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Thread: Advice For Messed Up System

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  1. #1
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    Advice For Messed Up System

    Jeezzz, where do I begin. I'm running 12.10
    It started with a warning notice that my / "root Partition" was at 96% full. I checked it with Gparted and sure enough. I did some reading on resizing the partition but then I thought well maybe I've just got too might old **** on my computer.
    So I had a look in the software center and yes I found multiple image editors, MP3 players and some other stuff. I also noticed I had multiple programming editors, from when I was looking at trying some of out. I see I have python 2.7 and 3.2 so I go ahead and uninstall python 2.7. I get a window that says these files will also be affected.I don't check it and just say go ahead.

    I lost unity and any way of using the computer. I manage to reinstall unity, but it is very unstable I also lost other programs. My windows are now flat and with color almost like in some sort of safe mode. I just turn my computer back on and it said could not log in to "ubuntu". When I got into terminal mode (ctrl + f2) I found unity was not installed, so I did apt-get and manged to get back into my desktop.

    My / root partition is at 85% ( 4 Gb swap + /home 354Gb unused). So I am wondering do you think It is acting up beccause it doesn't have enough space on / i.e. not saving unity OR did I mess up the system with un-installing stuff (stuff I thought was redundant, mind you).

    I would love some advice on this.
    What keeps the world in chains but your beliefs?
    And what can save the world except your Self?
    Belief is powerful indeed.

  2. #2
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    Re: Advice For Messed Up System

    A large number of the core components of Ubuntu depend on Python, when you uninstalled it all of these programs got uninstalled as well (you will have been warned that this was going to happen in the dialog box you ignored).

    Try the following command, it should reinstall all of the programs that were removed...
    Code:
    sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop
    Cheesemill

  3. #3
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    Re: Advice For Messed Up System

    Hey Cheesemill,
    Thanks for the response. That has certainly brought back the soft dark corners I remember so well, as my desktop.

    But as to the question of space on /root does 85% full start to slow the system down?

    Any thoughts
    What keeps the world in chains but your beliefs?
    And what can save the world except your Self?
    Belief is powerful indeed.

  4. #4
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    Re: Advice For Messed Up System

    85% full root partition does not bode well. Assuming you use ext4, the file system is exceptionally good at keeping itself minimally fragmented until you breech the 80% usage number. Thereafter, it will start to fragment your files which will slow you down permanently. Ubuntu will also give you no warning as you approach 100% and will just one day stop working. With HDDs as cheap as they are these days, time to consider a cheap upgrade. We have no idea of your current disk size or config so the only way to give further advice is if you provide more info:
    Code:
    df -h

  5. #5
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    Re: Advice For Messed Up System

    No space = no linux.
    -------------------------------------
    Oooh Shiny: PopularPages

    Unumquodque potest reparantur. Patientia sit virtus.

  6. #6
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    Re: Advice For Messed Up System

    Thanks for the help. yes it is ext4 .

    Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
    /dev/sda1 19G 16G 1.9G 90% /
    udev 1.9G 8.0K 1.9G 1% /dev
    tmpfs 767M 1.2M 766M 1% /run
    none 5.0M 0 5.0M 0% /run/lock
    none 1.9G 1.5M 1.9G 1% /run/shm
    none 100M 36K 100M 1% /run/user
    /dev/sda6 436G 82G 333G 20% /home

    I have plenty of space on the extended partition but the swap sits between it and root, so I am not sure about resizing root.
    I could go through and uninstall some older programs...

    What do you think?
    What keeps the world in chains but your beliefs?
    And what can save the world except your Self?
    Belief is powerful indeed.

  7. #7
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    Re: Advice For Messed Up System

    Check that your log files aren't getting filled up with some repeating error message. 16gb seems a lot for the system + typical programs you would install.

  8. #8
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    Re: Advice For Messed Up System

    Quote Originally Posted by alphacrucis2 View Post
    Check that your log files aren't getting filled up with some repeating error message. 16gb seems a lot for the system + typical programs you would install.
    +1

    16 GB is more than sufficient. I suspect log files also. most of them are located in /var/log

  9. #9
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    Re: Advice For Messed Up System

    Any file in particular that I am looking for?

    Is the a command for checking log error messages?

    I tried this command:
    ls -lSr = files by size
    these are the two biggest

    -rw-rw-r-- 1 tony tony 5331095 Mar 4 19:18 C:\nppdf32Log\debuglog.txt
    -rwxrwxr-x 1 tony tony 82787328 Feb 2 15:20 netbeans-7.3rc1-javase-linux.sh
    Last edited by acimi66; March 12th, 2013 at 04:36 AM. Reason: update
    What keeps the world in chains but your beliefs?
    And what can save the world except your Self?
    Belief is powerful indeed.

  10. #10
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    Re: Advice For Messed Up System

    First, a word of warning:


    Be prepared for some geeky and obscure techno-stuff. When you go through log files, you are peering into the guts of the OS.


    Here's how I would approach it:


    1. Using your file manager, bring up the properties of the /var/log directory. This will show you how large the directory is. If, as I suspect, this one directory is gigabytes in size, then you know that some rogue process or service is acting up and writing scads of log data to one of your log files.
    2. Repeat the above process with all subdirectories under /var/log.
    3. Set your file manager to details list mode and scan each of the log files. The bloating file(s) should stick out like a sore thumb based on its/their size.
    4. You can open log files with gedit. You can also use log viewer.
    5. Look for recurring log entries. Rogue apps/services generate log bloat by recording repeating errors continuously. The culprits should be obvious. Aside from such general observations, it is impossible to give specific instructions because we don't know what is generating the errors (if any).
    6. Obvious keywords are: error, segfault, fatal, etc.
    7. If you find a likely candidate and it is too obscure for you to guess its cause, post the segment back to this thread and/or Google for it. Google is often exceptionally accurate on such matters provided you give it a long enough data string to search for.


    It's well past midnight where I am and I will be travelling all of tomorrow. I'm sure others on this forum are more than willing to assist.


    Good luck!

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