Free up space on root disk

pepito_20110623 · 2011-06-23 20:16:01

Hi!

I have been trying to free up some space on my / partition. I have already used "xdiskusage" to see where the disk space went and I have seen that there is around 4.5Gb space on "permission denied" (although I have run xdiskusage as root user).

Does anybody know how can I free up these 4.5Gb space? Is it safe to free them up?

Thanks!

graysky · 2011-06-23 20:20:07

Use ncdu -x / as root to see where space is taken.
Use pacman -Qdt to see orphan packages
Use bleachbit (AUR) to recover some
Use cacheclean (AUR) to limit # of old packages
Use pacgraph -c | less to see which packages are largest disk users and ask yourself if you can do without them. Pacgraph is in [community].

yungtrizzle · 2011-06-23 20:22:34

Pepito, that 4.5GB contains important system libraries, binaries, config files, and the kernel. It's the space a typical Linux install uses. The special permission are for the purpose of protecting an unsuspecting user from breaking the system. If you really want to clean up your disk, concentrate on your home directory.

pepito_20110623 · 2011-06-23 20:46:54

Thanks graysky!

Here the results:

1. Use ncdu -x / as root to see where space is taken. -> Apparently only 9.9Gb are used and the partition has 14Gb. If I make "df", it shows me only around 750Mb free. There are around 4.3Gb space "lost", just the amount that is shown by xdiskusage as "permission denied"
2. Use pacman -Qdt to see orphan packages -> Some packages are orphan. Can I delete them without any problems? Anyway, it will not give me the 4.3Gb back.
4. I have used pacgraph and I have seen that the largest package is around 300Mb. All of the "big ones" are in use.

My question: can I get the 4.3Gb back?

Thanks again for the quick answer!!!

Inxsible · 2011-06-23 20:49:25

Is you /var under your root partition? Try cleaning your cache.

pepito_20110623 · 2011-06-23 20:50:24

Hi yungtrizzle!

My home directory is in another partition. It doesn't affect my / partition. But if you say that there are important libraries, I will not try to free up that space.

My / partition is around 14Gb, I never thought it would get full. I work on KDE but I have no other Desktop installed and I only have installed the applications I use (no games, not very big applications). It's amazing how much disk space Linux needs!

Thanks for the info!

pepito_20110623 · 2011-06-23 20:52:51

Hi Inxsible,

My /var is under / partition, but it "only" takes around 650Mb. How can I clean it? (I already did pacman -Scc if you are referring to that).

Thanks again to you all, guys. You are amazing!!! So fast!!!

karol · 2011-06-23 20:57:10

Please post the output of 'df -h'. What filesystem are you using?

pepito_20110623 · 2011-06-23 21:02:53

Here the output

[root@pedrito arch]# df -h
df: «devpts»: No existe el fichero o el directorio
df: «tmpfs»: No existe el fichero o el directorio
S.ficheros Tamaño Usado Disp Uso% Montado en
udev 10M 0 10M 0% /dev
run 10M 216K 9,8M 3% /run
/dev/sda6 15G 14G 798M 95% /
none 1009M 37M 972M 4% /dev/shm
/dev/sda2 304G 196G 109G 65% /media/system
/dev/sda4 102G 88G 14G 87% /media/windows_data
/dev/sdb1 246G 128G 107G 55% /media/Backup
/dev/sdb2 679G 370G 275G 58% /media/multimedia
/dev/sda7 34G 22G 11G 68% /home

the filesystem of / is ext3.

Thanks!

Inxsible · 2011-06-23 21:05:26

df: «devpts»: No existe el fichero o el directorio
df: «tmpfs»: No existe el fichero o el directorio

I do not understand Spanish but that don't sound right.

pepito_20110623 · 2011-06-23 21:07:34

Sorry... it's spanish but anyway, here the translation...

[root@pedrito arch]# df -h
df: «devpts»: the file or folder doesn't exist
df: «tmpfs»: the file or folder doesn't exist
File system Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
udev 10M 0 10M 0% /dev
run 10M 216K 9,8M 3% /run
/dev/sda6 15G 14G 798M 95% /
none 1009M 37M 972M 4% /dev/shm
/dev/sda2 304G 196G 109G 65% /media/system
/dev/sda4 102G 88G 14G 87% /media/windows_data
/dev/sdb1 246G 128G 107G 55% /media/Backup
/dev/sdb2 679G 370G 275G 58% /media/multimedia
/dev/sda7 34G 22G 11G 68% /home

Thanks again!

karol · 2011-06-23 21:13:55

Please post your /etc/fstab.
You can use ncdu to (interactively) find where did your space go.

You can use 'LC_MESSAGES=C' to get the output in English:

LC_MESSAGES=C df -h

Last edited by karol (2011-06-23 21:16:38)

karol · 2011-06-24 11:17:47

With regard to

df: «devpts»: the file or folder doesn't exist
df: «tmpfs»: the file or folder doesn't exist

you probably have in your /etc/fstab

# <file system>        <dir>         <type>    <options>          <dump> <pass>
none                   /dev/pts      devpts    defaults            0      0
none                   /dev/shm      tmpfs     defaults            0      0

while you should have (the first column changes)

devpts                 /dev/pts      devpts    defaults            0      0
shm                    /dev/shm      tmpfs     defaults            0      0

https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/24309#comment77114 (the last comment)

pepito_20110623 · 2011-06-24 18:54:55

Hi,

here my /etc/fstab

#
# /etc/fstab: static file system information
#
# <file system> <dir> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
none /dev/pts devpts defaults 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
none /proc/bus/usb usbfs auto,busgid=108,busmode=0775,devgid=108,devmode=0664 0 0

/dev/sda6 / ext3 defaults,noatime,nodiratime 0 1

#/dev/cdrom /media/cd auto ro,user,noauto,unhide 0 0
#/dev/dvd /media/dvd auto ro,user,noauto,unhide 0 0
#/dev/fd0 /media/fl auto user,noauto 0 0

UUID=A2B26C77B26C51B9 /media/system ntfs-3g auto,uid=1000,gid=users,exec,umask=000 0 1
UUID=56366FC1366FA12B /media/windows_data ntfs-3g auto,uid=1000,gid=users,exec,umask=000 0 1
#UUID=d22ffdb7-d7b0-4739-87a4-ff3140eb3cba /media/Backup ext3 defaults 0 2
/dev/sdb1 /media/Backup ext3 defaults 0 2
UUID=01f13285-f29a-461e-93fb-814829492935 /media/multimedia ext3 defaults 0 2
/dev/sda7 /home ext3 defaults,noatime,nodiratime 0 2
/dev/sda5 swap swap defaults 0 0

@karol: I am gonna change the lines with "none" and I will post the result.

Thanks to you all!

pepito_20110623 · 2011-06-24 19:04:54

Hi again,

here the result of "df -h" after changing fstab.
[root@pedrito arch]# df -h
S.ficheros Tamaño Usado Disp Uso% Montado en
udev 10M 0 10M 0% /dev
run 10M 216K 9,8M 3% /run
/dev/sda6 15G 14G 860M 95% /
shm 1009M 25M 984M 3% /dev/shm
/dev/sda2 304G 196G 109G 65% /media/system
/dev/sda4 102G 88G 14G 87% /media/windows_data
/dev/sdb1 246G 128G 106G 55% /media/Backup
/dev/sdb2 679G 370G 275G 58% /media/multimedia
/dev/sda7 34G 22G 11G 68% /home

If I run xdiskusage, I still have 4,3Gb missing as "permission denied". Can I get this space back?
Thanks!

cahr_g · 2011-06-26 10:47:57

may it be inaccessible bad sectors?

Arch Linux

#1 2011-06-23 20:16:01

Free up space on root disk

#2 2011-06-23 20:20:07

Re: Free up space on root disk

#3 2011-06-23 20:22:34

Re: Free up space on root disk

#4 2011-06-23 20:46:54

Re: Free up space on root disk

#5 2011-06-23 20:49:25

Re: Free up space on root disk

#6 2011-06-23 20:50:24

Re: Free up space on root disk

#7 2011-06-23 20:52:51

Re: Free up space on root disk

#8 2011-06-23 20:57:10

Re: Free up space on root disk

#9 2011-06-23 21:02:53

Re: Free up space on root disk

#10 2011-06-23 21:05:26

Re: Free up space on root disk

#11 2011-06-23 21:07:34

Re: Free up space on root disk

#12 2011-06-23 21:13:55

Re: Free up space on root disk

#13 2011-06-24 11:17:47

Re: Free up space on root disk

#14 2011-06-24 18:54:55

Re: Free up space on root disk

#15 2011-06-24 19:04:54

Re: Free up space on root disk

#16 2011-06-26 10:47:57

Re: Free up space on root disk

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