Not enough space for root partition

[Niflheimr]

Hi everyone, I started yesterday my second adventure with Linux (previously I only had created a live USB to recover some
files from an "orphan" HDD) and tried to install Lubuntu on a (quite) old computer. The notebook on which I installed Lubuntu
is a Toshiba S1410-604 and, having only 256 MB of RAM, I used the alternate image for low-RAM computers. Everything went
fine, I logged the first time in my password-protected account and everything worked, then I rebooted to switch to Windows
XP to get a couple of files. When I switched back to Lubuntu and logged in my password-protected account, nothing loaded
anymore, right click didn't work and there was just the background. I tried to wait but nothing happened, and the CPU and RAM
weren't doing anything (the laptop is old, so it's easy to tell if they are idle or if nothing appears on the screen but it's loading
by the noise). Now, in synthesis:

- Lubuntu doesn't load the GUI (only background is loaded) for my main (password-protected) account
- Lubuntu does load the GUI for the guest account
- Openbox and console (Ctrl+Alt+F1) work for all accounts
- I tried some solutions found around the Internet, without any luck:

• Clearing cache (but it was a Xubuntu fix) with cd .cache; rm -rf sessions
• Running updates with sudo apt-get update; [...] upgrade; [...] dist-upgrade

[but this brought up another problem because the console replied with "You don't have enough free space in
var/cache/apt/archives", even though I have (apart from the XP partition) 3 partitions, of which 2 (2.22GB and 280MB, full)
are logical and 1 (5.28GB, with 5.25GB unused) is primary. The clean and autoclean commands didn't do anything (althought
I think they were executed succesfully, because some text showed up when I ran autoclean in the console). I can make more
room by resizing the partitions if needed.]

• Some other solutions that didn't work

Anyone know how to help me?

[bapoumba]

You don't have enough free space in var/cache/apt/archives

From a virtual terminal, please run:

sudo apt-get autoclean

If it does not clear up enough room, please try:

sudo apt-get clean

You can see how your different partitions are filling up by running:

df -h

[Niflheimr]

Hi, thank you for your reply and sorry for the late response. I ran df -h and it reported me that sda5 (Windows is sda1) is full at
2.1GB/2.2GB, although there's nothing but Lubuntu installed. Running from the console sudo apt-get autoclean brings up a quick
check of the packages but nothing really changes, and sudo apt-get clean does nothing at all, I just get another line open for inputs.

edit: the "main" primary partition (J:) of Lubuntu is 5.28GB, of which only 40MB are used and the rest is free, the "Other" logical partition
(under J:) is the 2.22GB full one. I don't know how to tell Lubuntu to use those free 5.28GB.

[bapoumba]

So please post the complete output to df -h here, thanks.

[Niflheimr]

So please post the complete output to df -h here, thanks.

Filesystem_______Size_____Used____Avail___Use%____ Mounted on
/dev/sda5_______2.2G_____2.1G____0______100%____ /
none___________4.0K______0______4.0K____0%______ /sys/fs/cgroup
udev___________113M_____4.0K____113M___1%______ /dev
tmpfs___________25M_____964K____24M_____4%_____ /run
none___________5.0M______0______5.0M____0%______ /run/lock
none___________112M______0______112M____0%_____ /run/shm
none___________100M_____4.0K____100M____0%______ /run/user
overflow________1.0M_____4.0K____1020K____1%______ /tmp

[bapoumba]

Your root (/) partition is only 2.2 GB and is full. Unless you can remove some installed packages, I think it really is not enough. Do you have anything in your /home that you could remove ? Even 5GB is not very much..

What does sudo fdisk -l returns ?

You could resize the partitions with a live CD or usb. Prior to doing that, please backup anything you could not afford to loose and defrag windows a couple times.

If you agree to resizing the partitions (shrink the Windows one and extend the Linux one), I'll let others guide you as I have no experience in dealing with Windows

[Niflheimr]

Your root (/) partition is only 2.2 GB and is full. Unless you can remove some installed packages, I think it really is not enough. Do you have anything in your /home that you could remove ? Even 5GB is not very much..

What does sudo fdisk -l returns ?

You could resize the partitions with a live CD or usb. Prior to doing that, please backup anything you could not afford to loose and defrag windows a couple times.

If you agree to resizing the partitions (shrink the Windows one and extend the Linux one), I'll let others guide you as I have no experience in dealing with Windows

Yes, I could shrink the Windows partition to gain another 10GB (even more, if I decide to remove it altogether) free, but the
problem is that neither GParted nor EaseUS Partition Manager allow me to resize that logical partition and it's not clear at all
to me how that works (even if I have unallocated space, the maximum size of that partition is still the same and I can't
assign more space to it). There are no installed packages because I just installed the OS with the alternate .iso (which
shouldn't have much stuff, or less anyway, to begin with) and nothing else. I don't honestly understand why I allocated 5GB
but only 2.2 are available, I think I'm missing something. Anyway, sudo fdisk -l gives this:

Disk /dev/sda: 30.0GB, 30005821440 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3648 cylinders, total 58605120 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x27e90be5

Device_______Boot___________Start_____End______Blo cks____Id___System
/dev/sda/1_____*______________63____41817194__20908566__b__ _W95 FAT32
/dev/sda/2______________42283080____53366335__5541628___7__ _HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda/3______________53366782____58603519__2618369___5__ _Extended
/dev/sda/5______________53366784____58021887__2327552__83__ _Linux
/dev/sda/6______________58023936____58603519___289792__82__ _Linux swap / Solaris

(dev/sda/4 is missing here, it's not a copy error)

[bapoumba]

OK thanks. If you do not mind, I will edit your thread title to attract expert eyes

[Niflheimr]

Sure, go ahead! Even if I'm not sure that, after fixing this space problem, the other missing GUI problem will be
fixed too... but, well, I guess I'll just rename it again or open another thread in case. Feel free to edit the title

edit: oh, and thanks again for your help!

[coffeecat]

(dev/sda/4 is missing here, it's not a copy error)

It's the way mbr partition tables work. You are allowed up to four primary partitions, which are always numbered 1 to 4. An extended partition, which is a special type of primary, acts only as a container for logical partitions and you may have only one extended. Logical partitions are always numbered 5 and upwards. Your extended partition is sda3. You have used only 3 of your allowed primary/extended partitions. Hence the "missing" sda4.

I might be able to help you with resizing your sda5, but please do something first. In your attempt to get the formatting of your fdisk output right, you have made it hard to read. There's an easier way - the use of BBCode code tags. This is what you do:

[code]your terminal output[/code]

Appears as:

your terminal output

And it preserves formatting. It's best to use the advanced editor when using BBCode and if necessary click on the icon that looks like A/A to switch editor to source mode. If you use WYSIWYG editor with BBCode you can get in a muddle because WYSIWYG obscure the code tags.

So - please post the output of "sudo fdisk -l" again but this time inside code tags. Also, the output of this as well:

sudo parted -l

Again between code tags please.