Resizing partitions without loosing information and Error

Question

Hi i want to upgrade my main system from Ubuntu 20.04.4 to 20.04.1 LTS. But when i open gparted i get an error message. In spanish but i think very self explanatory:

Error from libparted: can't have a partition outside the disk

But i failed the upgrade because lack of free space in /boot, ubuntu told me that i had to free at least 350 mb on /boot....But i dont have such free space, and deleting one kernel could not be enough. So i need to resize partitions, adding for example 500 mb to /boot and ideally take it from / . But i have /swap partition in the middle...So whats the best option to get more space in boot, perhaps deleting swap partition ?

I add the screenshot.

For sure i need all the information and i cant format the partitions and loose the information, software, configs in them.

Id like to have some kind of tutorial of what to do. Perhaps this could be a bug in upgrading process, because it should delete old kernels and install the new one.

"without loosing information" means you have proper backups... — mook765, Aug 30 '22 at 19:59
Make sure you backup your valuable data, documents, pictures, videos, and whatnot. Everyone makes mistakes once in a while. No one can guarantee there will be no errors. Make multiple backups. Make sure the backups are not corrupt. — user68186, Aug 30 '22 at 20:00
Upgrade? 20.04.4 is later than 20.04.1, did you mean 22.04.1?? as that's two years newer. A Ubuntu 20.04 system has also reported itself as 20.04.5 (since last weekend) as well, so 20.04.4 shows a system that needs upgrades applied. — guiverc, Aug 30 '22 at 22:36

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 30 '22 at 20:47

0

First, make sure that you have a tested backup of your data. Never touch your partitions without a backup of it. Or you may regret it !!!

Then you can turn off your swap

disable swap

sudo swapoff -a
keeps the swap off during reboot (Just in case you reboot your system before the end of this procedure)

sudo sed -i.bak '/ swap / s/^$.*$$/#\1/g' /etc/fstab
Remove the swap partition using gparted
Extend your /boot partition using gparted
Recreate the swap partition with the size left and set it as swap using gparted
Restore your old fstab

sudo mv /etc/fstab.bak /etc/fstab

PS: I didn't test the solution, but this is what I would do.

answered Aug 30 '22 at 20:47

Angel115

250

Should i use a live cd with gparted ? Or i can do it with the gparted installed in my system ( you know once booted perhpaps you cant resize partitions) ? – Eduardo Gutierrez Aug 31 '22 at 10:45
You don't need live CD, you can do it directly on your system – Angel115 Aug 31 '22 at 13:46
once your system has booted you can safely unmount /boot, extend it and remount it – Angel115 Aug 31 '22 at 13:52
And what about the error message, just ignore ? Thanks – Eduardo Gutierrez Aug 31 '22 at 18:00
If you run sudo swapoff -a before trying to delete the partition, you shouldn't get the error. – Angel115 Sep 01 '22 at 10:38
no i refer to the error Error from libparted: can't have a partition outside the disk with image atttached, i just ignore and seems it does the things, seems some kind of warning...but i dont understand why appears.... – Eduardo Gutierrez Sep 01 '22 at 16:13

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 04 '22 at 17:18

Credits go to @Angel115

1 - Boot computer and disable swap
sudo swapoff -a
2 - Open gparted or Disk Admin to manage partitions.
3 - Unmount /boot partition.
4 - Unmount swap partition if its still enabled.
5 - Delete the swap partition.
6 - Resize the /boot partition by the right ("taking space from swap partition, reducing it). In my case i increased /boot till 1024mb and left swap with 3.5 Gb
7 - Apply changes.
8 - Take note of /swap partition UUID.
9 - Open with gedit or whatever text editor /etc/fstab and in the line where describes the /swap change UUId to the new UUID the partition has. Would be nice to make a copy of your fstab before just in case....
10 - Reboot and pray... ;)

Resizing partitions without loosing information and Error

2 Answers2