From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from gw.citecs.de (gw.citecs.de [212.9.189.66]) by smtp.subspace.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AA91A18C33 for ; Sat, 21 Feb 2026 20:38:03 +0000 (UTC) Authentication-Results: smtp.subspace.kernel.org; arc=none smtp.client-ip=212.9.189.66 ARC-Seal:i=1; a=rsa-sha256; d=subspace.kernel.org; s=arc-20240116; t=1771706286; cv=none; b=GHTQPt1ABeuskCMN0/ODJOmY8tS+enY+ksBzKNtLGoa4+fLtDXgmT0AZZQzkzqEYYTpwgtdKOKAkMu95M7q5wFyBKsy96QLqhEion27xiZq67wpDS6LcV5lavee/KrMXYtdwj2AuBRgZhcFqCNnTAdCi9y//DNEFZ3IhtaauvJc= ARC-Message-Signature:i=1; a=rsa-sha256; d=subspace.kernel.org; s=arc-20240116; t=1771706286; c=relaxed/simple; bh=aXrJptN3WcpQiFtTNYnDQ1xtJdNBDmQEBRoWcOut9nU=; h=Date:From:To:Cc:Subject:Message-ID:References:MIME-Version: Content-Type:Content-Disposition:In-Reply-To; b=Vipb8QdnCIwsboYem+aql7aFgykReMS76JIn2puepUEnMY6vN/qB2U1AB1sW3ura9WFC1y5eoju+2qB37DVb5z0HD0miUjUnonpXSyEs7utNCLfR6b5cyJMJDblSwjsoExTr2oEbDbYfBXC9d5nc40Xn+w4ors/dZIE6oCpPdNY= ARC-Authentication-Results:i=1; smtp.subspace.kernel.org; dmarc=none (p=none dis=none) header.from=citecs.de; spf=pass smtp.mailfrom=citecs.de; arc=none smtp.client-ip=212.9.189.66 Authentication-Results: smtp.subspace.kernel.org; dmarc=none (p=none dis=none) header.from=citecs.de Authentication-Results: smtp.subspace.kernel.org; spf=pass smtp.mailfrom=citecs.de Received: from app.citecs ([10.0.0.50]) by gw.citecs.de with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1vttT5-0002Zq-00; Sat, 21 Feb 2026 21:20:47 +0100 Received: from chris by app.citecs proof01 pqnkqszo with local (Exim 4.80) id 1vttT5-0003MP-BB; Sat, 21 Feb 2026 21:20:47 +0100 Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2026 21:20:47 +0100 From: Christian Recktenwald To: =?utf-8?B?RnLDqWTDqXJpYw==?= Baldit Cc: linux-lvm@lists.linux.dev Subject: Re: is it possible to use LVM AFTER system installation? Message-ID: <20260221202047.GA32516@app.citecs> Reply-To: Christian Recktenwald References: <20260221185816.34fab009@ThinkPadT15g.lan> Precedence: bulk X-Mailing-List: linux-lvm@lists.linux.dev List-Id: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit In-Reply-To: <20260221185816.34fab009@ThinkPadT15g.lan> X-PGP-Fingerprint: 4096R/3B7D0DF2 / B865 A021 AC93 B61F 4476 32A6 04A6 FBDD 3B7D 0DF2 X-PGP-Key-Url: https://www.citecs.de/pgpkey.chris.asc X-PGP-Key: https://www.citecs.de/pgpkey.chris.asc Organization: private User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.21 (2010-09-15) On Sat, Feb 21, 2026 at 06:58:16PM +0100, Frédéric Baldit wrote: > > Hi everybody, > > I'm a debian 12 user, running it on a system which was initially > installed without LVM (on a thinkpad laptop)n with classical netinst. My > system is totally installed on a unique nvme disk, with distinct > partitions, among which a /home partition for all my personal data. > > I recently installed a second nvme disk (512G capacity). I would like > to extend my /home ext4 partition (which is now exclusively on > /dev/nvme0n1p6, 436G) so that I can keep my old data but have > the possibility to split /home on the initial disk and the second > recently added disk. > > This seems to be possible with LVM but only when decided at the > beginning of the installation. Right or wrong? > > Or would it possible to: create 3 partitions: 1MB for boot loader (grub) 500B for UEFI rest: LVM PV Something like: VG=vg01 LVN=lvhome DRV=/dev/nvme.... PART2=/dev/nvme.... PART3=/dev/nvme.... SZ=...G # slightly larger (like 1GB) than your current /home parted $DRV mklabel gpt # those values are crucial: parted -s $DRV unit s mkpart primary 34 2047 set 1 bios_grub on parted -s $DRV unit s mkpart primary 2048 1050623 set 2 esp on parted -s $DRV unit s mkpart primary 1050624 100%FREE set 3 lvm on partprobe $DRV mkfs.fat -F32 $PART2 pvcreate $PART3 vgcreate $VG $PART3 lvcreate $VG -n $LVN -L $SZ umount /home dd if=$OLDHOME of=/dev/$VG/$LVN bs=10M resize2fs /dev/$VG/$LVN fsck -f /dev/$VG/$LVN $EDITOR /etc/fstab mount /home live happily ever after... cherry on top: - mount partition 2 somewhere copy the contents of your existing efi boot partition there umount partition 2 - run grub to install on the new drive Y? If you ever come across replacing the smaller disk the preparations to get the new disk bootable are already done -- Christian Recktenwald : voice +49 711 601 2091 : Böblinger Strasse 189 chris@citecs.de : mobil +49 172 711 8104 : D-70199 Stuttgart