and up) must be within sda2.
You can have sda1, 3 and 4 be normal primary partitions wherever you want on the disk (except inside sda2 of course).
On the other hand it sounds wrong that it would insist on having /boot separate. I can't find anything that says fedora 23 requires such a thing, except of you use encrypted / or LVM for /
-- Len Sorensen
Len, Thanks. I just took a closer look at my partitions. Somehow, my swap partition has gotten into an extended partition, and everything else is primary. I would not have done that deliberately. Now I see a route to an extra partition. Anaconda is rejecting my standard partition scheme, and the Fedora site is recommending a boot partion, -- Howard Gibson hgibson@eol.ca howard.gibson@teledyneoptech.com jhowardgibson@gmail.com http://home.eol.ca/~hgibson
On Tue, Feb 16, 2016 at 09:36:55PM -0500, Howard Gibson wrote:
Thanks. I just took a closer look at my partitions. Somehow, my swap partition has gotten into an extended partition, and everything else is primary. I would not have done that deliberately. Now I see a route to an extra partition.
Well just remember you can have either 4 primary, or 3 primary and 1 extended (containing pretty much any number of logical partitions, although I think 63 is the highest partition number allowed in linux, which means 59 logical partitions would be the limit).
Anaconda is rejecting my standard partition scheme, and the Fedora site is recommending a boot partion,
Well recommending is not the same as requiring. -- Len Sorensen
participants (8)
-
Bob Jonkman -
CLIFFORD ILKAY -
D. Hugh Redelmeier -
Howard Gibson -
Lennart Sorensen -
o1bigtenor -
Scott Sullivan -
William Park