How to skrink image before loading it on SD card?

[tbar]

I've got a 512 MB SD Card and a 2 GB Raspbian image (http://www.linuxsystems.it/2012/06/rasp ... imal-image). How do I shrink the image to fit on the SD card?

I'm guessing I have to 1. load the image on a different computer, 2. shrink the filesystem using gparted, 3. create an image file and 4. load this onto the SD Card. Is this correct? If so, how do I perform the individual steps outlined?

[RaTTuS]

how to put a quart into a pint pot?
you cannot
as it will be too big
but you could put the 1st partition on the SD card and the 2nd onto a USB stick ?

[itimpi]

It will not be that simple as most of the 2GB is pre-loaded with software packages.

The easiest solution would be to simply get a larger SD card. I would recommend at least 4GB if you get another card, and 8GB might be better to give room to grow..

Another possibility that might work (I have not tried it) is to start with the Raspbian installer to build a minimal image.

[mikerr]

Even 2GB deosn't have too much free space on the existing distributions,
and fills up quite quickly I find - my main SD cards for Pi use are 8GB

Problem is I have plenty of 2GB cards (and smaller) - I should get around to doing a cut down image - is there one available already ?

[Mortimer]

Go and treat yourself to a shiny new SD-card. I would recommend going for 8GB or more, but 4GB is usable.

[Joe Schmoe]

Even 2GB deosn't have too much free space on the existing distributions,
and fills up quite quickly I find - my main SD cards for Pi use are 8GB

Problem is I have plenty of 2GB cards (and smaller) - I should get around to doing a cut down image - is there one available already ?

Here's the thing: Doing it "straight" is at least theoretically possibly in your case, using a 2G card. In the OP's case, however, it is not even theoretically possible, since he was talking about using a 512M card. On a 2G card, it "should" fit, but apparently some people's idea of what 2G means is not the same as other people's idea and, as a result, it sometimes doesn't fit.

Now, back to the OP's case - how to utilize a 512M card. There are, of course, two possibilities:

1) Create a cut-down image from scratch that does everything you need and is less than 512M in size. This shouldn't be inordinately difficult, but it is obviously outside the remit of a beginner help oriented forum. I.e., people here will probably not be able to help much beyond wishing you luck.

2) Split one of the "supported" images between the SD card and external USB storage. There are lots of threads on this topic - again, it's not particularly difficult, but is again outside the remit of a "total beginner" forum. FWIW, the nice thing about going this route is that you don't have to "muck up" your SD card. And by "muck up", I mean the repartitioning and changing to weird (heh heh) non-Microsoft-supported filesystems - that the usual "write the image to the card" process does (albeit under the covers and without requiring you to know/understand/execute the process).

What all this means is that all you need to do is copy files to the card; no repartitioning or filesystem changing is needed. And the nice thing about doing this is that you do get a bootable system - albeit one that will soon kernel panic - but at least you get the equivalent of a BIOS.

[james968]

The Debian Live people use a squashfs filesystem for the root directory. You could like into the debian live and how it mounts the squashfs.

(Though it probably is better, to just get a bigger SD card)

[tbar]

Looking at your replies I think I forgot to mention that the image mentioned is only 109MB. The rest is empty space. It is this empty space I want to reduce before loading it onto the sdcard.

[Joe Schmoe]

Looking at your replies I think I forgot to mention that the image mentioned is only 109MB. The rest is empty space. It is this empty space I want to reduce before loading it onto the sdcard.

That, of course, changes everything. I think most people assumed you were using one of the "standard" images, which are, AFAIK, all 2G in size and packed as full as possible (i.e., not shrinkable).

Now, in your case, since you really only have 109M of stuff, you need to somehow reduce the size of the "container" (i.e., the partition). I'm sure there are many ways to do it - it is basically the inverse of the usual problem (expanding the partition from 2G to {whatever}).

But the most straightforward way, assuming your Linux skills are in good shape, is to make the partitions on the new card the way you want them, mount the card and the image, then do "cp -a" to copy the stuff from the mounted image to the mounted card. If you do it right, it will fit...

[Jim JKla]

I have a pile (exageration) its a small pile of 1g cards I'm interested in doing some sort of reduced load that gives you command line and some script stuff.

When you think about it Sinclair Basic was measured in Killobyte so there has to be a way to make a nano SD version that ran say python command line without a gui.

[RaTTuS]

remove and purge all X
for a start

[mikerr]

I have a pile (exageration) its a small pile of 1g cards I'm interested in doing some sort of reduced load that gives you command line and some script stuff.

There is this distro on a 1GB card, and it boots straight into X

RaspRazor:
http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewt ... 1&p=131652

The OP wanted to this minimal 109MB command line only image
http://www.linuxsystems.it/2012/06/rasp ... mal-image/
unfortunately the image has been done from a 2GB card - so you can't directly put that on anything less.

[Joe Schmoe]

unfortunately the image has been done from a 2GB card - so you can't directly put that on anything less.

But you can - if you follow my instructions upthread.

[SirLagz]

http://sirlagz.net/?p=487 <-- a guide on how to resize the partitions inside the image file, except you want smaller rather than bigger.
Give me a yell if you need some help

[tbar]

But the most straightforward way, assuming your Linux skills are in good shape, is to make the partitions on the new card the way you want them, mount the card and the image, then do "cp -a" to copy the stuff from the mounted image to the mounted card. If you do it right, it will fit...

This sounds doable I don't have a Linux PC so I will have to do it in Windows (if I can get ext2fsd to read/write the data -- http://www.ext2fsd.com) or load a Linux Live CD and work from there.

[itimpi]

But the most straightforward way, assuming your Linux skills are in good shape, is to make the partitions on the new card the way you want them, mount the card and the image, then do "cp -a" to copy the stuff from the mounted image to the mounted card. If you do it right, it will fit...

This sounds doable I don't have a Linux PC so I will have to do it in Windows (if I can get ext2fsd to read/write the data -- http://www.ext2fsd.com) or load a Linux Live CD and work from there.

You can always download the iso image for a bootable Gparted system, or one of the Linux 'live' CDs available with most linux distributions. That gives you a way of running Linux on your PC without having to install anything to the hard disk.