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I don't know for sure if this is a problem that already has an answer, but I've checked with scrutiny everything on this forum.

I have a system with Ubuntu 19.10 as the only partition—it's in "lvm2 pv" format and around 475 GB, and it's the boot partition as well. I want to add a second Linux operating system, so I need to resize this partition. Theoretically, this would be trivial.
However, when I open GParted on a live boot and attempt to resize the partition, it says that the partition is completely full (8 MB unused). I know this isn't true since I checked this specifically: only around 300 GB is used on the drive, which I found by checking the root folder in Nautilus.

How can I resize the partition? I am willing to give any extra information needed.

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  • What additional Linux distro do you want to install? If you have the space available in your volume group, and a flexible distro, you should be able to install the second distro into the same volume group using a different logical volume. Please add the output of vgs to your question. Commented May 3, 2020 at 1:35

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The partition is the physical volume that is making up the volume group. As it is the only one, it is in use and can't be resized or removed.

If there is free space in your volume group which you can verify with the vgs command, then you can create a new logical volume and install the second distro into it.

If not, then there are three things that you can do in your case:

1) Install Ubuntu again, create a volume group with some of the space, and leave the rest unallocated for the second operating system.

2) Add a second disk drive and use that to install the second operating system.

3) Install VMware Workstation Player or Virtual Box to and install the second operating system into it. If you don't need all of the compute resources to be available to the second operating system, then this is the easiest way. This would also allow you to have the both of them running at the same time rather than having to dual boot between them.

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  • Oh, I see. You mean that it's the entire disk? If I were to install Ubuntu again, would I have to back up the data externally, or is there an easier way? Commented May 3, 2020 at 1:34
  • @MattF. Yes. Installing over it will overwrite the data with a new file allocation data. Back it up to an external drive. Commented May 3, 2020 at 2:11

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