Partition 3 does not start on physical sector boundary

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1

I am moving my home directory to another drive and I was checking the partitions

Disk /dev/sda: 119.24 GiB, 128035676160 bytes, 250069680 sectors
Disk model: TOSHIBA THNSNK12
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: FCA7D7C9-4CBF-44EA-85DF-0D7034F45549

Device         Start       End   Sectors   Size Type
/dev/sda1       4096    618495    614400   300M EFI System
/dev/sda2     618496 231612851 230994356 110.1G Linux filesystem
/dev/sda3  231612852 250067789  18454938   8.8G Linux swap

Partition 3 does not start on physical sector boundary.

Is this something I need to correct? Thanks for all who reply.

2

Hi @Cencar44,

Please see

https://www.baeldung.com/linux/partition-physical-sector-boundary-warning

And

https://askubuntu.com/questions/156994/how-to-fix-partition-does-not-start-on-physical-sector-boundary-warning

Hope this helps!

3

While it’s possible that misaligned partition boundaries can cause some grief, it’s usually of more concern if it happens to be your / (root) partition.

In this case, partition 3 (/dev/sda3) is your swap space, which has no filesystem, and loss of data from that partition is of no real concern.

You could simply ignore it; the caveat being that (if left unattended) the misalignment might potentially affect swap performance; though, I imagine this would be of greater concern if your machine was under continuous load; such as a server system, for example.

You can also remove the allocated swap space and recreate it using mkswap. When completed, you should ensure that /etc/fstab references the UUID of the newly created swap space.

See also: Manjaro Swap

I hope this helps. Cheers.

4

It is a partition…but it doesn’t have a filesystem.

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5

No, but you can. If you want to, switch swap off, reboot, delete the partition and make a new properly aligned partition. Then you can switch swap on, again (That’s what I would do).

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6

That’s probably what I meant to suggest; though the processes involved between one’s mind and the keyboard tend to get blurry in the wee hours. :blush:

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7

Thanks to everyone, full disclosure I recently had a stroke and now I have Aphasia.
Meaning I now have difficulties with comprehension but my Neurologist has told me to continue with linux as it may help in my recovery.

sudo gdisk -l /dev/sda

Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.
Disk /dev/sda: 250069680 sectors, 119.2 GiB
Model: TOSHIBA THNSNK12
Sector size (logical/physical): 512/4096 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): 26F37EEC-7E95-4B4A-BC8A-3D4E315B0E1E
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
Main partition table begins at sector 2 and ends at sector 33
First usable sector is 2048, last usable sector is 250069646
Partitions will be aligned on 4-sector boundaries
Total free space is 3905 sectors (1.9 MiB)

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1            4096          618495   300.0 MiB   EF00  
   2          618496       231612851   110.1 GiB   8300  root
   3       231612852       250067789   8.8 GiB     8200

This information suggests I need to increase /dev/sda3 end sector 250069646 - 250067789 by 1857.
If this correct, how do I do it?

I am sure the answer is here A gdisk Walkthrough
but all I’ve got is a migraine.

8

I explained already how to do it. :grimacing:

9

Thanks @Wollie,
Apologies for the delayed response, more medical problems.
I did as you suggested deleted the swap and created a new one, it worked.

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