GParted, where the real partition magic is!

Setting up a SuSE 10.1 lab server for use with XEN virtualization, I ran into a snag where I had forgotten to allocate space for logical volume management (LVM) during the installation. Searching through nine zillion (possibly more) web sites and knowledgebase articles for resizing the root partition in a smooth way (without having to create a new rescue system, and without loading hardware modules manually), I ran into GParted.

Stating what is obvious to already-users-of-GParted; this tool is quite a gem for system and server administrators. It handles a number of file systems (including Reiser and NTFS), comes as a separate Gnome application, a LiveCD application, or (!) as an USB “stick” application.

In this particular case, I was working with a D**L (a company that, together with G*****y should be banned for their dubious business ethics, can you say “Håkan Lans”?) server, and the GParted LiveCD had no problem with the on-board hardware, RAID controllers, and what not.

For a long time, I’ve been wondering when the PartitionMagic product would be updated to a useful state in today’s world of modern file systems. From now on, I won’t be wondering about that any more. PartiionMagic and I just GParted from each other.

You’ll find GParted here: gparted.sourceforge.net