Partition tool with console UI (as in server installation)?

Question

Back in 2006, Ray (3DLover) posted the same question in: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=309680 but none of the answers were really useful. Now with a little help from AskUbuntu community, I would like to repeat his question again to see if this time it can be answered correctly.

So this is the question (and what I wish too):

I'm looking for a UI tool for managing partitions in a console. I have installed Ubuntu Server, so I don't have X Windows at all. fdisk and sfdisk are entirely command line. parted is slightly better, but it's not really a UI. cfdisk has somewhat of a UI, but it only works on one disk at a time, and there's no advanced options like configuring LVM or RAID. Just partitioning.

I love the partition tool that is available during the OS install procedure. You can partition, configure RAID's and LMV sets. It can format the partitions with several different file systems, it can set labels, mount options and it can insert your volumes into your fstab. Is this tool available as a stand-alone program? I can't find it anywhere. I think it's called parted_server, but I can't find much information about where to get it.

In the past, I have run the Ubuntu install procedure just to use the partition manager that comes with it. (canceling the install after making my partition edits)

Anyone help me on this? Thanks

-Ray

Thanks in advance.

[Update] Use Case:

I manage some servers (dedicated rental service) in which I have no physical access to them (so no CD option) with multiple HDDs. I would like to be able to manage those drives (partition, RAID, LMV, etc), in exactly the same way I do when I install Ubuntu Server Edition in any other server (using the installation CD).

The installation CDs comes with that application, and I'm sure there should be a way to be able to install and execute that application in a running system (without requiring the CDs).

Answer 1

Aha. Re-reading your post I see you mention what you think is the name of the utility, *parted_server*. A little googling for terms like 'parted_server, ubuntu server, ubuntu install partition program' and eventually I turn up this ancient page. It says the Ubuntu 6.10 installer uses partman. One google later I find partman is still the de facto Ubuntu installer partitioner, and is inextricably bundled with the ubiquity package. A reluctant apt-get install ubiquity later and partman is ready to run. It takes several seconds for partman to start, and I don't know how stable it is running outside of the install environment.

I downloaded the source for ubiquity thinking maybe I could yoink partman out. Haven't gotten very far, but I haven't tried too hard either. (Not a programmer, just a former slacker.)

Sounds like you know what you're doing, but thought I'd link to the Maverick manual partitioning guide for less experienced eyes.

Answer 2

I just tried to run -Partman as described by djeikyb on Ubuntu server 18.04.3 LTS (GNU/Linux 4.15.0-70-generic x86_64)

It had broken options and infos and ran the second time I started it, in a loop, unable to find any mounted drive, eventhough I never told it to unmount anything.

looked like this:

NTFS signature is missing.
Failed to mount '/dev/sdc3': Invalid argument
The device '/dev/sdc3' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS.
Maybe the wrong device is used? Or the whole disk instead of a
partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? Or the other way around?
NTFS signature is missing.
Failed to mount '/dev/sdd1': Invalid argument
The device '/dev/sdd1' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS.
Maybe the wrong device is used? Or the whole disk instead of a
partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? Or the other way around?
NTFS signature is missing.
Failed to mount '/dev/sdb1': Invalid argument
The device '/dev/sdb1' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS.
Maybe the wrong device is used? Or the whole disk instead of a
partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? Or the other way around?
NTFS signature is missing.
Failed to mount '/dev/sdb2': Invalid argument
The device '/dev/sdb2' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS.
Maybe the wrong device is used? Or the whole disk instead of a
partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? Or the other way around?
NTFS signature is missing.
Failed to mount '/dev/sdb3': Invalid argument
The device '/dev/sdb3' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS.
Maybe the wrong device is used? Or the whole disk instead of a
partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? Or the other way around?
NTFS signature is missing.
Failed to mount '/dev/sdc1': Invalid argument
The device '/dev/sdc1' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS.
Maybe the wrong device is used? Or the whole disk instead of a
partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? Or the other way around?
NTFS signature is missing.
Failed to mount '/dev/sdc2': Invalid argument
The device '/dev/sdc2' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS.
Maybe the wrong device is used? Or the whole disk instead of a
partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? Or the other way around?
NTFS signature is missing.
Failed to mount '/dev/sdc3': Invalid argument
The device '/dev/sdc3' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS.
Maybe the wrong device is used? Or the whole disk instead of a
partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? Or the other way around?
NTFS signature is missing.
Failed to mount '/dev/sdd1': Invalid argument
The device '/dev/sdd1' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS.
Maybe the wrong device is used? Or the whole disk instead of a
partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? Or the other way around?
/lib/partman/choose_partition/20auto/choices: 9: /lib/partman/choose_partition/20auto/choices: udpkg: not found
/lib/partman/choose_partition/20auto/choices: 10: /lib/partman/choose_partition/20auto/choices: udpkg: not found

If somebody makes the same mistake and is afraid to reboot in this situation: A reboot has done it for me.