Disk Partitioning tools, GUI preferably- best for LVM Logical Volume Management ; jorKUbuntu

[Clay Weber]

On Friday, July 23, 2010 11:25:39 pm giovanni_re wrote:

first off, are  you talking about LVM (Logical Volume Management), or  Extended 
and Logical partitions? Two different animals here.


> What are the best tools (ie sw) for doing disk partitioning?  Preferably
> GUI. but, console mode suggestions welcome if that's best, or all there
> is.
> 
> For use in KUbuntu 10.4.
> 
> KDE 3 used to have qtPartEd, which used to be able to actually _create_
> partitions. That's not in KDE4, ie in KUbuntu 10.4.
> 
> I've installed GPartEd, but it can't see into LVs - Logical volumes.
> Thus, it can't _create_ anything there.

Gparted sure sees my logical partitions in my Extended one. and parted magic 
is a nice live-cd/usb tool that uses this. I used it this past week to set up 
a drive.

There is also partitionmanager, the new KDE partition editor

both these tools use the same underlying cli tools to do the heavy lifting


> I'd greatly appreciate a competent GUI partitioner.  I only partition
> disks a few times per year, & it's great to have the GUI have the
> commands available to do the partitions, so one doesn't have to spend
> the time to keep up on the specifics of commands to deal with new disk
> formats & partitioning methods, & do hand calculations of partitions
> sizes, etc.

the parted magic cd is a great tool then, as it runs from ram, and therefore 
safer as it runs with your physical hard drive(s) being un-mounted while doing 
its thing.

> 
> ==
> I installed KU 10.4 with the alternate installer.  I've used the console
> mode installer for many years, probably because it gives me the ability
> to partition my disks well.
> 
> I usually put, in order from the beginning, two Linux partititions, a
> swap partition, then make a LVM for the 4th partition. & put a "/home"
> partition there, then leave space for further partitions - like, if i
> want to add another linux partition - so I can set up different distros
> & boot into them.


I usually do the same sort of setups from the live installer without drama, 
and I partition my testing laptop every few weeks/couple of months. Though 
using parted magic for the first time was a very nice experience. 


> 
> [BTW, is making that 4th partition a logical one, & putting more
> partitions in there necessary anymore? Used to be that disks were
> limited at 4 partitions, & one had to make a big 4th partition & put sub
> partitions inside that.  After all these years - in Linux, can we yet
> put as many partitions as we want without making a logical partition?  I
> think there was a limit of 16 partitions before.  Can more than that be
> done now?]

As far as I remember, the total number of primary partitions is 4, no matter 
the OS

> 
> ==
> So, I've got that big LV 4th partition, with empty space (2TB drive),
> and now I want to create some more linux partitions so I can install
> some other distros.
> 
> But, GPartEd doesn't show what's in the LVM.  And, thus it further can't
> create any partions there.  - It's a tragedy GPartEd isn't better
> maintained.  :(

Gparted just had an update release about 2 or 3 weeks ago, it is definitely 
maintained. The Ubuntu version is a bit dated though it's from January 2010.

Again, are you using LVM or Extended/logical partitions?
if you are using LVM - system-config-lvm is a gui tool for managing these.  
don't know if any of the gui partition editors supports LVM, though perhaps 
someone here (or one of the other lists cross-posted to) will have some better 
info for you.

> 
> ==
> So, what are the easiest tools to create additional partions in Logical
> Volumes?
> 
> Thanks :)
> 
I like partitionmanager myself, but gparted is more mature

Clay