Hardy Memory Question

[CrucifiedEgo]

i'd say drive space would be the amount of filing cabinets you have. Whereas the used space is filled with files and folders (get it?) the unused space is empty. And yeah, if you could pull off a screenshot that would be uber helpful. Or if you're comfortable at a terminal(or willing to try for us), the output of this would provide a lot of insight as well:

du --max-depth=3 | sort -n | tail

the 'du' command lists the sizes of every folder in your system up to 3 levels deep, sort... sorts by the file size, and tail only gives us the biggest folders. You could then copy/paste the output over here.

[mlnease]

i'd say drive space would be the amount of filing cabinets you have. Whereas the used space is filled with files and folders (get it?) the unused space is empty. And yeah, if you could pull off a screenshot that would be uber helpful. Or if you're comfortable at a terminal(or willing to try for us), the output of this would provide a lot of insight as well:

du --max-depth=3 | sort -n | tail

the 'du' command lists the sizes of every folder in your system up to 3 levels deep, sort... sorts by the file size, and tail only gives us the biggest folders. You could then copy/paste the output over here.

Thanks, Cru,

Also for the handy code--I'll hang onto it. A screenshot of what would be useful?

OK, I think I get it that the drive space is the physical portion of the hard drive where the files, directories and subdirectories reside. I notice that Sysinfo shows 'cached', 'active' and 'inactive'. Are these designations pertinent to my problem--assuming I have one?

Here's the terminal output:
mn@mn-desktop:~$ du --max-depth=3 | sort -n | tail
du: cannot read directory `./.dbus': Permission denied
296460 ./xulrunner-1.9-1.9.0.7+nobinonly/mozilla
296464 ./xulrunner-1.9-1.9.0.7+nobinonly
311016 ./linux-2.6.24.2
319832 ./midbrowser-0.3.0rc1a
406104 ./.wine/drive_c
407576 ./.wine
511828 ./.mozilla-thunderbird/svvkur1h.default/Mail
519800 ./.mozilla-thunderbird/svvkur1h.default
519808 ./.mozilla-thunderbird
6202668 .
mn@mn-desktop:~$

Thanks again for your time and trouble.

mike

[dunkar70]

mlnease,

Drive space is the same as the hard drive. You can have used drive space and free drive space. The command CrucifiedEgo provided will help you determine which folders are taking up the most space (used drive space), but you need to run it from the root. The listing you provided looks like you ran it from the default location, which is your home drive. Try this...

user@computer:~$ cd /
user@computer:/$ sudo du --max-depth=3 | sort -n | tail

[mlnease]

mlnease,

Drive space is the same as the hard drive. You can have used drive space and free drive space. The command CrucifiedEgo provided will help you determine which folders are taking up the most space (used drive space), but you need to run it from the root. The listing you provided looks like you ran it from the default location, which is your home drive. Try this...

Hi Dunkar,

Thanks, tried it again (via sudo) with this output:
mn@mn-desktop:~$ cd /
mn@mn-desktop:/$ sudo du --max-depth=3 | sort -n | tail
[sudo] password for mn:
du: cannot access `./home/mn/.gvfs': Permission denied
du: cannot access `./proc/11656/task/11656/fd/3': No such file or directory
du: cannot access `./proc/11656/task/11656/fdinfo/3': No such file or directory
du: cannot access `./proc/11656/fd/3': No such file or directory
du: cannot access `./proc/11656/fdinfo/3': No such file or directory
2353548 ./var/backup/2009-03-04_00.00.04.243003.mn-desktop.ful
2353552 ./var/backup
2839484 ./var
2858568 ./usr
6202360 ./home/mn
6225512 ./home
17392580 ./root/.local/share
17392584 ./root/.local
17401468 ./root
30166212 .

Still doesn't look right, eh? I tried to change permission for `./home/mn/.gvfs' but couldn't find the file. Any suggestions?

Thanks again for your time.

mike

p.s. Thanks for the explanation: Drive space = hard drive. Does partition size make any difference to performance?

[dunkar70]

The last line of output confirms that you are using about 30GB of hard drive space. Your root account has over 17GB in the .local/share folder. I would start there and see why that folder is so large.

Considering the 2.3GB backup file, I suspect you have a scheduled backup using CRON or ANACRON that has a rotating backup file. CRON may be deleting old backup files as root and storing them in the /root/.local/share/Trash folder, which would not normally be purged when you empty your trash.

[mlnease]

The last line of output confirms that you are using about 30GB of hard drive space. Your root account has over 17GB in the .local/share folder. I would start there and see why that folder is so large.

Considering the 2.3GB backup file, I suspect you have a scheduled backup using CRON or ANACRON that has a rotating backup file. CRON may be deleting old backup files as root and storing them in the /root/.local/share/Trash folder, which would not normally be purged when you empty your trash.

Hello Again Dunkar,

Your conclusion should've been obvious to me (doh!). I'll have a look--if I find anything interesting I'll follow up.

Thanks Again (and a Million) for your time and advice.

mike

[mlnease]

The last line of output confirms that you are using about 30GB of hard drive space. Your root account has over 17GB in the .local/share folder. I would start there and see why that folder is so large.

Considering the 2.3GB backup file, I suspect you have a scheduled backup using CRON or ANACRON that has a rotating backup file. CRON may be deleting old backup files as root and storing them in the /root/.local/share/Trash folder, which would not normally be purged when you empty your trash.

Dunkar, Yer a Prince,

16GB of trash in .local/share. I'd never have known that there was a trash subdirectory there without your help. This certainly explains why my used memory seems to keep perpetually expanding. And yes, my Simple Backup does rotate and leave obsolete backup files behind--but I thought only in /var--

THANK YOU.

[mlnease]

The last line of output confirms that you are using about 30GB of hard drive space. Your root account has over 17GB in the .local/share folder. I would start there and see why that folder is so large.

Considering the 2.3GB backup file, I suspect you have a scheduled backup using CRON or ANACRON that has a rotating backup file. CRON may be deleting old backup files as root and storing them in the /root/.local/share/Trash folder, which would not normally be purged when you empty your trash.

Almost There,

I've opened gksudo naultilus and tried to delete the trash files--no go. They vanish for a second then come back with new lock files to replace the just deleted lock files. How can I get rid of trash in the .local/share folder?

mike

p.s. I've changed the permissions from admin to root, folder access: create and delete files. No luck!
p.p.s. I've tried 'rm -rf ~/.local/share/.Trash/*'(as root)--still no luck.

[dunkar70]

Glad I could help. Here's a link to a thread on deleting the root trash...

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=970708

[mlnease]

Glad I could help. Here's a link to a thread on deleting the root trash...

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=970708

Skripka, Dunkar and CrucifiedEgo,

Done and done. My used memory's down to 36% (from over 90% originally) and I think my confuser's much happier. Many, many thanks to the great Ubuntu community.

mike