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Carolina
Asked: 2020-09-08 18:52:36 +0800 CST

Partition scheme for Linux-Linux dual-boot

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I have a hard disk with Ubuntu 18.04 installed, but I want to add Debian. My HDD is formatted as ext4 and I have currently a home, root, swap and efi partitions (sda1, sda2, sda3 and sda4), and, although I have free space to install Debian, I can't, because apparently for ext4 partitions the maximum number of logical spaces is 4. Any suggestions on how to solve the problem? Do LVM partitions allow for more than 4 logical partitions?

lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 18.04.4 LTS
Release:    18.04
Codename:   bionic

enter image description here

grub2 boot dual-boot partitioning uefi

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    You can do this without too much effort.

    We disable partition swap, create a /swapfile, delete the swap partition, and then you'll be able to install Debian into the unallocated space.

    Disable partition swap

    sudo swapoff -a # disable current swap

    sudo -H gedit /etc/fstab # edit fstab

    Remove, or comment out, the line that looks similar to this:

    UUID=xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx  none  swap       sw       0       0

    Add this line:

    /swapfile    none    swap    sw      0   0

    Save the edits.

    Now we create a /swapfile.

    Note: Incorrect use of the dd command can cause data loss. Suggest copy/paste.

    sudo swapoff -a           # turn off swap
sudo rm -i /swapfile      # remove old /swapfile

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/swapfile bs=1M count=4096

sudo chmod 600 /swapfile  # set proper file protections
sudo mkswap /swapfile     # init /swapfile
sudo swapon /swapfile     # turn on swap
free -h                   # confirm nnG RAM and 4G swap

    Confirm this line in /etc/fstab... and confirm no other “swap” lines...

    /swapfile    none    swap    sw      0   0

    Delete old partitions

    Then use gparted to delete /dev/sda5, and then delete /dev/sda2.

    reboot                    # reboot and verify operation

    Install Debian

    Then you can install Debian. If Debian can use its own /swapfile (rather than its own swap partition), then use that for swap space.

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