Moving partition structure

[Gamingphreek]

I just got finished installing Archlinux on my computer with only the features that I want (Thus it took quite a while to make sure thats all that was making it on there)

I need Windows installed for basic office productivity stuff and some other random things that aren't the greatest in Linux.

I, for some unknown reason, let Archlinux setup my partition table. Thus, I have a separate directory for /boot, /home, /, and swap.

Since I have reached the limit for Primary partitions, I would now have to install Windows onto a logical partition. From what I remember it does not like doing this at all.

Furthermore, I also remember that Windows, without asking, erases my bootloader. Is there anyway to prevent that from happening? Perhaps locking the partition so Windows fails when it tries?

Finally, everything (and I mean everything) feels snappier on Archlinux compared to my previous Ubuntu installs. Flash is running very smoothly, desktop compositing is running smoothly - what is it with Debian based *nix that causes these to run so slowly?
(Note: Running intel x3100 graphics card with full Kernel Modesetting enabled)

Thanks,
-Kevin

 

[Fallen Kell]

Unfortunately, there is no way to keep Windows from overwriting the MBR, that is not stored on a partition, but in the reserved area on the disk which the OS has the ability to change. Best you can do is let windows overwrite it and then boot up off a linux CD and re-install grub (assuming you used grub). There are tons of how to's on this, first one I found is:

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/ubuntu/reinstall-ubuntu-grub-bootloader-after-windows-wipes-it-out/

Best to print out the /boot/grub/menu.lst before you let windows install. You can try and move some things around and re-partition. If you have the space in "/home", you can basically move everything from there to a "/home00" which will put it on the "/" partition (assuming you have room), and then you can remove the entries in /etc/fstab for "/home", umount /home, move /home00 to /home and that would free up the /home partition for use for your windows installation...

 

[Nothinman]

I, for some unknown reason, let Archlinux setup my partition table. Thus, I have a separate directory for /boot, /home, /, and swap.

That's one reason why LVM is awesome, you only need 2 partitions (/boot and a LVM PV) and you can have as many logical volumes in that PV as you want.

Finally, everything (and I mean everything) feels snappier on Archlinux compared to my previous Ubuntu installs. Flash is running very smoothly, desktop compositing is running smoothly - what is it with Debian based *nix that causes these to run so slowly?
(Note: Running intel x3100 graphics card with full Kernel Modesetting enabled)

Flash sucks no matter what, I'm sure you'll get some studdering video soon enough. Are you using a full Gnome install in your new installation? And different versions of Xorg drivers can have drastic affects on performance. I've pretty much always had an nVidia card so I've had very few X performance problems over the years.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Thats aggravating that Windows does that. Yes, I used Grub 0.97 - so fixing it is pretty easy.

That's one reason why LVM is awesome, you only need 2 partitions (/boot and a LVM PV) and you can have as many logical volumes in that PV as you want.

Ok - I saw LVM and an Encrypted drive option, but I have never really worked with LVM. What exactly does it mean/do?

Flash sucks no matter what, I'm sure you'll get some studdering video soon enough. Are you using a full Gnome install in your new installation? And different versions of Xorg drivers can have drastic affects on performance. I've pretty much always had an nVidia card so I've had very few X performance problems over the years.

So the drivers aren't universal for all distributions? I thought since they were, essentially the exact same kernel that the video drivers would be the same.

Flash stutters in full screen and during flash based games in my testing. However, everywhere else it is far and away faster than what I had in Ubuntu. Even the Desktop Compositing Effects (Such as the Scale/Expose) perform much better. Perhaps the drivers that I used in Arch are better.

Unfortunately, there is no way to keep Windows from overwriting the MBR, that is not stored on a partition, but in the reserved area on the disk which the OS has the ability to change. Best you can do is let windows overwrite it and then boot up off a linux CD and re-install grub (assuming you used grub). There are tons of how to's on this, first one I found is:

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/ubunt...-wipes-it-out/

Best to print out the /boot/grub/menu.lst before you let windows install. You can try and move some things around and re-partition. If you have the space in "/home", you can basically move everything from there to a "/home00" which will put it on the "/" partition (assuming you have room), and then you can remove the entries in /etc/fstab for "/home", umount /home, move /home00 to /home and that would free up the /home partition for use for your windows installation...

Ughhh - that is going to be fun....

I use Linux primarily for some of my more advanced school work. I know this semester we will be using Wireshark extensively. Outside of dropping down to the old aircrack-ng netdump CLI, is there a CLI version that I can use?

My thinking is that, at present, I really don't need a full Xserver and Desktop Window Manager, thus I could wipe the drive and install with Windows and then reinstall Arch.

The only thing preventing me from doing this is that I am so pysched I finally managed to get Arch/Gentoo type distribution 100% working (In the past I ran into problems) - I don't want it to go away 🙁 😛

Thanks,
-Kevin

 

[Nothinman]

Ok - I saw LVM and an Encrypted drive option, but I have never really worked with LVM. What exactly does it mean/do?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_Volume_Manager_(Linux)

It's difficult to explain succinctly, hopefully the wikipedia page covers it well enough.

So the drivers aren't universal for all distributions? I thought since they were, essentially the exact same kernel that the video drivers would be the same.

They all come from the same place (i.e. Xorg tree, nVidia, ATI/AMD, etc) but no two distros are in sync so they end up releasing with different versions. For example, I'm on Debian sid here running Xorg 1:7.5+1 while according to packages.ubuntu.com, Karmic has 1:7.4+3ubuntu7.

Flash stutters in full screen and during flash based games in my testing. However, everywhere else it is far and away faster than what I had in Ubuntu. Even the Desktop Compositing Effects (Such as the Scale/Expose) perform much better. Perhaps the drivers that I used in Arch are better.

It's hard to say without some real investigation. I don't have any Ubuntu desktops so I can't really comment on it.

I use Linux primarily for some of my more advanced school work. I know this semester we will be using Wireshark extensively. Outside of dropping down to the old aircrack-ng netdump CLI, is there a CLI version that I can use?

Of wireshark? Sure, in Debian it's packaged as tshark.

 

[Fallen Kell]

It might also be called tshark-gui (I have seen that).

You have other options if you have space somewhere. You can use "Linux Rescue CD" distribution to make a backup of your data (using "partimage"). You can then repartition your hard drive and use "partimage" again to restore the data back to your partitions. As long as you leave /boot and / in the same partition number (i.e. sda1, sda2, etc., or whatever the current /dev/xxxx values are), you can easily re-install grub and be able to boot into linux without much monkeying around with many low level config files (maybe just /etc/fstab, and that is it).

Or you could convert to lvm...

Here is one howto:
http://www.linuxweblog.com/blogs/sandip/20071007/convert-root-filesystem-lvm

I don't like the choice of jfs personally and would recommend using ext3, but that is just me... But if you do that, make sure you make a backup, or switch out a partition first (like /home assuming you have the space there to put everything into it like I mentioned in my first post).

A good guide to make a backup can be found here (it will even teach you a bit about LVM):
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=8759

 

[AnonymouseUser]

Finally, everything (and I mean everything) feels snappier on Archlinux compared to my previous Ubuntu installs.

Don't know what it is, but Ubuntu (64 and 32 bit) was a sloth on my machine compared to Mandriva.

 

[Nothinman]

I don't like the choice of jfs personally and would recommend using ext3, but that is just me...

I'd be leery of JFS too, however I tend to gravitate toward XFS myself. And, AFAIK, ext4 is considered stable now and is the default in Ubuntu.

 

[Rifter]

i have been using ext4 since it came out and it seems fine, that said my raid array is still ext3.

Also i have not found a way to make windows play nice with the linux bootloader. I hate it, like really hate i as there is no reason for it other than MS is trying to screw over linux users plain and simple. When you install most linux distros its like oh we detected windows would you like to import documents and add it to the boot menu. Simple easy and the way ot should be. Then when you reinstall windows its like hmm i see a linux install well fuck that im overwriting the MBR anyways this guy is SOL now.

 

[Nothinman]

I hate it, like really hate i as there is no reason for it other than MS is trying to screw over linux users plain and simple.

I'm sure there's nothing malicious about it, they just don't care enough to write the code to deal with it.

Then when you reinstall windows its like hmm i see a linux install well fuck that im overwriting the MBR anyways this guy is SOL now.

It's been so long since I've even considered dual-booting that I'm foggy on the details, but if you put GRUB in the partitions boot record instead of the MBR it should be fine. Ideally, in that case you could simply switch the active partition (assuming the Linux partition with GRUB in it is a primary partition) and reboot.

 

[Rifter]

Im not sure if that would work but it seems like a good idea i might try that next time. But i was pretty new to linux when i first installed and the grub install in Mint is automatic and it puts it in the MBR. After the first time it windows axed my MBR i just backed up my grub config files and reinstalled it from a live CD, its just i should not have to jump through hoops, you dont when installing another linux distro why should you for MS.

 

[Nothinman]

Im not sure if that would work but it seems like a good idea i might try that next time.

It should, the default MS MBR just jumps to the boot record of the first partition marked active and passes that code control.

its just i should not have to jump through hoops, you dont when installing another linux distro why should you for MS.

It would definitely be nice, but they have no reason to expend resources to support other OSes so I can't really blame them.