Partition problems after installing a second Kubuntu version

[john d. herron]

I'm currently using Kubuntu Feisty (7.04, ext3) as 'production' distro. 
It resides as logical /dev/hda7 in the extended partition of my only 
hdd. It runs quite well except for the synaptic package manager, which 
steadfastly refuses to install things (like e.g.mysql or speedcrunch) 
because of dependency considerations (it issues 'Not Authenticated' 
warnings).

About a month ago, after testing it via Live CD, I installed Kubuntu 
8.04.2 Hardy (2.6.24-23 gen.) into (I thought) an already existing and 
ext3-reformatted primary partition (/dev/hda3) from which I had earlier 
been successfully running Kubuntu Dapper.
The first inkling that something had gone awry arose when any attempt 
under Hardy to start mozilla-thunderbird invariably failed with a 
message to the effect that mozilla-thunderbird was already running...
Additionally, when file-browsing in Feisty I could not 'see' Hardy's 
files, and viceversa, even though both of the partitions were ext3. 
There had been no such problem between Feisty and the earlier Dapper.
I then deleted the newly installed Hardy and again reformatted 
/dev/hda3, so that now I believe /dev/hda7 is the only active Linux distro.

Now, when comparing the contents of Feisty's /etc/fstab and the bash 
output of df --all, I notice differences in entries relating to /dev/hda3.
Since I'm no expert, I don't know what these differences might indicate, 
if anything.

What can I do to put some order in this mess, possibly without 
altogether trashing win95 (/dev/hda1), and to regain proper use of synaptic?
Would it be possible to shrink the primary partition down to just 
/dev/hda1and then enlarge the extended partition by adding to it the 
space now occupied by /dev/hda3 ?

For what it may be worth, I'm appending
1) the output of df --all...

john at john-desktop:~$ df --all
Filesystem           1K-blocks          Used     Available  Use%   
Mounted on
/dev/hda7             11922804   9306700   2010456    83%   /
proc                                   0               0               
0       -      /proc
/sys                                    0               0               
0       -      /sys
varrun                      257992           100      257892      1%   
/var/run
varlock                     257992               0      257992     0%   
/var/lock
procbususb              257992           116      257876      1%   
/proc/bus/usb
udev                         257992           116      257876      1%    
/dev
devshm                     257992              0        257992   0%     
/dev/shm
devpts                                 0              0                 
0       -      /dev/pts
lrm                           257992       33788      224204   14%    
/lib/modules/2.6.20-17-generic/volatile
/dev/hda1             12492400  10636688   1855712   86%     
/media/hda1            '(win95se - fat32)
/dev/hda4               1074816        65628     965496     7%     
/media/hda4
/dev/hda5               1104760               4    1047728     1%     
/media/hda5
binfmt_misc                       0               0                 0   
    -      /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc

... and
2) the contents of /etc/fstab

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/hda7
UUID=1ec3d4e6-d74e-4b40-9a15-d468bbc474e7 / ext3 
nouser,defaults,errors=remount-ro,atime,auto,rw,dev,exec,suid 0 1
# /dev/hda1
UUID=3701-10EF /media/hda1 vfat 
defaults,utf8,umask=007,uid=0,gid=46,auto,rw,nouser 0 1
# /dev/hda3
# /dev/hda4
UUID=0bb50341-e97d-4c1e-8adf-420ca42bbc88 /media/hda4 ext3 
nouser,defaults,atime,auto,rw,dev,exec,suid 0 2
# /dev/hda5
UUID=37dc83c4-2043-4784-98f2-d882cf06b11d /media/hda5 ext2 
nouser,defaults,atime,auto,rw,dev,exec,suid 0 2
# /dev/hda6
UUID=8de809de-b19e-48b5-91c3-da8c16fe82c7 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/hdd /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,atime,noauto,rw,dev,exec,suid 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto user,atime,noauto,rw,dev,exec,suid 0 0
/dev/hda3 /media/hda3 auto nouser,noauto,atime,rw,nodev,noexec,nosuid 0 0

I'd add a copy of the QTParted graph, but I don't know whether the list 
would carry it, and gladly provide any other info that may be useful.

Any help with this would be gratefully appreciated.

john
_________________________________________
Kubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn
KDE 3.5.6 - Linux 2.6.20-17 generic

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