Moving a part of /usr to another partition

mad_ady · n00b Joined: 14 Jul 2004 Posts: 54

Hello. I noticed I'm running low on space on my / partition and I would like to move a part of /usr to another partition (vfat).
I know there is the --bind option in mount, so that wouldn't really be a problem, but... should I create a 'virtual' image on my vfat drive and mount it and copy everything I can in it? Or do you suggest a better option?

Also, what do I do to 'mount' it automatically at startup?

adaptr · Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2004 8:49 am Post subject:

You want to move a Linux partition to a vfat one?
As long as you don't mind keeping all the bits that ensue...

In case that was unclear: you can't.
You need to use Linux partitions to put Linux filesystems on.

As for using a loopback filesystem on vfat: sure you can, but it won't perform worth a damn...

My advice is to resize the vfat thing and make a new reiser partition, like normal people ;-)

Oh just noticed: forget your fantasies of moving part of /usr - that is patently impossible.
It's all or nothing.
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oumpah-pah · Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2004 8:57 am Post subject:

The first thing I would like to point out is that vfat is a very poor choice as filesystem. It doesn't support permissions, nor files bigger than 2 Go.
But if you want to add a partition beyond /usr, here's what I'd do. Mount your new partition under /mnt/test for example. Then copy in that directory the entire content of a /usr subdirectory. You can now umount /mnt/test, and mount it in the directory you just copied (say /usr/portage). You can now delete the files that still are on the old partition. To achieve this, simply do

oberyno · Guru Joined: 15 Feb 2004 Posts: 467 Location: /bin/zsh

You also might want to check out the DISTDIR variable in your make.conf, if you happen to keep distfiles. There's a post or two on the forums mentioning that it works on fat.

But I would also recommend you resize the fat partition.

mad_ady · n00b Joined: 14 Jul 2004 Posts: 54

Resizing was my first option, but my linux partitions are at the end of the drive, and my fat32 partitions are at the beginning... And besides, I DON'T WANT TO GO THROUGH INSTALLATION ALL OVER AGAIN! (although it was fun!

)

For the moment, I'll look into that DISTDIR variable, because my /usr/portage/distfiles directory is about 600Mb big... (so I'd like to get rid of it)
But in the future, if I'm desperate enough, I'll create a loopback file on my vfat partition.... Correct me if I'm wrong, but it's:

tawtao · Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2004 10:20 am Post subject:

mad_ady · n00b Joined: 14 Jul 2004 Posts: 54

I've tested System Rescue CD and qtparted in a vmware virtual machine, and it seemed to work ok... But I'm not yet brave enough to let it run havoc through my partitions... Maybe when I'm older!

Souperman · Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2004 8:48 am Post subject:

I tried (qt)parted in the past and it wasn't happy with trying to move or resize my ext2, ext3 or reiser3 partitions. I have since switched everything except / to LVM2.
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