swap partition after install with extending linux to windows partition

[TYRRAM666]

I used the universal usb installer and installed pclinuxos to a usb. Then i went and installed from the usb to my C drive with windows, all because i didnt have any blank cd's and couldn't make a live cd. Anyway long story short i didnt install a swap partition. So i was wondering if there was any way to install a swap after a full install without having to reinstall ? ive already got a thousand packages from synaptic and i dont want to go through it all again. I was also wondering if there was any way to wipe the windows partition and extend the linux to the whole drive with a swap ? I know of a prog in windows called partition master that would let me do this to the linux partition, but none in linux that would let me do it to windows. I mean i could wipe the windows partition no prob but can you extend a linux ? I dont need windows, i installed virtual box and put windows on it from iso but im wasting alot of hard drive space with windows on a partition and the fing thing just keeps wanting more space. Oh and by the way ive tried pretty much every distro out there and pclinuxos is way better by far than any other. It seems to be the only one that works consistently time after time and from every conceivable angle to no matter if its a usb or live cd or hard drive install or even virtual machine or a fake drive using iso. its incredible. I do alot of strange things with OS's and pclinuxos is the only one that can keep up with the demands. anyway any help would be much appreciated.

[AS]

Hi and Welcome to PCLinuxOS forum!  

Of course, it possible to add a swap partition after installation. It's even possible to add a swap file instead of a partition.
You posted several questions, before to provide the required info I have another couple of questions for you:

- do you really need the swap partition ?
I mean, swap is actually used for a couple of things: as virtual RAM when your system run out of real RAM, which is highly improbable if you have 4 Gb or more, and can be used to hibernate the system. I myself, do not use swap at all. (4 Gb RAM).

- about reducing/removing the windows partition: yes it's possible, however to provide specific instructions you should post the content of your partition table, from root account run the following command: fdisk -l
this way we can understand the actual structure/sizes of your partitions, consequently we can provide any additional hints may be needed to successfully perform the requested extension, of course the above info are however helpful to setup the new swap partition.

- about the "strange things", feel free to share your experiences here or in sandbox section, where appropriate.  

AS

[TYRRAM666]

my system seems to be fine without it so far but it only has 768mb ram but like i say seems to be fine. I cant bring up fdisk-l in run and in synaptic it brings up util-linux-ng and mkswap-uuid, utilities is installed mkswap isnt. mkswap seems to be a clone utilitiy. Anyway sry for such newbie crap but there it is. what now ?

[AS]

my system seems to be fine without it so far but it only has 768mb ram but like i say seems to be fine. I cant bring up fdisk-l in run and in synaptic it brings up util-linux-ng and mkswap-uuid, utilities is installed mkswap isnt. mkswap seems to be a clone utilitiy. Anyway sry for such newbie crap but there it is. what now ?

you can:

1) log in as root
2) open a Konsole
3) type the following command, note the space between "fdisk" and "-l" (the option is -L but lowercase)
fdisk -l

[djohnston]

in synaptic it brings up util-linux-ng and mkswap-uuid, utilities is installed mkswap isnt. mkswap seems to be a clone utilitiy.

TYRRAM666,

Glad to see another user who wants to leave Windows behind. Welcome to the forum.

mkswap is already "installed" on your system. It's a standard Linux utility program used to activate a swapfile or filesystem on a swap partition. Follow as's lead so we can see how your disk is already laid out. It can be restructured, reclaiming the wasted space. And you can create a swap partition or swapfile for some of the heavier computing you'll probably be doing down the road.

[Xenaflux]

my system seems to be fine without it so far but it only has 768mb ram but like i say seems to be fine

The keywords are here : seem and so far
If you are going to use applications like Ktorrent or the likes , you might find yourself short of ram
768 Mb RAM is fine when you run one thing at the time, or use lightweight applications.
Having said that, I have been running a 10 year old system with the same RAM as you.
No problems if you treat it wise .
Unfortunately, the beast died last month  

[TYRRAM666]

80gb drive:
ntfs - capacity 59.41 - used 32.10 - unused 27.32
ext3 - capacity 15.8 - used 10.57  - unused 4.5

disk /dev/sda: 80.0 gb
device boot            start               end              block             id             system
/dev/sda1 *           63                 124600139     62300038+      7             hpfs/ntfs
/dev/sda2              124600140      156232124    15815992+      83            linux

[AS]

TERRAM66,

editing partitions is always a risky work, therefore you need to be prepared. First of all, use mylivecd to prepare your own DVD ISO, and test it. It will include all your customization so that if something will go wrong you will be able to restore your system in minutes.
...
At this point probably the most reasonable and fastest thing to do is to wipe out the disk completely and reinstall from your own ISO. 

The only thing that probably need to be addressed is that you may not have enough free space to successfully complete the build of you own ISO. Do you have any spare external storage available ? USB disk or  USB stick ?

[TYRRAM666]

I have another 40gb drive thats only half full so thats 20gb there. but i dont have any cd or dvd (i know u cant help me with that) but i have a 1.85gb flash drive would that be enough space ? i suppose not eh ? could i put it on the 40gb drive boot from there and set the 80gb as slave and install from the 40gb to the 80gb ? I also have a couple of small hard drives around too. So am i correct in thinking this prog will make a iso of my whole os as it is installed ? I was also wondering if there was any way to permanently mount my other drives so when i make shelf icons on my desk they will still be there when i reboot ? those are the coolest things !

[AS]

I have another 40gb drive thats only half full so thats 20gb there. but i dont have any cd or dvd (i know u cant help me with that) but i have a 1.85gb flash drive would that be enough space ? i suppose not eh ? could i put it on the 40gb drive boot from there and set the 80gb as slave and install from the 40gb to the 80gb ? I also have a couple of small hard drives around too. So am i correct in thinking this prog will make a iso of my whole os as it is installed ? I was also wondering if there was any way to permanently mount my other drives so when i make shelf icons on my desk they will still be there when i reboot ? those are the coolest things !

considering you are actually using approx. 10 Gb your final iso should be around 3 or 3.5 Gb. But you need to have at least double free space to allow for temporary storage, then you should use the external storage to build the ISO.

mylivecd will make a copy of your full installation (unless you decide to explicitly exclude something) but it's limited in that the final ISO can't exceed 4 Gb.

Yes, you can also add a second disk, and mount it manually, from DE, or automatically at boot...

To boot from the 40 Gb drive you need to perform an installation on that disk, while it's possible, don't think it's what you want.

Any chance to provide a couple of DVD (or a 4 Gb usb stick ) ?

[TYRRAM666]

oh man i gotta think about this there must be away around it. im making the image now i donno where its going ? but im making it anyway. ttyl.

[TYRRAM666]

ok hows this sound i use the universal usb installer to install my os iso to a small hdd then boot from that drive with the 80gb as slave then install from the small hdd to the 80gb ? i told you i do strange things.

[TYRRAM666]

seems to be stalled at 1.77% i dont think this is gonna fly. maybe ill just reinstall from scratch.

[djohnston]

seems to be stalled at 1.77% i dont think this is gonna fly. maybe ill just reinstall from scratch.

Are you sure it has stalled? Before you reinstall from scratch, do you have personal data you need to back up? Do you have a plan for the partition layout on your hard drive(s)?

[Xenaflux]

80gb as slave and install from the 40gb to the 80gb ? I also have a couple of small hard drives around too. So am i correct in thin

If you have a small hard disk lying around, why don't you give this a thought....

Forget about backing up and all that.
Take that small hard drive, put it in as a master drive ( jumper settings )
Wipe it clean
Format with ext4 or ext3 and let it check the blocks too ( will take some time )
Install fresh copy of pclos on this small hard drive
After you are finished, put in the old one as a slave ( jumper settings )
Mount it in PCC
carry on with whatever you want to do