[PLUG] Odd partition has appeared
Dale Snell
ddsnell at frontier.com
Mon Nov 8 07:12:54 UTC 2010
On Sat, 6 Nov 2010 23:02:24 -0700
John Jason Jordan <johnxj at comcast.net> wrote:
> On Sat, 6 Nov 2010 20:33:16 -0700
> Dale Snell <ddsnell at frontier.com> dijo:
>
> >Anyway, you shouldn't have any trouble with the LV setup. Hope
> >this helped.
>
> It helped. Thank you.
Good, glad to hear it.
> I just looked at the GUI again. It has a button for Expand
> Volume Group, and a button for Remove Selected Physical
> Volume(s), but there appears to be no way to shrink a volume
> with the GUI.
I've not had occasion to shrink an LV partition with the GUI tool,
so I'm afraid I hadn't really noticed that detail. So you're
probably stuck using the command line for that project.
Hmm, I just looked at the LVM GUI tool, and it looks like you MIGHT be
able to shrink a partition. In the left-hand pane, select the logical
volume you want to shrink. At the bottom of the center pain, click on
"Edit Properties". That will open up a window which, among other
things, lets you set the size of the volume. I tried moving the
slider around, and the program didn't tell me I couldn't make the
volume smaller, so I assume (HA!) that you can. Mind you, I didn't
try it; I just got done building that volume! I DON'T KNOW IF
THIS WILL WORK CORRECTLY. For all I know, it will simply shrink
the LV and blow your filesystem into itsy-bitsy flinders. On the
other hand, it could work as well as GParted. I don't know.
> I also checked in Yumex and found lvm2, already installed. You
> run it from the command line with "lvm." I didn't take time to
> explore its man page (assuming there is one). I'm guessing that
> it is the only way to shrink a volume at this time.
Lvm is actually a suite of tools, each with its own man page.
You've got a lot of reading to do. :-) They're not terribly
difficult to use, but it helps to write down the procedure ahead
of time. At least it helped me when I built a volume group and
logical volumes from scratch. (Hm, check out the fsadm(8)
command. It looks like it should do pretty much what you want. I
think.)
Just remember that when you shrink a partition or a logical
volume, you're actually shrinking two things: the partition, and
the filesystem that resides inside that partition. The filesystem
will have to be shrunk FIRST, _BEFORE_ the partition can be
modified. Otherwise, you WILL lose data. Given the universe's
ironic sense of humour, it'll probably be the most valuable data
on the drive. Best to run fsck on the filesystem before doing
anything else. That and _BACK UP YOUR DATA!_ You never know what
might go worng.
Fair warning: I once did shrink a standard partition and its
associated filesystem. It was a MAJOR pain, and I never, ever,
want to go through that again. This from the person who was crazy
enough to build a dual boot system for his very first Linux
experience. (Window 3.1 and Red Hat 5.0.) From scratch. That
was easier, and easier on my nerves. You Have Been Warned.
--Dale
--
"Every day, people around here start talking more and more like Kosh."
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