1.6 Using static binaries of GNU Parted
1.6.1 Introduction
If you want to run GNU Parted on a machine without GNU/Linux installed, or you
want to resize a root or boot partition, you will need to use a boot disk.
Special boot disk images for GNU Parted used to be available, but with the
emergence of a plethora of rescue disks and Live CDs that all
include GNU Parted this is no longer necessary.
However, please note that these disks often ship with out-of-date
versions of Parted. To compensate for this a static binary
of the latest GNU Parted version is available, which you can use thus:
1.6.2 Creating the Parted disk
- Boot your system
- Download parted-static-VERSION.tgz from ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/parted/static
- Unpack the tarball, resulting in a file called “parted.static".
- Insert a floppy.
- Do a low-level format on it (on GNU/Linux this can be achieved with
the tool “fdformat" from the “util-linux" package.
This is basically a sanity check because floppy disks often
contain bad blocks.
- Create a file system. Example:
$ parted /dev/fd0 mklabel loop mkpartfs ext2 0 1.4
- Mount the floppy disk, e.g.,
$ mount -t ext2 /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy
- Copy parted.static to the floppy, e.g.,
$ cp parted.static /mnt/floppy
- Unmount the floppy, e.g.,
$ umount /mnt/floppy
1.6.3 Using the Parted disk
- Choose a rescue disk that suits you.
- Boot off your rescue disk. Mount the disk you copied Parted onto.
- Run Parted. For example,
# cd /mnt/floppy
# ./parted-static