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Does partition shrinking/expanding work on an amd64 Version of Ubuntu?
(@Anonymous)
Joined: 1 second ago
Posts: 0
Topic starter
May 23, 2024 9:25 PM
I'm wondering if I can use my Mac with ApplePi Imager to back up my AMD64 version of Ubuntu to a bootable ISO on my Mac. On my X86 machine, I am running Ubuntu 24.04 Server and it is installed on a USB Stick. When I shutdown the Ubunutu x86 machine, and plug my usb stick with ubuntu x86 on it into my mac, ApplePi-Baker Beta backs up the Ubuntu USB stick to an IMG file just fine. HOWEVER, it will ignore the shrink/expand option, and thus, I have an extremely large img file with tons of empty space, just taking up space on my mac hard drive. I am wondering if ApplePiBaker (Non Beta) can successfully backup and X86 OS and shrink the IMG file while doing so. If now, do you have any other suggestions on how I can go about shrinking and then backing up a large USB stick with Ubuntu x86 installed on it, on a Mac? Please let me know if you have any Ideas.
(@hans)
Famed Member Admin
Joined: 11 years ago
Posts: 2741
May 24, 2024 4:14 AM
Well, that is an interesting question ...
Assuming you Mac is an x64 machine as well, then you may be able to boot it on your Mac. Mind you though: I have never tried booting from a USB stick, but as far as I know, your Mac should be able to do this and Ubuntu typically comes with all the bells an whistles to support your Mac hardware.
Again: assuming you're using a Mac with a 64 bit Intel CPU. (not 32 bit CPU, not Apple Silicon).
Resizing however is limited to a disk that meets these requirements:
- MBR (not GUID!)
- Standard partitions (not Extended Partitions)
- First partition is FAT (FAT, FAT32, exFAT) and last partition EXT (eg. EXT2, 3, or 4)
note: first partition requirement may be optional (I forgot)
Some distributions tend to use GUID instead of MBR, and some use Extended Partitions (not sure why).
Some of this info can be found by inserting your USB in your Mac, and run this from Terminal:
diskutil list
If I recall correctly "FDisk_partition_scheme" means that it is using the MBR partition scheme.
(@hans)
Famed Member Admin
Joined: 11 years ago
Posts: 2741
May 24, 2024 4:16 AM
p.s. Ubuntu may have some good tools as well to (this article may be helpful).