Installing Kali alonside Ubuntu. Dual-booting. Repartitioning Question

1 Attachment(s)

Ok so I've finally made the plunge into the murky waters of Linux from a lifelong stint in Microsoft-land, and although the culture-shock is strong, the allure of almost-complete control of the code I use, combined with the newness of this open kernel has definitively made me a believer in all things Linux.
That said, I must brave the well-known snarkiness and general upturned-nosed forums of the said Linux forums to ask a question that will no doubt be looked upon as dubious in integrity, and/or redundant to the point of unbelievability due to its ubiquity. I have, for the record, looked for a good 2 hours in this, and other Linux-oriented forums and tutorial websites, and have yet to see a simple, step by step guide that answers my question.
So please, if I am making a huge mistake by reposting this question because of it being answered multiple times in an assumed well-made response elsewhere, point me to this response, so I don't bother anyone. I truly cannot find a decent answer to my particular conundrum.
I am currently running Ubuntu 16.04 on an Acer Aspire V3, with a 64bit processor and half a terabyte of space. I don't want to reinstall Ubuntu, as I've downloaded many packages and tweaked the OS to my liking; Also converting my OS back into an ISO would be out of the question because I don't want to do that.
I also already have a working live USB of Kali (previously checked and is working).
My Gparted system breakdown looks like this (screenshot):
Attachment 1543

What would be the easiest way to repartition my HDD and install Kali alongside my Ubuntu OS? I'm using Grub2 as a bootloader. I'm sure I'm forgetting more pertinent information; I'm not doing so on purpose so if I am, please tell me what to provide, as well as how to provide it, and I will as soon as possible.
Thank you so much in advance!

-Aquashift

2 Attachment(s)

Attachment 1553 test pic A

Attachment 1554 Attachment 1554 test pic B

I have no idea if you all can see these images that I'm uploading onto this thread. I used GIMP to resize the png here in pixels, as a test. However if I could get feedback from you all as to what you are seeing, it would be appreciated, because when I open the image up from the forum site, I get an image of very tiny dimensions - not big enough to see any relevant information.

Another test

I've uploaded some screenshots containing specs of my HD and my live USB to photobucket, hoping to circumvent any issues with seeing them clearly as inserted media:

here is the picture of my HD filesystem as given by Gparted:
http://s1033.photobucket.com/user/ckirby108/media/Screenshot%20from%202016-05-26%2023-01-44_zpskpflxbuc.png.html]http://i1033.photobucket.com/albums/...pskpflxbuc.png

and this is a screenshot of my working, bootable live Kali OS:
http://i1033.photobucket.com/albums/...psjssnfm89.png

These next two are of the HD and USB from the Disk Usage Analyzer program:
http://i1033.photobucket.com/albums/...psayugknsl.png

and:

http://i1033.photobucket.com/albums/...ps6iatsyio.png

just read a little. it is not hard task. for example this post could be helpfull
https://forums.kali.org/showthread.p...li+triple+boot

but as I sow from your pictures you don't have swap partition, then make it.
just in gparted from right side, shrink main partition, and make space for Kali

That's right. Kali need place to work. You should go follow duxim instructions

Quote:

Originally Posted by duxim

just read a little. it is not hard task. for example this post could be helpfull
https://forums.kali.org/showthread.p...li+triple+boot

but as I sow from your pictures you don't have swap partition, then make it.
just in gparted from right side, shrink main partition, and make space for Kali

Thank you duxim, very much

Ok, so I am running into trouble (already). I am trying to shrink my extended partition. I am currently booted from a live USB, and I deactivated my HDD partition that I want to resize. Here is a picture of it:

http://i1033.photobucket.com/albums/...ps658jmc8x.png"]

As you can see the partition I am trying to resize, sda5, has the filesystem lvm2 pv, inside the extended partition sda2, which is given here:

http://i1033.photobucket.com/albums/...psh09drcvb.png

---

The partition sda5, the one I'm trying to shrink, has been deactivated and has no running processes to interfere with its resizing. Here is a picture of my whole HDD, showing no key or mounted or otherwise busy icons that would disallow me from resizing it:

http://i1033.photobucket.com/albums/...psxe7iylnp.png

When I try to resize sda5, the new window that pops up, but I can't reposition the slider up top, nor change the numbers. Gparted doesn't say 'why' I can't do anything, it just doesn't let me. I know that it's something I'm doing wrong, and not Gparted, because when I try to resize sda1, my boot partition, it allows me to just fine (don't worry, I haven't actually resized or done anything to my boot partition. Just showing that I *can* and that Gparted is functioning properly).
Here is a shot of Gparted's resizing window for my sda5 partition:

http://i1033.photobucket.com/albums/...pspexigski.png

There is 0 MiB free space preceding the partition, which is my guess as to why I can't resize it. However I don't know if this is, in fact, the real problem. And if it is, I wouldn't know how to fix this, or where to go from there.
Can anyone help me? I'm almost positive this is just a newbie mistake.

To reiterate:
I am trying to shrink my main HDD extended partition (lvm2 pv filesystem), so that I can create a swap partition, and also install Kali alongside my already installed Ubuntu 16.04 OS.
I am trying to do this with Gparted, from a live USB. I've unmounted/deactivated my HDD so I can work with it, but Gparted will not allow me to resize my partition, possibly because it doesn't have any space preceding it, but I really don't know why.
If someone could help me I would really appreciate it, thank you!

-Aquashift

Ok so I found out the reason I can't resize my partition using Gparted is because I wasn't attempting to resize the physical partition, I was trying to resize the logical partition. Gparted doesn't resize logical partitions, so I have to use LVM, Logical Volume Management.
*facepalm*
I'm reading up on LVM's documentation, but if anyone is familiar with using it, and wants to lend a hand, it would be much appreciated.
I'm still trying to resize my partition.
On my command prompt:

Code:

aandk@aandk-Aspire-V3-731:~$ sudo lvs LV VG Attr LSize Pool Origin Data% Meta% Move Log Cpy%Sync Convert root ubuntu-vg -wi-ao---- 459.46g swap_1 ubuntu-vg -wi-ao---- 5.82g aandk@aandk-Aspire-V3-731:~$ sudo pvs PV VG Fmt Attr PSize PFree /dev/sda5 ubuntu-vg lvm2 a-- 465.28g 0

and..

Code:

aandk@aandk-Aspire-V3-731:~$ sudo lvdisplay --- Logical volume --- LV Path /dev/ubuntu-vg/root LV Name root VG Name ubuntu-vg LV UUID 7U7bqA-eqAo-qpwE-7pAs-LVTA-NAGB-eBnDew LV Write Access read/write LV Creation host, time ubuntu, 2016-05-24 17:16:18 -0600 LV Status available # open 1 LV Size 459.46 GiB Current LE 117622 Segments 1 Allocation inherit Read ahead sectors auto - currently set to 256 Block device 252:0 --- Logical volume --- LV Path /dev/ubuntu-vg/swap_1 LV Name swap_1 VG Name ubuntu-vg LV UUID FkWWZD-xKhm-N3ni-qVJe-mgne-lr6R-Q1I9HV LV Write Access read/write LV Creation host, time ubuntu, 2016-05-24 17:16:18 -0600 LV Status available # open 2 LV Size 5.82 GiB Current LE 1490 Segments 1 Allocation inherit Read ahead sectors auto - currently set to 256 Block device 252:1

and finallly

Code:

aandk@aandk-Aspire-V3-731:~$ sudo pvdisplay --- Physical volume --- PV Name /dev/sda5 VG Name ubuntu-vg PV Size 465.28 GiB / not usable 0 Allocatable yes (but full) PE Size 4.00 MiB Total PE 119112 Free PE 0 Allocated PE 119112 PV UUID YurnSO-2rQh-t0rk-Qpr1-TLdQ-1Ick-dowvL7

I just got back from a mini-vacation, and I see that no one has yet replied to this new set of developments... If anyone is familiar with LVM (Logical Volume Manager), and wants to come along for the ride, feel free to..
I keep wondering though, if I can get away with skipping this part, and just using GParted to shrink my drive somehow.. It would certainly be easier that way.
@duxim:
Where did you go, friend? Did you not see from my screenshots I provided that I couldn't use GParted? Or did you see that I still could, and if so, how?

-- Edit:
If anyone wants to follow along, I'm currently using http://askubuntu.com/questions/19612...hysical-volume as a guide.

Alright guys, I'm gonna bring everyone up to speed. To recap, I have Ubuntu 16.04 installed on my Acer Aspire laptop, and I'm trying to repartition my HDD so that I can install Kali alongside Ubuntu. I have a logical volume, so instead of shrinking my partition with GParted I'm using LVM (Logical Volume Manager) to resize my logical volume to make room for Kali.
I'm currently operating from a live USB, and this is what I've inputted so far in my terminal:

Code:

root@kali:/# vgdisplay --- Volume group --- VG Name ubuntu-vg System ID Format lvm2 Metadata Areas 1 Metadata Sequence No 4 VG Access read/write VG Status resizable MAX LV 0 Cur LV 2 Open LV 0 Max PV 0 Cur PV 1 Act PV 1 VG Size 465.28 GiB PE Size 4.00 MiB Total PE 119112 Alloc PE / Size 119112 / 465.28 GiB Free PE / Size 0 / 0 VG UUID L9I4nG-cyEt-QIXq-Ebfe-DW87-hC2G-6dMjJA

and

Code:

root@kali:/# lvdisplay --- Logical volume --- LV Path /dev/ubuntu-vg/root LV Name root VG Name ubuntu-vg LV UUID 7U7bqA-eqAo-qpwE-7pAs-LVTA-NAGB-eBnDew LV Write Access read/write LV Creation host, time ubuntu, 2016-05-24 23:16:18 +0000 LV Status NOT available LV Size 459.46 GiB Current LE 117622 Segments 1 Allocation inherit Read ahead sectors auto --- Logical volume --- LV Path /dev/ubuntu-vg/swap_1 LV Name swap_1 VG Name ubuntu-vg LV UUID FkWWZD-xKhm-N3ni-qVJe-mgne-lr6R-Q1I9HV LV Write Access read/write LV Creation host, time ubuntu, 2016-05-24 23:16:18 +0000 LV Status NOT available LV Size 5.82 GiB Current LE 1490 Segments 1 Allocation inherit Read ahead sectors auto

I actually had to reactivate my logical volume in order to resize it, which I did using GParted.
Then, in terminal:

Code:

root@kali:/# sudo lvreduce --resizefs -L 150G /dev/ubuntu-vg/root fsck from util-linux 2.27.1 /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root: 491973/30113792 files (0.2% non-contiguous), 9245533/120444928 blocks resize2fs 1.42.13 (17-May-2015) Resizing the filesystem on /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root to 39321600 (4k) blocks. The filesystem on /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root is now 39321600 (4k) blocks long. Size of logical volume ubuntu-vg/root changed from 459.46 GiB (117622 extents) to 150.00 GiB (38400 extents). Logical volume root successfully resized. root@kali:/#

Success! I reduced my logical volume sda5 with 'lvreduce.' As a precautionary note, if you're following along and want to shrink your Logical Volume as well, I would advise to do as I did, and shrink the filesystem simultaneously with --resizefs option. As you can see I shrunk my volume by about one half, by 150G.

My next step is to now create another volume for Kali to install into.

So, can anyone chime in and let me know what to do next? Do I need to do anything else with LVM before I start my install of Kali?

Ok I finally installed Kali alongside Ubuntu 16.04 successfully! I entered the following:

Code:

sudo lvcreate --size=86G -n kali ubuntu-vg

to create a 86 Gb logical volume named kali inside the ubuntu-vg volume group.

Then I created a file system on it:

Code:

sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/ubuntu-vg/kali

Then I installed Kali using the new logical volume for /. The existing swap was used for both.

I'm not familiar with the Kali installer and what it is capable of, but I did use it correctly to create a working dualboot!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aquashift

Ok I finally installed Kali alongside Ubuntu 16.04 successfully! I entered the following:

Code:

sudo lvcreate --size=86G -n kali ubuntu-vg

to create a 86 Gb logical volume named kali inside the ubuntu-vg volume group.

Then I created a file system on it:

Code:

sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/ubuntu-vg/kali

Then I installed Kali using the new logical volume for /. The existing swap was used for both.

I'm not familiar with the Kali installer and what it is capable of, but I did use it correctly to create a working dualboot!

Hi mate!
I joined this forum just to say thanks for persisting with and posting your efforts and to get a little clarification as I'm attempting to duel boot Kali alongside my already I stalled Ubuntu 16 OS.
I used LVM as you did to create another logical Volume within ubuntu-vg formatted it as ext-4 and started the install process via Kali live USB.
At the partitioning phase I had to use manual as Kali install keep referring to the USB stick as the biggest free data space. So I manually chose /dev/ubuntu-vg/Kali.
Q. Did you have to set up a boot point or mount point? Did you have to change the LV in any way during the install as I keep going around in circles within the partitioning phase of Kali install.
Thanks.

Quote:

Originally Posted by joeisgood99

Hi mate!
I joined this forum just to say thanks for persisting with and posting your efforts and to get a little clarification as I'm attempting to duel boot Kali alongside my already I stalled Ubuntu 16 OS.
I used LVM as you did to create another logical Volume within ubuntu-vg formatted it as ext-4 and started the install process via Kali live USB.
At the partitioning phase I had to use manual as Kali install keep referring to the USB stick as the biggest free data space. So I manually chose /dev/ubuntu-vg/Kali.
Q. Did you have to set up a boot point or mount point? Did you have to change the LV in any way during the install as I keep going around in circles within the partitioning phase of Kali install.
Thanks.

Hey Joe,
sorry for the huge delay, I don't check these forums as often as I used to.
Yes I did have to set up a boot flag, as well as a swap partition. Can you be a little more explicit as to your going round in circles with the partitioning phase?