Consequences of fresh install of Trisquel for BIOS and EFI?
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Dear fellow Trisquel users,
sudo fdisk -l
/dev/sda1 2048 4095 2048 1M BIOS-startup
/dev/sda2 4096 1054719 1050624 513M EFI-system
/dev/sda3 1054720 40116223 39061504 18,6G Linux operating system
/dev/sda4 40116224 7814035455 7773919232 3,6T Linux file system
The use case:
So I'd like to upgrade Trisquel, but also make SDA3 bigger (and SDA4 smaller). So I probably would have to do a fresh install of Trisquel. But then I would also destroy anything on SDA1 and SDA2, right? How would you make backups of SDA1 and SDA2 and move these files back?
Are you sure that you're not asking about backing up sda3 and sda4? If you're reinstalling Trisquel anyway isn't it okay to have the contents of those sda1 and 2 partitions re-created through the normal installation process? Or to put it another way: What makes those files so special that they can't be?
For SDA4 I've a regular back-up. For SDA3 I hope using Timeshift will be enough. On SDA1 I have Libreboot. I don't plan a regular installation process, because I want to make SDA3 bigger (and so SDA4 smaller).
What is the output of the following command?
$ lsblk -f
If the filesystem mounted at /dev/sda4 is not of the type XFS, shrinking /dev/sda4 and then enlarging /dev/sda3 should not raise any issue, from a live system. After rebooting on the installed system, you will be able to upgrade Trisquel (no need for a fresh install).
If you go for a fresh install, /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda2 need not be touched, if you choose the "Something else" type of installation and, at the partitioning step, if you do not ask to do anything with those partitions.
Anyway, the user data should be backed up before.
NAME FSTYPE LABEL UUID FSAVAIL FSUSE% MOUNTPOINT
sda
├─sda1
├─sda2 vfat 4D91-A17F 511,7M 0% /boot/efi
├─sda3 ext4 c9e49699-7f4f-4591-b26b-650df4c1840b 2,4G 81% /
└─sda4 xfs d2f26ba9-e750-47e3-ac3d-194e1a6e1ca6 3,5T 3% /home
User data are backed up.
The type of the filesystem on /dev/sda4 is XFS, which cannot be shrunk. To avoid a fresh install, you would need another disk. It does not have to be large because you only use approximately 3.6 - 3.5 = 0.1 TB of /dev/sda4. You would:
- Boot a live system: https://trisquel.info/en/wiki/starting-installable-live-system;
- Plug the disk where to move /dev/sda4;
- If its partitions take up the whole disk (probably the case), shrink one of its shrinkable (not XFS) partitions to get enough free space to handle the content of /dev/sda4;
- Move /dev/sda4 in the free space;
- Delete /dev/sda4;
- Expand /dev/sda3 in the free space;
- (Create a swap partition, maybe of the size of your RAM, right after /dev/sda3: it has nothing to do with the rest, but you probably want a swap partition, that you currently have not;)
- Move back the partition with the user data in the whole remaining free space.
All that can be done graphically, using GParted, which is on most GNU/Linux live system, including Trisquel's. The copy of /dev/sda4 on the external disk is a sort of backup. I did not tell you to delete it. Nevertheless, if everything goes right, you certainly want to delete it (again, GParted can be used) and to expand a neighboring partition (probably the one you shrunk) in the free space.
Thank you very much.
In order to be able to boot a live system, I have to use GRUB, don't I?
When I try to, it says:
"Welcome to GRUB!
error: variable 'prefix' isn't set"
An issue also raised on [1].
After a few hours trying several sources I haven't found any working solution.
In order to be able to boot a live system, I have to use GRUB, don't I?
Normally, one only needs to deal with the BIOS/UEFI, as explained behind the link I have almost already given you (there was a supernumerary semicolon): https://trisquel.info/en/wiki/starting-installable-live-system
That said, as far as I understand, Libreboot includes GRUB and you are probably talking about that GRUB. Other users here will give better instructions than I can (I have never interacted with Libreboot) on how to boot a live system on Libreboot. Then, it would be good to add to https://trisquel.info/en/wiki/starting-installable-live-system a section relating to Libreboot.
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