Running LVM to repartition HD question

[Paul Howarth]

Stephen Liu wrote:
> Hi folks,
> 
> I ran LVM partitioning HD at time of installing FC5_64
> 
> # fdisk -l
> Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
> 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
> Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
> 
>    Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
> /dev/sda1   *           1          13      104391   83  Linux
> /dev/sda2              14        9729    78043770   8e  Linux LVM
> 
> Disk /dev/dm-0: 10.4 GB, 10468982784 bytes
> 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1272 cylinders
> Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
> 
> Disk /dev/dm-0 doesn't contain a valid partition table
> 
> Disk /dev/dm-1: 12.5 GB, 12582912000 bytes
> 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1529 cylinders
> Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
> 
> Disk /dev/dm-1 doesn't contain a valid partition table
> 
> Disk /dev/dm-2: 8388 MB, 8388608000 bytes
> 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1019 cylinders
> Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
> 
> Disk /dev/dm-2 doesn't contain a valid partition table
> 
> Disk /dev/dm-3: 1073 MB, 1073741824 bytes
> 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 130 cylinders
> Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
> 
> Disk /dev/dm-3 doesn't contain a valid partition table
> * end *
> 
> 
> # fdisk -l /dev/sda
> Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
> 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
> Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
> 
>    Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
> /dev/sda1   *           1          13      104391   83  Linux
> /dev/sda2              14        9729    78043770   8e  Linux LVM
> * end *
> 
> # df -h
> Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
> /dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol00
>                       9.5G  4.8G  4.3G  53% /
> /dev/sda1              99M   16M   79M  17% /boot
> tmpfs                 501M     0  501M   0% /dev/shm
> /dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol01
>                        12G  2.0G  8.9G  19% /home
> /dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol02
>                       7.6G  146M  7.1G   2% /tmp
> * end *
> 
> 
> LVM Volume Groups
> VolGroup 00		76160
> LogVol01	/home	ext3	12000
> LogVol02	/tmp	ext3	8000
> LogVol00	/	ext3	9984
> LogVol03		swap	1024
> * end *
> 
> 
> During installation I tried to retain an empty primary partition for
> LinuxOS to test multi-boot without success.  It needed a mount point
> therefore I was compelled to create /tmp.
> 
> Now I want to move /tmp back to FC5_64 / and use its space for / of
> another LinuxOS and repartition with LVM the unallocated space creating
> a partition of 10G for its /home.  Please advise how to proceed.  TIA

Unmount /tmp and remove/comment out the fstab entry for it. Reboot. Your 
system should come up OK with /tmp on the root filesystem (the /tmp 
directory already exists).

Once you're happy that that's working, you can delete LogVol02 from your 
volume group:

# lvremove VolGroup00/LogVol02

That will give you some free space in VolGroup00 that you could use for 
a second OS install, albeit not a raw partition.

> Besides is there any way to create an empty primary partition at time
> of installing FC5_64, without mounting it 

Just leave some free space on the disk and then you can create new 
partitions as and when you need them. Your /dev/sda has only two 
partitions on it, so that's effectively two more primary partitions you 
could use if there was any free space. Unfortunately you have an LVM 
physical volume using up all of your free space and there's no clean way 
of shrinking that, so you'll probably need to use the same volume group 
for your second install.

Paul.