How can I shrink a partition so that I could expand an another partition?

[psg420]

Code: Select all

Drives:    Local Storage: total: 476.94 GiB used: 56.78 GiB (11.9%) 
           ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: SK Hynix model: HFM512GD3JX016N size: 476.94 GiB 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 18.21 GiB used: 12.34 GiB (67.8%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p7 
           ID-2: /boot size: 462.0 MiB used: 258.8 MiB (56.0%) fs: ext2 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p6 
           ID-3: /home size: 184.17 GiB used: 22.06 GiB (12.0%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p9 
           ID-4: swap-1 size: 7.63 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/nvme0n1p8

My root directory is full, I wanted to take half the free space of my home to expand my root?.
Is there any way I could do that?.

[decrepit]

I'm no expert.
But first think to do is Back up!!!!!!!
I don't think you need to increase it by half your home. just double existing / should be fine. I have a 40GB partition for / that's only half full

You need to use a live USB/DVD, device as you can't alter mounted systems. Your installation media will have gparted in it. With that you can shrink your home partition.
I've never done this, but I think you can then move the boot partition into that space, then expand your / partition into the vacant space.

But check on this before proceeding, maybe an expert will come along and help more

[antikythera]

You'd need to shift the swap partition too as it is in the middle of root and home (going by the nvme partition numbers at the end of the output lines). Leave boot alone though.

[AndyMH]

Again, guessing from the partition numbers you are dual booting. Yes use gparted, yes boot from your install stick as you cannot change a mounted partition and booting normally you cannot unmount /, /home and boot. 30GiB should be adequate for / unless you plan to hibernate. My / is 20GiB used, lot of stuff installed, but no flatpaks, snaps or appimages.

Why have you got a separate boot partition, it is not needed? You will have to monitor that, as you install new kernels it will fill up, so when you do software updates, each time you get a kernel update you are going to have to remember to use update manager to remove the old kernels. Keep the current kernel and one previous.

[ajgreeny]

When asking questions of this sort it can be much more revealing to see a screenshot of a gparted (or disks) window which shows more clearly the position on disk of partitions. Partition numbers do not always sit on disk in their numerical order which can cause d9ifficulties when wishing to enlarge one or move it.

[psg420]

When asking questions of this sort it can be much more revealing to see a screenshot of a gparted (or disks) window which shows more clearly the position on disk of partitions. Partition numbers do not always sit on disk in their numerical order which can cause d9ifficulties when wishing to enlarge one or move it.

[AndyMH]

Confirms what pbear said, you will need to shrink and move home right, then move swap right so that the unallocated space is after /, then you will be able to expand it.

[axrusar]

My root directory is full, I wanted to take half the free space of my home to expand my root?.
Is there any way I could do that?.

I had pretty much the same issue more than a year ago. Check here:
viewtopic.php?f=46&t=342339&p=1977675&h ... d#p1977675

[pbear]

Confirms what pbear said ...

I did?

psg420, the live session will mount the swap partition automatically. Before you can move it, you'll have to swapoff. As I recall, it's a right-click option in GParted. For future reference, putting swap between the system and home partitions wasn't a great idea. Nor was setting up a boot partition.