Linux Lite Forums

Hi;I have linux lite X32 installed on an old laptop.
It has ran for over a year. I keep it updated at least weekly.
This past week it started locking up.  I then got error message hard drive full.I checked and it was at 100% 72gb. and it then started not loading properly..
I deleted all files in downloads and media. emptied trash. got it to 97%.
I had next to no files on this laptop.
How do I find/get rid of/clean up the excess files  70+gb excessive for OS and very few apps.
Why would drive fill up, I have no downloads/music/videos.

TIA

(06-07-2020, 06:38 PM)bigskill link Wrote:Hi;I have linux lite X32 installed on an old laptop.
It has ran for over a year. I keep it updated at least weekly.
This past week it started locking up.  I then got error message hard drive full.I checked and it was at 100% 72gb. and it then started not loading properly..
I deleted all files in downloads and media. emptied trash. got it to 97%.
I had next to no files on this laptop.
How do I find/get rid of/clean up the excess files  70+gb excessive for OS and very few apps.
Why would drive fill up, I have no downloads/music/videos.

TIA

Have you ever cleaned the downloaded files stored in /var/cache/apt/archives? This is where all the packages for the software you've ever installed as well as those which've been updated/upgraded are stored should you ever remove/uninstall them they're available in case you want to reinstall them without having the need to download them again. To check the size of that dir, open a terminal and type hit enter and check for the number reported, if it is way too big, you can empty that dir by running in the terminal hit enter and type in your password when asked, wait for it to finish cleaning up the dir and check again with the du command to confirm the new size. Then check if it helped saving some space up on the HDD.

Hope this helps!

Probably full of old kernels.

About 384MB in the cache,, cleared , thank you.
dpkg --list | grep linux-image  shows about 50 files

Do I clear those? and how?


Still seems to be extra 60+gb of space being taken up somewhere.  that allows 14gb for OS and apps.

Thanks for your help.

(06-08-2020, 08:17 PM)bigskill link Wrote:About 384MB in the cache,, cleared , thank you.
dpkg --list | grep linux-image  shows about 50 files

Do I clear those? and how?


Still seems to be extra 60+gb of space being taken up somewhere.  that allows 14gb for OS and apps.

Thanks for your help.

384mb seems pretty small so that's not where the poblem is but rather on those 50 files. Click on menu and type Lite, from the options diplayed click on Lite Tweaks Also, Lite Tweaks can be found under Menu, Settings. Once Tweaks has started check the box right to Kernel Remover then read here https://www.linuxliteos.com/manual/software.html#tweaks which explains in a foolproof and easy way to follow instructions on using the Kernel Removal feature, which is what you want to do since lists those, and in your case there  are 50 files concerning kernel which seems like way too many. 

OK I managed to clear out about 10gb of left over kernels and files.
Things ran fine for a while. Then boom hard drive full again.
Not used for downloading or internet for that matter. all it was used is updates and playing  kpatience freecell solitaire.
I have no idea why hard drive has filled up again or with what.No idea where to even look.
About to try another distro if I cant figure it out.

(06-23-2020, 07:55 PM)bigskill link Wrote:[...]
I have no idea why hard drive has filled up again or with what.No idea where to even look. [...]

Hi!
Use GParted to see what happens.
If there is something wrong, you should see that /dev/sda1 is almost full.
Install then QDirStat and when it starts, put into the dialog that shows, "/" (without quotes).
This lovely App, QDirStat, will then show you all dirs and the the occupied size of each dir.
In GParted, you should see at most 13 GB occupied by the Linux Lite.
If you use a /home partition, the size of the occupied space on /dev/sda1 should be even smaller (6 - 8 GB).

You can use either the program shown above to clean whatever needs to be cleaned, or BleachBit.
If still in trouble, than the only solution I see, is repartitioning the HDD and reinstalling everything from scratch.
For me is easy, because I use low level backups if things go sideways. Takes less than 20 mins to restore both Root partition and /home partition.
I'd also suggest you use the "hdsentinel" program, to check the state of the HDD. It looks to me that this is a possibility there, too...
As an alternate solution (although I strongly recommend hdsentinel), you can use
or launch it from the menu.
If it's missing, then install it via Synaptic or CLI.

Or maybe...
Since the info you provided tells me nothing, I have to consider another possibility...
Did you previously use Windows on this HDD?
Because if so, there is a very high probability that you have a HIDDEN partition, that stores some Windows backups. That is why I suggested you to use GParted.
If this is the case, than DELETE the partition. It probably has all the "missing" space inside.
You can then reassign the space, either to /dev/sda1 or create a new partition, of your choice.

Good luck!

Gparted says drive is full 71.5gb of 72.3 gb
qdirstat nor hdsentinal are not in package manager so I do not know how/where to get them.
I am assuming hdsentinal will check the hd for bad sectors and attempt to fix them.  Will that get back/free up some space?
Is there a utility that just backs up firefox and thunderbird settings/password etc.  Windows has Mozbak  If those are backed up a clean install would be easy as there is nothing else on the comp.

(06-24-2020, 05:13 PM)bigskill link Wrote:Gparted says drive is full 71.5gb of 72.3 gb
[...] qdirstat nor hdsentinal are not in package manager [...]

Have you ever used Google Search?
...
HDSentinel:
https://www.hdsentinel.com/hard_disk_sentinel_linux.php

QDirStat IS in the Repository!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/LinuxPentruAcasa/permalink/2598906323694555/

As I said before:
Reformat the disk and reinstall Linux. You could have been up and ready by now. Reinstalling takes 20 minutes or even less.

OK,  I gave up and reinstalled.
Does not solve issue of why/what was filling hard drive.
Thank you for your help