Can't resize VM disk, 2nd disk partition blocking first?

Question

I have before me the following problem:

Filesystem                                                     Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1                                                       28G   26G  240M 100% /

So, looking to expand this disk, I do the following:

$ sudo parted /dev/sda
GNU Parted 3.2
Using /dev/sda
Welcome to GNU Parted! Type 'help' to view a list of commands.
(parted) print                                                            
Model: ATA QEMU HARDDISK (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 50.5GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags:
Number  Start   End     Size    Type      File system     Flags
 1      1049kB  30.1GB  30.1GB  primary   ext4            boot
 2      30.1GB  40.0GB  9934MB  extended
 5      30.1GB  34.4GB  4293MB  logical   linux-swap(v1)
(parted) resizepart

Partition number? 1

Warning: Partition /dev/sda1 is being used. Are you sure you want to continue?
Yes/No? Yes

End?  [30.1GB]? 40GB

Error: Can't have overlapping partitions.

I was surprised to find Number 2 and 5, and also that number 2 appears to go to 40GB and number 5 starts at the same point and only goes to 34.4GB.

Someone must have tried this before me but also failed.

Also strange: /dev/sda2 exists but does not show up in the output of df -h.

I don't know what to do here. Do I need to merge sda1 and sda2 somehow? How would I even do that? What about that swap partition? Do I need to change it to start at the end of sda2? How do I do that?

Any help would be appreciated. I just want to get this system to be simple and orderly, easy to manage.

Does this answer your question? Cannot move swap space – user68186 Apr 05 '21 at 13:57 — user68186, Apr 05 '21 at 13:57

Thomas Ward · Accepted Answer · 2022-03-10T17:21:59.497

/dev/sda2 is an extended partition. What this means is it's one large partition that within it can be placed multiple 'logical' partitions - in this case, /dev/sda2 is an extended partition that fills the rest of your disk after the first partition /dev/sda1, and within /dev/sda2 your swap partition exists as /dev/sda5.

To extend your /dev/sda1 you need to do the following first:

Disable your swap partition. sudo swapoff /dev/sda5
Using gparted, shrink /dev/sda2 so it contains only /dev/sda5 and no free space.
Using gparted, move /dev/sda2 and /dev/sda5 together to the end of the disk.
Resize (grow) your /dev/sda1 after the previous tasks are completed.
Reenable your swap partition. sudo swapon /dev/sda5

Alternatively, you can do the following instead, which gets you more in line with what modern Ubuntu does (which is to use swapfiles instead of swap partitions):

Disable your swap partition. sudo swapoff /dev/sda5
Delete both partition 5 and Partition 2 via parted
Grow your /dev/sda1 and its filesystem.

Use a swapfile instead of a swap partition, from within your single partition.

sudo fallocate -l 4GiB /swapfile
sudo mkswap /swapfile
sudo swapon /swapfile

Once the swapfile is created, add this to /etc/fstab on the end of the line so that the swapfile is enabled automatically at boot time:
```
/swapfile    swap    swap    sw    0    0
```

Oh dear, it's been almost a year since I checked this account.
The second option worked, but needed on more command for createing the swap file, as step 2: sudo mkswap /swapfile — KoenDG, Mar 10 '22 at 10:08

score -2 · Answer 2 · edited May 11 '21 at 09:09

-2

You can use these two commands

sudo growpart /dev/sda 
sudo resize2fs /dev/sda

edited May 11 '21 at 09:09

storm

4,973

answered Apr 05 '21 at 13:31

aZaD

11

Won't work because of overlapping partitions. – Thomas Ward Apr 05 '21 at 13:39

Can't resize VM disk, 2nd disk partition blocking first?

2 Answers2