Two Julias not the same.

[Pythzor]

Greetings,

On October 15, 2010, I downloaded and burned a live iso image to cd of Julia RC and took it on a test run. Suitably impressed, I installed it on my computer and moved all my files from Helena to Julia (I'd previously decided that I preferred Helena over Isadora).

About two months later, running out of partition space (Julia on sdb5), I installed another Julia(on sda6), using the same Julia RC live cd. What I'd really wanted to do was turn the partition where I eventually put the second Julia (sda6) into a data partition for the first Julia (sdb5), but I didn't know how to do that and wasn't able to quickly find out how with google or forum searches. (Still don't know how.) From that point, I moved some files from Julia1 (sdb5) to Julia2 (sda6).

What I've since noticed is that the two Julias are not identical. For one, I've installed Google Chrome to Julia2. But when I attempted to install Chrome to Julia1, what I got is Chromium. When I downloaded Google voice and video plug-in to Julia1, by default it goes to Ubuntu Software Center. But Ubuntu Software Center doesn't open on Julia1. It never has. I've reinstalled it, completely removed it and reinstalled it and it just won't work. On the other hand, however, when I downloaded Google Voice and Video plug-in to Julia2, (to both Ffx and Chrome), by default it is opened by Gdebi package manager and is installed without incident. Ubuntu Software Manager does open and work on Julia2. I note that Ubuntu Software Manager doesn't show Chrome but it does have Chromium (Chrome does things that Chromium doesn't.). I still can't use google voice with Julia1, even with Chromium.

So, a question: how can I get Julia1 to become like Julia2? Or, how can I turn sdb5 (where Julia1 is at) into a data partition for Julia2? Admittedly, I use Julia1 as though it were a data partition for Julia2, but it would give me more space if I could delete Julia1's / and just keep /home. How is a data partition formated? Like when I invoke Gparted and right-click on format to, which selection would be just a data partition? Could I just make sdb5 ext4 without a mount point of / or /home? Or could I reformat sdb5 into /home and sda6 into /? Would that work without other adjustments? Or if not, what other adjustments would I have to make?

Any assistance given me would be much appreciated. Thank you.

[seeley]

Hi!
Maybe you first should read my help.
Most things you are suggesting would not work; during installation you can choose mount points - as "/" and "/home", "formatting" a partition means deleting all data.
Without some more information no one can advice you.
seeley

[Pythzor]

Thank you for the help link and tutorial. I appreciate that you made it simple and easy to comprehend. You seem to be more concerned with helping others to understand than you are with impressing folks with your knowledge. Thank you very much.

I don't have any more blank dvds and only one cd-rw that's not worn out, so I went with what I already have. On this computer, my home-burned LMDE dvd will only boot sometimes. I got it to boot on the second try. I had c. 7 GiB of free space on the partition holding Julia2, so I resized it and made a separate, 6.9 GiB logical partition. My intentions were to install LMDE to the 6.9 GiB partition (on sda) and use Julia1 (on sdb) as /home for the new install. But the LMDE installer wouldn't let me install using both hard drives.

So I logged off of the LMDE dvd and alternately used Jullia1 and Julia2 to shuffle around some files to make space – I even cut-and-pasted a nine-month-old 3.1 GiB Helena /home backup archive to Windows 7. Then, having eked out 10 GiB of free space on the partition holding Julia1, resized it for another logical partition to use to install LMDE. But then the LMDE dvd wouldn't boot. I tried repeatedly, but it hasn't again booted.

So I used the Julia RC live cd to install a third Julia. I assigned Julia1 to be Julia3's /home and retained the existing swap partition. During installation, the Julia installer removed systems-conflicting files from the new /home. Continuing to shuffle files after the successful installation of Julia3, I resized the Windows partition down to 18 GiB and made 18.3 GiB of free space on the Julia2 partition.

I then used Julia3's GParted to cut-and-paste the then-18 GiB windoz 7 from sdb to sda. After updating and reinstalling Grub, I rebooted and all oses still work (Windows 7 chdsked at it's own behest). I then deleted Windows 7 from sdb and resized Julia3 to take up the rest of the hard drive; and after copying-and-pasting Julia2's /home to Julia3, deleted Julia2 and resized windoz 7 to occupy the rest of sda.

Mission accomplished.

randall@randall-Dimension-8300 ~ $ sudo fdisk -l

[sudo] password for randall:



Disk /dev/sda: 30.0 GB, 30020272128 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3649 cylinders

Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk identifier: 0x0006bfb4



Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System

/dev/sda1 * 1 70 561251 7 HPFS/NTFS

/dev/sda3 71 3649 28748317+ 5 Extended

/dev/sda5 71 3649 28745728 7 HPFS/NTFS



Disk /dev/sdb: 80.0 GB, 80000000000 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9726 cylinders

Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk identifier: 0x0008738d



Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System

/dev/sdb2 1 9322 74876928 5 Extended

/dev/sdb3 9323 9726 3245130 82 Linux swap / Solaris

/dev/sdb5 1 7534 60508160 83 Linux

/dev/sdb6 7534 9322 14365696 83 Linux

randall@randall-Dimension-8300 ~ $ sudo parted -l print

Model: ATA QUANTUM FIREBALL (scsi)

Disk /dev/sda: 30.0GB

Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B

Partition Table: msdos



Number Start End Size Type File system Flags

1 1049kB 576MB 575MB primary ntfs boot

3 576MB 30.0GB 29.4GB extended

5 578MB 30.0GB 29.4GB logical ntfs





Model: ATA Maxtor 6Y080L0 (scsi)

Disk /dev/sdb: 80.0GB

Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B

Partition Table: msdos



Number Start End Size Type File system Flags

2 1049kB 76.7GB 76.7GB extended

5 2097kB 62.0GB 62.0GB logical ext4

6 62.0GB 76.7GB 14.7GB logical ext4

3 76.7GB 80.0GB 3323MB primary linux-swap(v1)





randall@randall-Dimension-8300 ~ $


Thank you very much.

randall

[DataMan]

Just a few words (I promise) on how I do the multiple operating system installations.

Whenever a new release comes out (as in released) that I have an interest in upgrading to, my path to installation is:

1. Install the new version (location 1) from scratch on partition a.
1b. As part of this installation I install a new /home partition.
2. Build my working library of apps in one swoop.
3. Do the necessary updates (ugh).
4. Configure and populate my servers and databases.
5. Update my /home config files from the production version of the ops.
6. Repeat the process above (location #2) for the "developmental" operating system build on another set of partitions.

Notes:

My development build receives the full experimentation of apps, libraries etc. When I'm fully satisfied that I want the new app etc and it doesn't break anything downline, I'll build the app in my production system.

The development build receives weekly repository updates. The production system receives updates, generally on a monthly basis.

All of the active partitions are imaged and double-redundancy backed up on a weekly basis.


The above may be a bit over the top, but it gives me a pretty stable production system while still allowing me to safely explore and try things out at the operating system level.

-DataMan