Mount extended partition?

[bg3075]

Up front, I am sorry for my inexperience, but have just installed my first Linux system, F10, and very much confused about partitioning. I have a new 250 GB HD on which I installed Fedora. Being unfamiliar with Linux, left the majority of space unpartitioned. I thought I may be able to try to install Windows on this partition later, but doubtful that would even work. Regardless, I would now like to integrate the extended portion to Linux. I have been going through the LVM guide, but see nothing about how to allocate an extended partition to a logical volume. Below is the result of fdisk -l.

/dev/sda4 is the portion of disk space that I am referring to. In LVM manager, when highlighted, "initialize entity" is not an option. BTW, all of my partitions are currently uninitialized...what are the advantages of initializing them? Is there any way to switch the "extended" partition to a logical volume without affecting the OS now, so that I may utilize all available HD space?

Would the process Commonplace did work to add the extended partition to the VolGroup00 (http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showth...ed+partition): "expand VolGroup00's Logical View, highlight LogVol00, click the 'Edit Properties' button, and click 'Use remaining' and 'OK'."???

Code:
Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 25 200781 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 26 6399 51199155 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 6400 7419 8193150 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 7420 30401 184602915 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 7420 7929 4096543+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 7930 8184 2048256 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 8185 30394 178401793+ 8e Linux LVM
/dev/sda8 30395 30401 56196 83 Linux

[Seve]

Hello:

You can proceed on the path that you are now on, however, it will likely be a bigger headache than if you choose to not use LVM.
More information on LVM can be found here: http://docs.fedoraproject.org/instal...oning-lvm.html
You do not have to use LVM and since you are unfamilar with LVM, you will be much further ahead by using the installation option(s) and do a Custom Installation.
The Installation guide has more information: http://docs.fedoraproject.org/install-guide/f10/en_US/

Since you have very little invested in Linux / Fedora at this time, why not re-install and this time, do not select the default install options.

An old guide for FC6 has some images that might help you through the process.
http://docs.fedoraproject.org/instal...titioning.html

Seve

[bg3075]

Seve, thanks for your help. I am at a point at which I would prefer not to go back to reinstall. Upon initial install I did separate out partitions, rather than going with the default (see below).

/boot = 0.19 GB
/home = 50 GB
/usr = 7.81 GB
/var = 4 GB
/usr/local = 2 GB
/tmp = 0.05 GB
Extended = 176 GB (here is where the problem lies)

I imagine what I have designated to logical volumes, above, is plenty enough for most usage, but really hate wasting the 176 GB of free space in the extended partition (if I plan to keep Fedora as my only OS).

So, my question now, is the extended, unmounted, space usable by Fedora? All other partions types are listed as Linux (in LVM) while the 176 GB partition type is Extended. Is it possible to somehow convert this space to logical volume? The reason I am curious is the statement, in the Fedora 10 Installation Guide (http://docs.fedoraproject.org/instal...oning-lvm.html), "To ensure maximum flexibility, create logical volumes to meet your current needs, and leave excess storage capacity unallocated. You may safely grow logical volumes to use unallocated space, as your needs dictate", and, "Consider leaving a portion of the space in an LVM volume group unallocated. This unallocated space gives you flexibility if your space requirements change but you do not wish to remove data from other partitions to reallocate storage"(http://docs.fedoraproject.org/instal...ng-advice.html). This is the guidance that I followed on installation. But, then, the guide does not extrapolate any further regarding reallocating the unallocated space.

And, as far as the allocated partitions, is there any reason/benefit to "Initialize Entity" for each?

[markkuk]

The extended partition is only a container for logical partitions. Your first post shows that all the space of your extended partition is already in use by logical partitions sda5 - sda8, there's no "176 GB of free space". If you want to convert that space to LVM physical volume, you must start by deleting all those partitions.

[bg3075]

You are right, markkuk, after installing gparted (a much more informative program than LVM) displays just what you stated. Actually sda7 (/dev/sda7 8185 30394 178401793+ 8e Linux LVM) is the problem with unallocated space. Gparted displays it as an LVM2 file system, but a warning that "Logical Volume Management is not yet supported", but does have the format option to ext3 (among others) highlighted when right-clicked on this partition. If I were to perform that, and if it works, should I then be able to utilize that partition later for expanding space of some logical partitions?

I am trying that now, it appears to be reformatting now.

[markkuk]

Originally Posted by bg3075

If I were to perform that, and if it works, should I then be able to utilize that partition later for expanding space of some logical partitions?

I am trying that now, it appears to be reformatting now.

Reformatting the LVM physical volume as ext3 removes LVM from your system, and anything stored in LVM logical volumes disappears. If you shrink sda7, you can use the released space to extend either sda6 or sda8.

[bg3075]

Yes, it wouldn't even allow me to reformat, got the error message below. Also do not have the option to resize sda7 (at least in gparted). What would the "Initialize Block Device" under Tools menu (in the Logical Volume Manager) do? What would be the benefit of initializing each partition? As now, none of mine are initialized.

GParted 0.4.3

Libparted 1.8.8
Format /dev/sda7 as ext3 00:00:05 ( ERROR )

calibrate /dev/sda7 00:00:02 ( SUCCESS )

path: /dev/sda7
start: 131476023
end: 488279609
size: 356803587 (170.14 GiB)
set partition type on /dev/sda7 00:00:01 ( SUCCESS )

new partition type: ext3
create new ext3 file system 00:00:01 ( ERROR )

mkfs.ext3 -L "" /dev/sda7

mke2fs 1.41.3 (12-Oct-2008)
/dev/sda7 is apparently in use by the system; will not make a filesystem here!

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