Tutorial – How to extend the disk space of a virtual machine with Linux

Introduction

If our Linux operating system in a VirtualBox virtual machine is running low on disk space we can expand it using VirtualBox's Virtual Media Manager. In this tutorial we will see how to do this.

Step 1. Get the partition name

Run the following command to check the partition name we want to extend.

Lsblk

In the following image we can see that our partition name is "/dev/sda"

Step 2. Modify the size of the disk

Power off the virtual machine and open the "Virtual Media Manager" (Ctrl + D).

Select the disk you want to modify (double click) and enter the new disk space you want. Click "Apply".

Step 3. Update the size in the Linux system

Start the virtual machine, open a terminal and enter the following command (replace sdX with the partition name you've found in the step 1):

sudo resize2fs /dev/sdX

Step 4. Test it!

You can check the new size according to your Linux distribution.

Reference

- https://superuser.com/questions/1340528/resizing-virtualboxs-disk-size