Dtyjlui

I'm trying to make Touch (14.10) work as an Ubuntu server. However the root partition is only 2 GB and is insufficient for the packages I need to install. Is there any way to get more space on the root partition?

Thus far I've tried:

• resize2fs on /dev/loop0 won't work since the kernel doesn't support online resizing and I can't unmount root (ro doesn't cut it, even with -f).




• Adding 2 GB to the end of /userdata/ubuntu.img works, but resize2fs on the file doesn't help.

I had a similar problem, ultimately I decided to move my /usr to /home/usr (/home is mounted from 14G file system, which gives me plenty of space for additional packages).

This is a little bit hackish way to do this, but it seems to work for me. The follwing code examples are using $ to indicate that command should be run as normal user and # to indicate root user role (which can be gained either by sudo or loggig as root).

1. 
   

   Set password for root user, you will need the ability to log as the root in case you screw anything up with your /usr/bin/sudo. To do so:

   
   
   

   $ sudo su
   
   # passwd
   
   

   
   


2. 
   

   Copy contents of /usr preserving ownership and permissions:

   
   
   

   $ cd /usr
   
   $ sudo find . -depth -print0 | sudo cpio --null --sparse -pvd /home/usr/
   
   

   
   


3. 
   

   The next logical step would be to use fstab to mount /home/usr as /usr on boot, however all changes that I tried to make to the fstab were disappearing after rebooting Ubuntu. So I've created simple script to do the mounting, and saved it as /etc/init.d/bind.sh:

   
   
   

   #!/bin/sh
   
   if [ "X$1" = "Xstart" ]; then
   
     echo "Binding /home/usr to /usr..."
   
     chmod 4755 /home/usr/bin/passwd /home/usr/bin/chsh /home/usr/bin/pkexec /home/usr/bin/sudo /home/usr/bin/newgrp /home/usr/bin/gpasswd /home/usr/bin/chfn /home/usr/lib/pt_chown /home/usr/lib/eject/dmcrypt-get-device /home/usr/lib/openssh/ssh-keysign /home/usr/lib/dbus-1.0/dbus-daemon-launch-helper /home/usr/lib/policykit-1/polkit-agent-helper-1 /home/usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/oxide-qt/chrome-sandbox /home/usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/lxc/lxc-user-nic
   
     mount -o bind,suid /home/usr /usr
   
     echo "...done"
   
   fi 
   
   

   
   
   

   The chmod line is needed, as I noticed that suid bit is sometimes missing after mounting. The list of the files that had the suid bit set on can be found by running # find /usr -user root -perm -4000 on the original /usr directory. Please note, that if you install anything later on which is using the suid bit it may become broken unless you add it to the list.

   
   
   

   You will need to create symbolic link in /etc/rcS.d for bind.sh:

   
   
   

    # ln -s /etc/init.d/bind.sh /etc/rcS.d/S36bind.sh
   
   

   
   
   

   Note: you might want to pick different number than 36 depending on the state of your /etc/rcS.d.

   
   
   

   Alternatively you can edit /lib/init/fstab as described here to have persistent changes in fstab.

   
   


4. 
   

   After rebooting the system should be now using /home/usr as /usr so hopefully you should have more space for additional packages. Note that old /usr still exists but is unreachable as long as the new directory is mounted.

   
   
   

   In case anything goes wrong you can return to previous state by renaming the symbolic link in /etc/rcS.d and rebooting:

   
   
   

    # mv /etc/rcS.d/S36bind.sh /etc/rcS.d/K36bind.sh
   
   

   
   

This solution worked for me:

https://github.com/plasma-mobile/plasma-phone-dev-setup/blob/master/usr/bin/resize-root-partition

Basically, it's KDE Plasma Mobile's super-simple install script. Just run it, take a nap, and you should have a 6 GB root partition.

Here's the quickest way I've figured out to do it.

Warning:
This may break your phone if typed incorrectly. Ensure you have full backups before beginning and are willing to make mistakes in case you lose all data on your phone.
This example command resizes the root filesystem to 6GB, so if it's already bigger than that it will be truncated and your phone likely will become unbootable (until re-imaged). Only use this command if your root filesystem image is less than 6GB (the Ubuntu Touch default is 2GB).

$ sudo -s

# dd if=/dev/null of=/userdata/ubuntu.img bs=1M seek=6000 count=0

# resize2fs -f /userdata/ubuntu.img

# reboot

Ok, here is the way that I did it on my meizu pro5. Your mileage may varry.

O and you may brick your phone.

Take this guide as a hint for your path to follow. Don't come back crying.

Have a fresh phone made by ubuntu-device-flash. In the phone you should have an SD card big enough to hold the fs from the userdata partition plus 512M plus 700M for the custom and cache partition.

• put twrp3.0 as the recovery image.


• use fdisk -l /dev/block/sda to see the partitions.


• save that report. You should have the last 4 partition as system, custom, cache and userdata.


• mkdir /tmp/userdata


• mount /dev/block/sda44 (for me it was 44) /tmp/userdata


• cd /tmp


• tar -czf /external_sd/userdata.tar.gz userdata


• umount /tmp/userdata


• dd if=/dev/block/sda43 of=/externa_sd/cache.img


• dd if=/dev/block/sda42 of=/externa_sd/custom.img

You now have saved the data, now to redo the partitions we will use the fdisk from ubuntu since the fdisk from twrp is not good enough.

• mkdir /tmp/ubuntu


• mount -o loop /system/var/lib/lxc-andoid/system.img /tmp/ubuntu


• mknod -m 666 b 8 0 /tmp/ubuntu/dev/sda


• chroot /tmp/ubuntu /sbin/fdisk /dev/sda

You delete the 41,42,43,44 partitions and create :

• a new 41 starting from the same place but bigger.


• a new 42 starting after 41 with the same size as the old 42.


• a new 43 starting after 42 with the same size as the old 43.


• a new 44 starting after 43 and ending on the same sector as the old 44.


• save the new partition table


• umount /tmp/ubuntu

Put back the userdata, custom and cache.

• dd if=/externa_sd/cache.img of=/dev/block/sda43


• dd if=/externa_sd/custom.img of=/dev/block/sda42


• create a new ext4 on 44: mke2fs /dev/block/sda44


• mount /dev/block/sda44 /tmp/userdata


• cd /tmp


• tar -xzf /external_sd/userdata.tar.gz


• umount /tmp/userdata


• umount /tmp/ubuntu


• umount /system


• increase now the system partition: resize2fs /dev/block/sda41

You should now have a bigger root partition in your ubuntu-touch system.

Have fun.

After some more play here is what you need to know and do.

Ubuntu touch is booting from an android device so the partions have to be apropiate.

The android system is identifying the partitions by the partition label.

You have for meizu pro 5 this partitions: system (the root partition), cache (used for upgrates by Ubuntu, you should have about 1G on it), custom (no idea what is used for), userdata (used for /home and a lot of other folders that are mounted with bind to different parts of the root)

phablet@ubuntu-phablet:~$ sudo fdisk /dev/sda



Welcome to fdisk (util-linux 2.25.2).



Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.



Be careful before using the write command.





Command (m for help): x



Expert command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sda: 58.2 GiB, 62537072640 bytes, 15267840 sectors

Units: sectors of 1 * 4096 = 4096 bytes

Sector size (logical/physical): 4096 bytes / 16384 bytes

I/O size (minimum/optimal): 16384 bytes / 8192 bytes

Disklabel type: gpt

Disk identifier: 00042021-0408-4601-9DCC-xxxxxxxxxxx

First LBA: 6

Last LBA: 15267834

Alternative LBA: 15267839

Partitions entries LBA: 2

Allocated partition entries: 128



Device       Start      End Sectors Type-UUID                            UUID                                 Name      Attrs

/dev/sda1     1024     1279     256 EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-xxxxxxxxxxxx D117F98E-6F2C-D04B-A5B2-xxxxxxxxxxxx private   

/dev/sda2     1280     1343      64 EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-xxxxxxxxxxxx 25718777-D0AD-7443-9E60-xxxxxxxxxxxx proinfo   

/dev/sda3     1344     1407      64 EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-xxxxxxxxxxxx 8A4BB8B4-E304-AE48-8536-xxxxxxxxxxxx misc      

/dev/sda21    2048     3071    1024 EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-xxxxxxxxxxxx 08992135-13C6-084B-9322-xxxxxxxxxxxx param     

/dev/sda22    3072     5119    2048 EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-xxxxxxxxxxxx 333A128E-D3E3-B94D-92F4-xxxxxxxxxxxx efs       

/dev/sda23    5120     5631     512 EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-xxxxxxxxxxxx F20AA902-1C5D-294A-9177-xxxxxxxxxxxx pnv       

/dev/sda24    5632     6655    1024 EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-xxxxxxxxxxxx DB88503D-34A5-3E41-836D-xxxxxxxxxxxx ldfw      

/dev/sda25    6656     7679    1024 EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-xxxxxxxxxxxx 012B3303-34AC-284D-99B4-xxxxxxxxxxxx dtb       

/dev/sda26    7680    13823    6144 EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-xxxxxxxxxxxx FAEC2ECF-8544-E241-B19D-xxxxxxxxxxxx bootimg   

/dev/sda27   13824    22015    8192 EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-xxxxxxxxxxxx F13A0978-B1B5-1A4E-8821-xxxxxxxxxxxx recovery  

/dev/sda28   22016    30207    8192 EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-xxxxxxxxxxxx B710EB04-45B9-E94A-8D0B-xxxxxxxxxxxx bootlogo  

/dev/sda29   30208    35327    5120 EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-xxxxxxxxxxxx AD5EC4B6-2D9F-8544-9417-xxxxxxxxxxxx rstinfo   

/dev/sda30   35328    40447    5120 EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-xxxxxxxxxxxx CCEB0B18-39CB-D547-9DB7-xxxxxxxxxxxx mnv       

/dev/sda31   40448    45567    5120 EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-xxxxxxxxxxxx D4981A2B-0478-544E-9607-xxxxxxxxxxxx reserved1 

/dev/sda32   45568    50687    5120 EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-xxxxxxxxxxxx 6D6C9A36-E919-264D-A9EE-xxxxxxxxxxxx reserved2 

/dev/sda33   50688    55807    5120 EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-xxxxxxxxxxxx 60B98C0E-BEAD-B043-9CC6-xxxxxxxxxxxx reserved3 

/dev/sda41   65536  7929855 7864320 EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-xxxxxxxxxxxx F2ECCD60-9303-46B1-B193-xxxxxxxxxxxx system    

/dev/sda42 7929856  8060927  131072 EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-xxxxxxxxxxxx DD8D25F3-92F2-4B24-9558-xxxxxxxxxxxx custom    

/dev/sda43 8060928  8323071  262144 EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-xxxxxxxxxxxx 01573816-7EBF-4860-8AB7-xxxxxxxxxxxx cache     

/dev/sda44 8323072 15267834 6944763 EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-xxxxxxxxxxxx E15F5427-031C-4BB0-89D5-xxxxxxxxxxxx userdata  





Expert command (m for help): 

Because you have a lot of binds to the root you have to modify the partitions form recovery.

First pitfall, the default recovery image for Ubuntu is not adb enabled. I used TWRP 3.0.

Second pitfall, TWRP fdisk utility is not good enough, it is the busybox variant and it has not the modification commands. So just make a copy (with dd from the system image to a file so you can mount as a loop device) of the system partition onthe SD card, mount it, create with mknod /dev/sda in this mount and chroot /sbin/fdisk

Now you can play with partitions. Just be careful not to mess anything but the four target partitions. Don't forget to put the names to the partition's labels.

All of the four partitions are ext4 make the filesystems and then you should be able to mount them from TWRP menu.
If you have just grow the system partition you should be able to getaway with resizing the fs.

You could redo the partitions and then just reflash the Ubuntu system with ubuntu-device-flash.