Installing Mint 6 over Mint 5

[vinoman]

I have an Acer laptop with Mint 5 and Vista. They are both about 50 gb each (on 120gb hdd) with a couple other partitions. I want to install Mint 6 in the same partitions as Mint 5, but when I run the install it wants to add another partition and give Mint 6 about 7% less space than Mint 5. How do I get Mint 6 to install on the same partitions as Mint 5 with out adding any more partitions that take up space?

[Husse]

The guided partitioning sometimes resort to strange solutions
Use manual partitioning. Take your time so you select the right partition(s) - you edit (right click) to select mount point
I'm not happy with the multicolored partition scheme you get - it confuses me....

[vinoman]

The guided partitioning sometimes resort to strange solutions
Use manual partitioning. Take your time so you select the right partition(s) - you edit (right click) to select mount point
I'm not happy with the multicolored partition scheme you get - it confuses me....

Yes the colors are confusing. Would it be better to via live cd use GParted and adjust the partitions there first or would the install still want to change it to something else?

[Husse]

That's better and then of course use manual and edit the mountpoints

[vinoman]

I just when into GParted and tried to delete an 8gb partition so I could enlarge the sda5 partition that Mint 5 is on. when I delete the partition its then unallocated and I can't get rid out it. Here's my list of partition on this hdd:

unallocated - 1MB
/dev/sda1 - fat32 9.77GB (Vista restore partition)
/dev/sda2 - ntfs 51GB (Vista partition)
unallocated - 67MB
/dev/sda3 - ext3 7.8MB ( wanted to merge with sda2)
unallocated - 8.5GB
/dev/sda4 - extended 42.3 GB
/dev/sda5 - ext3 40.5GB (Mint 5)
/dev/sda6 - linux-swap 1.78GB

How do I delete the unallocated parts so I can enlarge the sda5 partition. Is it possible?

[kansasnoob]

I just when into GParted and tried to delete an 8gb partition so I could enlarge the sda5 partition that Mint 5 is on. when I delete the partition its then unallocated and I can't get rid out it. Here's my list of partition on this hdd:

unallocated - 1MB
/dev/sda1 - fat32 9.77GB (Vista restore partition)
/dev/sda2 - ntfs 51GB (Vista partition)
unallocated - 67MB
/dev/sda3 - ext3 7.8MB ( wanted to merge with sda2)
unallocated - 8.5GB
/dev/sda4 - extended 42.3 GB
/dev/sda5 - ext3 40.5GB (Mint 5)
/dev/sda6 - linux-swap 1.78GB

How do I delete the unallocated parts so I can enlarge the sda5 partition. Is it possible?

A screen shot of gparted would help me a lot. One thing I'll say right off the bat is DO NOT resize a Vista partition with anything other than Vista's own tolls! It'll save you lots of trouble later on!

BTW I'm trying to attach a copy of my own gparted screenie just to see how it works! So if this is a mess I apologize!

[kansasnoob]

Ok screen shot didn't work. sorry to use this thread as a "trial and error" thing but:



I hate using photo image and stuff like that!

It's my stuff! I don't want it online!

[kansasnoob]

Ok screen shot didn't work. sorry to use this thread as a "trial and error" thing but:



I hate using photo image and stuff like that!

It's my stuff! I don't want it online!

I guess that's better!

[vinoman]

Ok screen shot didn't work. sorry to use this thread as a "trial and error" thing but:

[img]/home/lance/Pictures/gparted.png[/img]

I hate using photo image and stuff like that!

It's my stuff! I don't want it online!

I guess that's better!

I could not find a screen shot program on the live cd. I did delete the data partition that was an empty partiton of Vista's. Vista's 50GB partition is OK. Mint 5 is on a 40gb partition. Vista's restore is on a 10GB partition, so I have 20GB of wasted space that I would like to give to Mint. Is it still possible? How is it done?

If that's the case, then I guess GParted can't delete partitions so you can enlarge other partitions. I won't be installing Mint 6 until I can figure how to repartition this drive. or I'll start all over and reinstall Vista one day then install Mint 6 at that time.

[kansasnoob]

Ok screen shot didn't work. sorry to use this thread as a "trial and error" thing but:

[img]/home/lance/Pictures/gparted.png[/img]

I hate using photo image and stuff like that!

It's my stuff! I don't want it online!

I guess that's better!

I could not find a screen shot program on the live cd. I did delete the data partition that was an empty partiton of Vista's. Vista's 50GB partition is OK. Mint 5 is on a 40gb partition. Vista's restore is on a 10GB partition, so I have 20GB of wasted space that I would like to give to Mint. Is it still possible? How is it done?

If that's the case, then I guess GParted can't delete partitions so you can enlarge other partitions. I won't be installing Mint 6 until I can figure how to repartition this drive. or I'll start all over and reinstall Vista one day then install Mint 6 at that time.

Well, hold on I'm going to post a couple of examples.

[kansasnoob]

This should give you a good general idea of how gparted works:

http://www.herman.linuxmaniac.net/p22.html

Or this:

http://www.users.bigpond.net.au/hermanz ... rtitioning

It's just very hard to tell someone else how to partition without a screenshot of the drive.

the way I posted mine requires copy-n-paste in the url window!

[AK Dave]

I could not find a screen shot program on the live cd. I did delete the data partition that was an empty partiton of Vista's. Vista's 50GB partition is OK. Mint 5 is on a 40gb partition. Vista's restore is on a 10GB partition, so I have 20GB of wasted space that I would like to give to Mint. Is it still possible? How is it done?

If that's the case, then I guess GParted can't delete partitions so you can enlarge other partitions. I won't be installing Mint 6 until I can figure how to repartition this drive. or I'll start all over and reinstall Vista one day then install Mint 6 at that time.

Gparted can indeed delete partitions. Add, delete, resize, whatever. It slices, it dices, it stays sharp indefinately. How much would you pay for this? Well, its free. Point is: gparted does exactly what you want to do.

Now that you have the following:
50gb Vista
10gb restore
40gb Mint5
20gb empty
What order and configuration are they?

I'll scroll back to a previous post and find your old partition table. Based on that, I'll suggest how you repartition your drive:
/dev/sda1 - fat32 9.77GB (Vista restore partition)
/dev/sda2 - ntfs 51GB (Vista partition)
/dev/sda3 - linux-swap 1.78GB
/dev/sda4 - extended (##GB)
/dev/sda5 - ext3 12GB (Mint 6 Felicia)
/dev/sda6 - ext3 (##GB)

So, what do you do?

You insert gparted CD, boot with it, and use gparted to DELETE /sda3 on. Now you have a bunch of unallocated space. Allocate the swap. Allocate the remainder as an extended partition. Within the extended partition, allocate two logical partitions: one for Mint6 and one for data. Format both as ext3. Shut down. Alternatively, everything in this step can be done from the Felicia installer by selecting Manual partitioning. Now swap in the Felicia CD. Reboot with Felicia CD. Click through. Select Manual. Select /sda5 as the mountpoint for /. Select /sda3 as the mountpoint for swap. Select /sda6 as the mountpoint for /home. Continue with install.

I cannot make this any simpler. Maybe someone else can, but I am incapable of that. The above is as simple as I can make it without clicking your mouse myself.

[vinoman]

I'm back in Mint 5 and I found the screen shot program, that I could not find in the live Mint 6 cd.
Here it is:
http://www.geovino.net/gparted-partitions.jpg

[kansasnoob]

I just when into GParted and tried to delete an 8gb partition so I could enlarge the sda5 partition that Mint 5 is on. when I delete the partition its then unallocated and I can't get rid out it. Here's my list of partition on this hdd:

unallocated - 1MB
/dev/sda1 - fat32 9.77GB (Vista restore partition)
/dev/sda2 - ntfs 51GB (Vista partition)
unallocated - 67MB
/dev/sda3 - ext3 7.8MB ( wanted to merge with sda2)
unallocated - 8.5GB
/dev/sda4 - extended 42.3 GB
/dev/sda5 - ext3 40.5GB (Mint 5)
/dev/sda6 - linux-swap 1.78GB

How do I delete the unallocated parts so I can enlarge the sda5 partition. Is it possible?

OK, the screenshot helps a lot. Now, I want to clear up a couple of things:

#1. You say above "/dev/sda3 - ext3 7.8MB (wanted to merge with sda2)". Sda2 is Vista! Are you absolutely sure you want to merge sda3 and the unallocated space with Vista? If so I highly recommend first using Gparted from your Mint Live CD to delete sda3, then reboot and use Vista's own tools to expand Vista's partition.

The "Extending Windows Vista NTFS Partitions or Volumes" section in the following tutorial lays it out quite well (with graphics):

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutoria ... tml#extend

Of course if I'm misunderstanding then yell at me!

#2. Is there any data whatsoever on your Mint partition (sda5) that you want to save? If so it's obviously quite small so I'd personally just use a CD to back it up. This also goes for such things as Firefox or Opera bookmarks, etc. I'd be glad to provide more info about this if requested.

#3. Otherwise, back to installing Mint 6 I highly recommend using "Manual" as an installation method! It's explained well in the Mint 6 User Guide beginning on page 17:

http://ftp.heanet.ie/pub/linuxmint.com/ ... nglish.pdf

You would of course select sda5 for Ext3 Journaling File System, check on format, and make the Mount Point /. Then select sda6 as SWAP.

As shown on page 23 of the guide you'll be presented with a final chance to review what you're doing and cancel if you see anything wrong.

Please feel free to clarify or ask any more questions you wish!

[vinoman]

kansasnoob,
Thanks for all the info. I may work on it next month and let you know how it goes.
But Mint 5 works so good, I wonder of Mint 6 would make any difference