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create-swap-and-disk-partition-pi

Tutorial: Disk Partitioning Using the Terminal on a Raspberry Pi​

Introduction​

Disk partitioning is an essential task for managing storage on your Raspberry Pi. This tutorial will guide you through checking and managing swap partitions, as well as creating new disk partitions using the terminal.

Prerequisites​

  • A Raspberry Pi with Raspbian (Raspberry Pi OS) installed.
  • Basic knowledge of using the terminal.
  • A USB drive or additional storage device (optional).

Step 1: Managing Swap Partitions​

1.1 Check for Existing Swap Partition​

First, check if a swap partition already exists on your system:

swapon --show

If you see an output listing a swap file or partition, it means swap is already configured.

1.2 Create a Swap Partition​

If no swap partition is found, you can create one. Follow these steps:

  1. Allocate Disk Space for Swap:

    Decide how much space you want to allocate for swap. For example, to allocate 1GB of swap space:

    sudo fallocate -l 1G /swapfile

  2. Set the Correct Permissions:

    sudo chmod 600 /swapfile

  3. Set Up the Swap Space:

    sudo mkswap /swapfile

  4. Enable the Swap File:

    sudo swapon /swapfile

  5. Verify the Swap File is Active:

    swapon --show

  6. Make the Swap File Permanent:

    Add the following line to /etc/fstab to ensure the swap file is activated on boot:

    echo '/swapfile none swap sw 0 0' | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab

1.3 Expand an Existing Swap Partition​

If you need to expand the swap space:

  1. Turn Off Swap:

    sudo swapoff /swapfile

  2. Resize the Swap File:

    For example, to resize to 2GB:

    sudo fallocate -l 2G /swapfile

  3. Reconfigure Swap Space:

    sudo mkswap /swapfile

  4. Re-enable the Swap File:

    sudo swapon /swapfile

  5. Verify the Swap Size:

    swapon --show

Step 2: Creating a Disk Partition​

2.1 List Available Disks​

First, list all available disks:

lsblk

Identify the disk you want to partition (e.g., /dev/sda).

2.2 Launch fdisk to Partition the Disk​

  1. Start fdisk:

    sudo fdisk /dev/sda

  2. Create a New Partition:

    • Type n to create a new partition.
    • Choose the partition type (p for primary).
    • Select the partition number.
    • Specify the start and end of the partition.

  3. Write the Changes:

    • Type w to write the changes to the disk and exit fdisk.

2.3 Format the New Partition​

Format the new partition with a file system (e.g., ext4):

sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1

2.4 Mount the New Partition​

  1. Create a Mount Point:

    sudo mkdir -p /mnt/new_partition

  2. Mount the Partition:

    sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/new_partition

  3. Verify the Partition is Mounted:

    df -h

2.5 Make the Mount Permanent​

To ensure the partition mounts automatically at boot, add an entry to /etc/fstab:

echo '/dev/sda1 /mnt/new_partition ext4 defaults 0 2' | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab

Additional Content: Disk Usage and Maintenance​

Check Disk Usage​

You can check disk usage with the following command:

df -h

Check Disk Health​

To check the health of your disks, use the smartctl tool (install if necessary):

sudo apt install smartmontools
sudo smartctl -a /dev/sda

Clean Up Disk Space​

Free up disk space by removing unnecessary files:

sudo apt-get clean
sudo apt-get autoremove

Conclusion​

By following this tutorial, you have learned how to manage swap partitions and create new disk partitions on your Raspberry Pi using the terminal. These skills will help you optimize and manage your storage effectively.

Additional Resources​

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