[Discuss] Ubuntu Install Question

[Rich Pieri]

On Thu, 07 Mar 2019 20:27:46 +0000
Mike Small <smallm at sdf.org> wrote:

> The Linux partitioning tools (that the installation programs use)
> claim to be able to shrink existing partitions to make room for a
> Linux partition, but I've never trusted that. Could be paranoia on my

I've used resize2fs to shrink and expand filesystems on a number of
occasions where booting a gparted image was not a good option. Works
reliably although as always have a backup in case something does go
wrong. Bonus: at some point in the recent past the LVM tools acquired
the ability to invoke resize2fs directly saving the need to resize in
multiple steps.

ZFS and Btrfs avoid the problem entirely since they don't use
traditional partitions or volumes.

XFS filesystems cannot be shrunk.

> part. I'd be especially careful when Windows is involved, but I have
> no recent experience with it. If it were me I'd put Ubuntu on the 2nd
> drive and leave Windows with what it originally had. I haven't

If you don't go the WSL route then do this. Keep the two separate. EFI
dual booting can tricky anyway, but doing it on a single device is extra
tricky.

Running your Ubuntu in Hyper-V is also an option to consider. Not only
do most Linux distros run just fine in Hyper-V, installing Ubuntu
18.04.1 LTS in Hyper-V is formally supported.

-- 
Rich Pieri