Update manager: Not enough free disk space

[solotwit]

Any idea what's going on here? My root is full again. After dl only some sys updates. I don't get it.


11720 /usr/sbin
14296 /etc
27664 /boot
30804 /usr/include
33504 /opt/google
35228 /opt
66184 /var/cache
146392 /usr/lib32
155620 /usr/src
155660 /usr/bin
227832 /lib/modules
233188 /var/lib
256932 /lib
316060 /var
1050832 /usr/share
1247556 /usr/lib
2801644 /usr
39341672 /home/lucas
39341692 /home
42822688 /

[drewbenn]

I'm confused by that output. It shows only about 3.5 GB being used in your root directory. I'm afraid I don't understand what is happening or why the partition is being reported as full by df but doesn't seem to actually be full, per du.

Okay I did a little searching and it's not uncommon for du and df to report different numbers... but a difference of 10+ GB still seems odd. Maybe take a look at:
http://forums.vpslink.com/howtos/227...ont-match.html
http://linuxshellaccount.blogspot.co...nt-values.html
http://sysunconfig.net/aixtips/df_du_diff_out.txt

The first suggests running 'lsof +L1'. My best guess is that something has allocated some space and not let go of it... but I'm hardly an expert here. Someone with a bit more knowledge and experience will have to step in, because I'm just grasping at straws here.

[thomasaaron]

solowit, do you have a virtual machine installed? When you create one, they allocate a certain amount of disk space, but I'm not sure it shows up with du, etc...

Also, is your trash empty?

Also, this kind of sounds a lot like the bug that causes huge log files. Try running...

sudo rm /var/log/syslog
sudo rm /var/log/messages
sudo rm /var/log kern.log

Then reboot and see how much free space you have.

[solotwit]

Thanks drewbenn, I checked those out. I didn't really see a fix, just an explanation. If the reading is incorrect, then shouldn't I still be able to dl updates and whatnot?

thomasaaron, Im not sure what a virtual machine is but I'm pretty sure I don't have one. Trash is empty. I ran the commands and rebooted ( all except the last one, couldn't figure out what goes between log kern) and still the same issue. Here's what came out of some commands

lsof +L1

COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE NLINK NODE NAME
firefox 4001 lucas 51u REG 8,1 0 0 754792 /var/tmp/etilqs_KZxVWjcubK2eVHd (deleted)

DF

Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1 28834744 28179916 0 100% /
tmpfs 1525524 0 1525524 0% /lib/init/rw
varrun 1525524 112 1525412 1% /var/run
varlock 1525524 0 1525524 0% /var/lock
udev 1525524 164 1525360 1% /dev
tmpfs 1525524 448 1525076 1% /dev/shm
lrm 1525524 2560 1522964 1% /lib/modules/2.6.28-13-generic/volatile
/dev/sda6 208658228 40188456 157870492 21% /home
overflow 1024 12 1012 2% /tmp

DU -s

40057224

DU

came out with a large list of things and the number 40057196 at the end. I can post if helpful.

Thanks for any ideas.

thanks jdb. I'm not sure what to do with these results (delete the largest 5 directories?) so I'll post the results hoping somebody might see something.

sudo du -SB 1M / | grep -v "/home" | sort -n | tail -20
du: cannot access `/home/lucas/.gvfs': Permission denied
du: cannot access `/proc/6589/task/6589/fd/4': No such file or directory
du: cannot access `/proc/6589/task/6589/fdinfo/4': No such file or directory
du: cannot access `/proc/6589/fd/4': No such file or directory
du: cannot access `/proc/6589/fdinfo/4': No such file or directory
25 /usr/lib/thunderbird/components
27 /boot
28 /opt/google/chrome
30 /var/lib/dkms/nvidia/180.44/build
31 /usr/share/midi/freepats/Tone_000
36 /usr/lib32/dri
36 /usr/lib/dri
43 /var/lib/apt-xapian-index/index.1
45 /usr/share/myspell/dicts
45 /var/lib/apt/lists
46 /var/lib/dpkg/info
63 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.13/jre/lib
64 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib
78 /usr/lib32
153 /usr/bin
168 /usr/lib/openoffice/basis3.0/program
318 /usr/lib
4343 /var/backup/2009-06-18_13.21.29.020432.system76-pc.ful
5874 /var/backup/2009-06-17_12.33.49.982185.system76-pc.ful
13805 /var/backup/2009-06-25_22.02.11.363133.system76-pc.ful

[jdb]

Thanks drewbenn, I checked those out. I didn't really see a fix, just an explanation. If the reading is incorrect, then shouldn't I still be able to dl updates and whatnot?
...

Thanks for any ideas.

This will give you the 20 largest directories not on your home directory.

The numbers are in Megabytes.

sudo du -SB 1M /  | grep -v "/home" | sort -n | tail -20

jdb

[osx424242]

13805 /var/backup/2009-06-25_22.02.11.363133.system76-pc.ful

That is the cause, right there: a nearly-14 GB directory. Deleting that should fix your problem. But:
- what caused it?
- is this going to happen again?
- is there anything important in there?

There are two more, in the 4-6 GB range, dated June 17 and 18. But you just expanded your partition a couple days ago, right? Is your system clock off by a week? If so, those new ones were probably created after you resized your partition, which is why it filled up again.

[solotwit]

Hey thanks. I think that /var/backup stuff is from my system backup. I do have a program for that. My clock is ok. I agree, I can find where the info is, but how to keep it from doing this again. That would be ideal. I will try some things this weekend. Thanks again.

[jdb]

Hey thanks. I think that /var/backup stuff is from my system backup. I do have a program for that. My clock is ok. I agree, I can find where the info is, but how to keep it from doing this again. That would be ideal. I will try some things this weekend. Thanks again.

You need to change where the backups are stored.
/var or anyplace on the root partition is not the place for backups.
An external drive is the best place.
If you can't find an option in your backup program to change the location, you might need to find another backup program.

jdb

[solotwit]

Thanks, I'll do that. That was the default option with the program. I think it's called Simple Backup.

[solotwit]

So I had to delete the /var/backup files with terminal, they weren't showing up in the filesystem view. I deleted all backup files in /var and now have plenty of free space on root.

This seems to have fixed youtube streaming videos as well.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1191461

I should also add the Applications - Accesories - Disk Usage Analyzer program shows my / drive as being beyond full. The Partition Editor program under System - Administration says I'm using about 1/5 of my / drive, which seems to be correct.