Lubuntu won`t load, not enough hard drive space

**Klunker** · March 1st, 2014

Thanks for your further comments. I treid the commands last night, but I got a "File not found". Then I realized that the file names were not identical and hoping it was just a typo, tried the other file. This ran, ...and ran, ...and ran, and ...I had to go to bed!

Wow. I left it up all night, as I was afraid to shut anything off. I woke up to this...

I don`t know how to scroll the page up (or even if you can) and was afraid to type anythin for fear of screwing something else up... Suggestion?

Thanks so much! Klunker...

**Topsiho** · March 1st, 2014

This output is very much like:
.
.
.
-rw------- 1 jaap jaap 0 feb 14 21:33 .goutputstream-DO1UAX
-rw------- 1 jaap jaap 0 jan 10 17:10 .goutputstream-DZIS9W
-rw------- 1 jaap jaap 0 jan 16 17:13 .goutputstream-E0Z19W
-rw------- 1 jaap jaap 0 jan 26 21:26 .goutputstream-EG3CAX
.
.
.
which I find in my home folder, after some time using my computer. Only difference is the owner and group names, but then, they are in my home folder, and not in /root.
They are the result of a known bug, which for some reason, after years, still is not squashed (Ubuntu 12.04).

These files are all empty and have random names, and (my files) can be removed, which I usually do once in a while.
Though the files are empty, for each of them some space is used for meta data (file name, creation date and time, and so on), so if there are many of them, much disk space is used, as in your case.

I guess you can remove yours too, but please wait until what the others have to say. You could, before removing them completely, first
rename the folder, in which these files exist, and see whether this affects the operation of your computer (I guess not, what is in an empty file?).
I mean, if the files have become inaccessible (not found), does your computer behave differently? I bet not.

I'll get rid of my goutputstream files

Topsiho

**Bashing-om** · March 1st, 2014

@ Topsiho; Hello !

Your affirmation is comforting. Let us proceed.

@ thenh813; Hey, Thanks.
We do so appreciate your assistance and input. Great minds think alike ! -> proceeding on with your premise .

@ Klunker; Good morning .
I have 12.04 as a backup install on this box, later when I reboot I will check that install's "root" directory and compare. ( I do not have "synaptic" installed in this my working install )

Let's do one other run of listing the contents of that strange directory ( as root ), pay as close attention as possible to the file size, and if ALL are of size zero we will remove that directory. Then seek a cause for that directory to even exist. That may take some heavy duty sleuthing !

One step at a time

gets us there

**Klunker** · March 1st, 2014

Hi, So rerun this?

sudo -i
ls -la EVZg3Kp2UG

After it finishes...Is it possible to scroll the page to see what else is there?

**Bashing-om** · March 1st, 2014

Klunker; Yeah,

Rerun the command, will have to watch the screen as the output is MUCH greater than any buffer and due to the space constraints we can not redirect the output to a file. Try and see if there is a change in any of the file sizes from that of 0.
If you perceive that all the files are of file size zero, I propose to go ahead and remove that directory and all it's contents.

Next as Topsiho advises we will address .goutputstream files in your home directory.

we can do this

**thenh813** · March 2nd, 2014

You cannot redirect to a file, but have you considered using the less command?

Code:

ls -la EVZg3Kp2UG | less

It allows you to scroll through the output after it finishes.

Another kind of file that is not necessary are log files, they can grow to be quite big after a while, or large in number.
I am pretty sure it is safe to delete EVZg3Kp2UG but we should examine it with this first:

Code:

find /root/EVZg3Kp2UG | less

That way we can look at individual files, and see if they are important.
If none are, I would give that folder a nice big deleting:

Code:

sudo rf -rf EVZg3Kp2UG/

and then:

Code:

sudo rmdir -p EVZg3Kp2UG/

Combining sudo and rm in the wrong way can be bad!
Make sure you know what your deleting first.

If it takes far too long to clean up, (like more than a week or two) maybe a backup or important stuff and reinstall would be easier. I would like to avoid this if possible, as it is a last resort.

I was wondering why the text was lagging as I typed it,I just noticed Minecraft minimized and FFMpeg still encoding a five hour video hahaha. No wonder why my PC was so slow, it IS only a P4.

**Klunker** · March 2nd, 2014

Okay, I`ve rerun the command and it`s all zeros. Does this mean I can delete this?

**Bashing-om** · March 2nd, 2014

Klunker; Yep, remove it !

Correction to the above:

Code:

sudo -i
rm -rf EVZg3Kp2UG/
rmdir -p EVZg3Kp2UG/
exit

Now let's see where we stand:

Code:

df -h
df -i

At this time I expect ya have operating head room and we can update/upgrade the system !

big step forward

**Topsiho** · March 2nd, 2014

I agree with the advices, that all these files, and the EVZg3Kp2UG-directory, should be removed.
In my Lubuntu 12.04 on my Acer Aspire One, this folder doesn't exist in /root.

What worries me is HOW this EVZg3Kp2UG was written into a root owned directory, and all these files within it.

As far as I know an ordinary user can not write in /root.

What program is running on the computer that has root permissions? And how is this program installed? And from what source?
What websites with a bad reputation were visited? Is WOT used to warn you when visiting a bad website? (see WOT add-on for firefox)

I guess that reinstalling is the best option after all, but only after investigating what caused this problem, if that's OK.
In April the next LTS version is published, (L)Ubuntu 14.04.

My two pennies

Topsiho