Partition sizing

Support & Help Requests
#1

After successfully installing MATE along with "plain vanilla" Ubuntu on 250 GB SSD running DISKS shows following config -
(1) partition # 1 ("filesystem") is 100 GB - EXT4 ("plain vanilla" ????)
(2) partition # 2 ("extended") is 150 GB (virtual ?????)
(3) partition # 5 ("filesystem") is 150 GB - EXT 4 (MATE ?????)

(a) is this proper since total of all three partitions seems to be 400 GB but HD capacity is only 250 GB?
(b) would performance improve if partition # 5 was reduced to 100 GB leaving 50 GB free space at end?

bewildered Newbie Bob

#2

Open up terminal and bring to us full output of:
sudo fdisk -l # L lowercase

#3
  1. For a more comfortable view of your HD partitions I'd recommend to install and use gparted program.
  2. The catch is that your #5 partition is actually contained within #2 partition.
#4

As @ugnvs pointed out your /dev/sda5 is actually contained in /dev/sda2

You may have different drive letters but essentially /dev/sda2 is the extended file system and /dev/sda5 is a logical partition within that extended partition.

This has a bit more detailed explanation about Partitions

I also agree with @ugnvs that gparted might give you a better gui view.

#5

Hi Eugene: did i understand that "gparted" is preferred over "disks" (which is provided in19.04 ) ?

Bewildered Bob

ps: what cmd is used to modify GRUB loader ?

#6

Hi Frank: Thanx for the quick reply. To summarize - there are 2 OSes ("plain vanilla" and MATE) each in its own partition. "Vanilla" = 100GB, MATE = 150GB (which is plenty). If the 150GB partition were reduced to 100 GB there would be 50GB free space left over for either OS to use as needed (for performance improvement ??). Is this recommended ??

Bob

#7

There would be no noticeable performance improvement in making that change. I would personally leave your disk layout as is.

#8

Hi Bob,
To my taste "disks" are somewhat oversimplified, though completely working. "gparted" is some more technical, though still comfortable application. It is not that one application must be preferred over another.

Gene

#9

I am afraid, there is no single command to manage grub. Well, google spills out a lot of search results related to grub-configuration... And nevertheless I'd recommend to read native grub manual first. Just issue info grub cli command in your terminal.

Gene

#10

Hi again Gene: Plz remember that i'm a NEWBIE. In terminal mode i entered which apparently was accepted since i was prompted for my password which apparently was accepted. But the cmd 'gparted' was not found even after several attempts. Other spelling variations of gparted did not even prompt for my password before err msg 'cmd not found' appeared. What a rotten thing to do to a Ubuntu Newbie !! What am i doing wrong ? Thanx.

#11

Please install gparted as follows:

sudo apt install gparted

Since then you will be able to invoke it via command line or top panel menu Applications > System tools > GParted

Gene

#12

Hi Gene: It works as advertised. Thanx for your help.

BB

#13

Hi Bob,
You are welcome!
Gene