Disk full warning, but shouldn't be full [solved]

[azwli]

I'm wondering if you could point me in a direction with a problem that just came up on my desktop?

It was on all day yesterday (like it is every day), and when I came home there was a window open that said that my disk space was nearly full. 162 gigs on that partition. I did some searching around and looked at the properties of files and it looked to me that it really only has 41 gigs and the rest should still be available. Although the file system monitor shows the partition is completely full, I cannot find any folder, hidden or not, that is taking up all of that space. So I shut down and restarted. Now I get to the login screen and it won't let me past. If I use the correct pw, it blinks back to the same screen and it tells me if I use the wrong pw. I just read on another post that x won't start if the disk is full. I ran through the diagnostics and fixes that are available and the only thing that I noticed was a warning that var/lib/mysql is too full. I have not yet tried to put in a boot disk and think that is my next step to make sure everything is backed up. Do you have any suggestions? it is kubuntu 8.10 64bit. Thanks.

[Teunis]

Re: Disk full warning, but shouldn't be full

The best app. I know for this type of problem is KDirStat, it gives you a very transparent display of disk use.

The problem is you probably have to make some space first to install it.

In case you can't start up try the recovery mode or run a Live CD and find the offending stuff.
What you're searching for is probably some huge log or Strigi database.

[azwli]

Re: Disk full warning, but shouldn't be full

I have no way of deleting files to make room and I don't think that is the problem any way as I have looked at each upper leve file foledr and the gigs just don't add up to the total. I tried to start the process of re-installing from the boot disk and it wont let me go past the partitioning screen. It doesn't even show the partitions for me to adjust.

Are there any other ideas for me to rescue the hard drive, or do I just need to get a new one.

[flarson]

Re: Disk full warning, but shouldn't be full

At the login screen use Ctl-Alt-F1. This will get you to a Virtual Terminal so you can login. You can then use the df command to find out how much disk is free. "df -h" will show it in human friendly numbers. You can also run commands from here to fix other things. If you do not know the root password, login and then use "sudo -s" followed by your password to become root.

[toad]

Re: Disk full warning, but shouldn't be full

I have no way of deleting files to make room and I don't think that is the problem any way as I have looked at each upper leve file foledr and the gigs just don't add up to the total.

You have no way of deleting files to make room? I thought that was what you wanted to do in the first place

Follow Teunis' advice and you shall find the offending space hogger and be able to delete it.

Command line tools at your disposal: df (df - report file system disk space usage) and du (du - estimate file space usage).

In plain speak: df checks partitions as in

df -h

and du checks directories as in

du -hs

If you cannot be bothered to check your drive properly can I have it please

[azwli]

Re: Disk full warning, but shouldn't be full

I found the offending files that were due to a backup program putting them in the wrong place(I did not set it up properly). They are in /var/backup/* and /media/disk/* and when I try to use the rm command it comes back with "permission denied". Please, give me guidance in deleting these files from the terminal.

[toad]

Re: Disk full warning, but shouldn't be full

Well done

However, /media/disk is most likely your usb stick/drive so I would leave that alone. And can you tell us what is in /var/backup, i.e. open the command line and post the output of

ls -la /var/backup

While you are at, could you also please post the output of

du -hs /var/backup/

You'll probably get a couple of error messages re not being able to read directories, but the output is still valid.

Or perhaps somebody else knows what process is able to write to a root owned directory and stuff /var/backup full of stuff? I haven't even got a /var/backup...

[azwli]

Re: Disk full warning, but shouldn't be full

I solved this by changing my root password, loging in as root, doing a find command for files larger than 1 gig, then cd to the correct directory, then did this command:

find -iname *.tgz -exec rm -i {} \;

With .tgz being the extensions for the offending files and -i making me verify each file before it was removed.

[Teunis]

Re: Disk full warning, but shouldn't be full

Good job, please help others by mentioning the application causing the problem (even when it was really a bad setting) end mark the header of your original post as [SOLVED].

[azwli]

Re: Disk full warning, but shouldn't be full [solved]

The offending program was sbackup. thanks.