How can i solve full root partition ?

AlexIsMe · 2025-04-15 14:56:28

Hello guys

I am new at using arch, recently i tried to install some software but ran into a problem. It says that my root partition is full.

Doing df -h Shows me the following :

 
Sys. de fichiers Taille Utilisé Dispo Uti% Monté sur
dev                7,4G       0  7,4G   0% /dev
run                7,5G    1,6M  7,5G   1% /run
efivarfs           148K     57K   87K  40% /sys/firmware/efi/efivars
/dev/nvme0n1p2      49G     39G  8,2G  83% /
tmpfs              7,5G     55M  7,4G   1% /dev/shm
tmpfs              1,0M       0  1,0M   0% /run/credentials/systemd-journald.service
tmpfs              1,0M       0  1,0M   0% /run/credentials/systemd-resolved.service
tmpfs              1,0M       0  1,0M   0% /run/credentials/systemd-networkd.service
tmpfs              7,5G    189M  7,3G   3% /tmp
/dev/nvme0n1p1    1022M    180M  843M  18% /boot
/dev/nvme0n1p3     866G     26G  796G   4% /home
tmpfs              1,5G     48K  1,5G   1% /run/user/1000

I seems that when i install something it goes directly into the root, and not the large /dev/nvme0n1p3
My root has 49gb of storage and is almost full, but my /home isn't.

It must be full because I am using sudo for installing many different things.

Where did I mess up, and is it fixable by any other way than starting from scratch.

jl2 · 2025-04-15 15:09:38

Ah, the usual archinstall error. Everyone that uses it makes that mistake once (but only once!).

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Pacman … kage_cache

AlexIsMe · 2025-04-15 15:20:06

I guess this mean I have to reinstall arch

ua4000 · 2025-04-15 15:55:15

AlexIsMe wrote:

I guess this mean I have to reinstall arch

No. Where do you get this info ?
Did you actually read the link provided by jl2 ?

mackin_cheese · 2025-04-15 16:00:38

for future reference:

For non-English locale users: Prepend LC_ALL=C.UTF-8 to posted commands so that the output will be in English.

AlexIsMe · 2025-04-15 16:21:54

I read the link, i have freed about 7gb of storage from root. And i did learn some useful information about Symlink and Pacman cache. But it doesn't answer my root problem. As i continue using my machine i will reach the 49gb of root storage anyway (even if i try to minimizing the use of sudo and yay).
That is why i though if i wanted do to it correctly i need to reinstall arch.

Thank you mackin_cheese i will be more careful in the future

ua4000 · 2025-04-15 16:46:17

How does it looks now after pacman cache clear ?

LC_ALL=C.UTF-8 df -h

If you do this cleanup periodically, put your stuff into /home, and don't use big containers under / it could work several years. Arch is normally not polluting/eating up your space like MS windows.

You could install "ncdu" package, then run

LC_ALL=C.UTF-8 sudo ncdu /

to inspect, which folder is eating the most space. navigate with keys up/down and enter.
Also have a look at https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/System_maintenance --> Clean the filesystem

P.S. Which file-system do you use on / ?

Last edited by ua4000 (2025-04-15 16:51:56)

AlexIsMe · 2025-04-15 17:05:54

Here is the new df -h

Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
dev             7.4G     0  7.4G   0% /dev
run             7.5G  1.6M  7.5G   1% /run
efivarfs        148K   57K   87K  40% /sys/firmware/efi/efivars
/dev/nvme0n1p2   49G   34G   13G  73% /
tmpfs           7.5G   36M  7.4G   1% /dev/shm
tmpfs           1.0M     0  1.0M   0% /run/credentials/systemd-netw
tmpfs           7.5G  293M  7.2G   4% /tmp
/dev/nvme0n1p1 1022M  181M  842M  18% /boot
/dev/nvme0n1p3  866G   23G  800G   3% /home
tmpfs           1.5G   48K  1.5G   1% /run/user/1000
tmpfs           1.0M     0  1.0M   0% /run/credentials/systemd-reso
tmpfs           1.0M     0  1.0M   0% /run/credentials/systemd-journ

running NCDU :

   22.5 GiB [###################] /home                                                                                                 
   12.9 GiB [##########         ] /usr
   12.8 GiB [##########         ] /var
    5.8 GiB [####               ] /opt
    1.9 GiB [#                  ] /root
  180.3 MiB [                   ] /boot
   93.1 MiB [                   ] /tmp
   26.0 MiB [                   ] /dev
   10.2 MiB [                   ] /etc
.   1.6 MiB [                   ] /run
e  16.0 KiB [                   ] /lost+found
   12.0 KiB [                   ] /srv
    8.0 KiB [                   ] /mnt
    0.0   B [                   ] /proc
    0.0   B [                   ] /sys
@   0.0   B [                   ]  sbin
@   0.0   B [                   ]  lib64
@   0.0   B [                   ]  lib
@   0.0   B [                   ]  bin

Inside the home .cache is taking 10.5 Gib

P.S: i am using : ext4 filesystem. (should've used nfts ( I heard it can resize a partition))

Last edited by AlexIsMe (2025-04-15 17:20:29)

ua4000 · 2025-04-15 17:26:43

/root with 1.9 GiB is suspicious - what stuff do you have there ? mine is 2.2 MiB.
5.8 GiB in /opt is much too - mine is empty.

Best way to start cleaning is also de-installing unused programs with pacman - also in the my link above, including recursive dependencies.
Do you use many software from AUR ?
Following all the tips from the link + periodically re-checking will most probably give you no issue on / with your current setup for some time.

jl2 · 2025-04-15 17:48:11

5.8 GiB in /opt is much too - mine is empty.

No that's normal, I have all the ROCm stuff there, that keeps it at ~25GB. I also have some other apps there. Totally OK.

P.S: i am using : ext4 filesystem. (should've used nfts ( I heard it can resize a partition))

WTF OFC you can also resize ext4: https://unix.stackexchange.com/question … mmand-line
IDK, but it probably is easier if you boot up a live USB with a GUI (ubuntu, garuda, whatever) and use gparted or a other partition editor to move it around. Way easier and the way I do it.
BACK UP YOUR IMPORTANT FILES!!!

What you can also do is move the contents of /home onto the / disk, then delete the /home partition (and delete the entry from /etc/fstab). Separating it is useless (if not worse) for non-distrohoppers.

seth · 2025-04-15 20:16:17

ALso

LC_ALL=C pacman -Qi | awk '/^Name/ {name=$3} /^Installed Size/ {print $4 $5 " " name}' | sort -hr | head -n32

AlexIsMe · Yesterday 07:51:10

In my root i have wine that takes up 1.7gb,

Thank you for all your answers I will try to use a live usb to reformate my partiton, hopefully not loosing too much data.
I will just get read of the home partition, i am the only user.

Do you have any advice for the future, some preventable/common mistakes ?

LC_ALL=C pacman -Qi | awk '/^Name/ {name=$3} /^Installed Size/ {print $4 $5 " " name}' | sort -hr | head -n32
2046.69KiB smartmontools
2037.61KiB raptor
2032.01KiB curl
1996.19KiB libsoup3
1985.73KiB tzdata
1976.51KiB libcap
1933.92KiB polkit
1932.49KiB python-trimesh
1920.31KiB avahi
1909.12KiB adobe-source-code-pro-fonts
1886.54KiB libgcrypt
1862.00KiB libyuv
1852.25KiB libzmf
1845.99KiB lib32-pcre2
1838.86KiB intel-gmmlib
1834.07KiB i3-wm
1830.10KiB libpipewire
1821.82KiB libtiff
1810.96KiB dav1d
1810.20KiB libodfgen
1807.53KiB python-jinja
1792.15KiB xdg-desktop-portal
1747.66KiB findutils
1738.97MiB intellij-idea-community-edition
1733.91KiB python-pycparser
1721.12KiB redland
1719.62KiB libtheora
1718.99KiB alsa-lib
1716.84KiB archlinux-keyring
1713.22KiB libheif
1708.60KiB make
1708.58KiB lpsolve

ua4000 · Yesterday 09:20:18

Something is not right with your last output, it contains only the small packages, the big ones, e.g. kernel with ~100 MiB is missing, as well as browser or linux-firmware ...

skunktrader · Yesterday 10:07:34

ua4000 wrote:

Something is not right with your last output, it contains only the small packages, the big ones, e.g. kernel with ~100 MiB is missing, as well as browser or linux-firmware ...

K sorts before M

ua4000 · Yesterday 10:26:43

no, not with the option from seth:
from manpage sort
-h, --human-numeric-sort - compare human readable numbers (e.g., 2K 1G)

seth · Yesterday 14:17:31

type -a sort
pacman -Qo sort
LC_ALL=C pacman -Qi | awk '/^Name/ {name=$3} /^Installed Size/ {print $4 $5 " " name}' > /tmp/bfl
cat /tmp/bfl | curl -F 'file=@-' 0x0.st

Back on topic:

In my root i have wine that takes up 1.7gb,

DO NOT RUN SHIT AS ROOT. Espe… sorry, forgot to yell: ESPECIALLY NOT WINE!
Your /root can contain some shell configs/history files but is ideally mostly empty.

silduck · Yesterday 14:19:54

AlexIsMe wrote:

Hello guys
I am new at using arch, recently i tried to install some software but ran into a problem. It says that my root partition is full.
Doing df -h Shows me the following :
 
Sys. de fichiers Taille Utilisé Dispo Uti% Monté sur
dev                7,4G       0  7,4G   0% /dev
run                7,5G    1,6M  7,5G   1% /run
efivarfs           148K     57K   87K  40% /sys/firmware/efi/efivars
/dev/nvme0n1p2      49G     39G  8,2G  83% /
tmpfs              7,5G     55M  7,4G   1% /dev/shm
tmpfs              1,0M       0  1,0M   0% /run/credentials/systemd-journald.service
tmpfs              1,0M       0  1,0M   0% /run/credentials/systemd-resolved.service
tmpfs              1,0M       0  1,0M   0% /run/credentials/systemd-networkd.service
tmpfs              7,5G    189M  7,3G   3% /tmp
/dev/nvme0n1p1    1022M    180M  843M  18% /boot
/dev/nvme0n1p3     866G     26G  796G   4% /home
tmpfs              1,5G     48K  1,5G   1% /run/user/1000
I seems that when i install something it goes directly into the root, and not the large /dev/nvme0n1p3
My root has 49gb of storage and is almost full, but my /home isn't.
It must be full because I am using sudo for installing many different things.
Where did I mess up, and is it fixable by any other way than starting from scratch.

Likely you used sudo to install everything including things you shouldn't be using sudo for (pip,cargo,npm..) and packages installed using those package managers are usually gigantic compared to pacman, so you are basically filling your root with things that should be in /home so at this point I would reconmmend just reinstalling your system because it's broken beyond repair.

AlexIsMe · Yesterday 18:24:03

I will remove wine from the root.

Yes, i didn't realize that using sudo for everything would pose this problem. I will be way more careful from now on.

PS: i am a bit confused about ua4000 answer about missing kernel and firmware

seth · Yesterday 19:10:16

The command in #11 would have posted the 32 biggest packages on your system to maybe spot where you're squandering space.
For some reason sorting failed (ignored the units) and you just posted 32 packges with big numbers.
The commands in #16 would analyze that and also just upload the entire package list (along sizes)

ua4000 · Today 09:02:48

seth wrote:

For some reason sorting failed (ignored the units) and you just posted 32 packges with big numbers.

I'm wondering why it failed, maybe because of using pipe and LC_ALL not considered in the following sub-processes ?
Maybe this works, in 2 lines/commands ?

export LC_ALL=C 
pacman -Qi | awk '/^Name/ {name=$3} /^Installed Size/ {print $4 $5 " " name}' | sort -hr | head -n32

seth · Today 15:13:11

sort probably checks LC_COLLATE, yes - didn't consider that those units might be somehow localized…

Arch Linux

#1 2025-04-15 14:56:28

How can i solve full root partition ?

#2 2025-04-15 15:09:38

Re: How can i solve full root partition ?

#3 2025-04-15 15:20:06

Re: How can i solve full root partition ?

#4 2025-04-15 15:55:15

Re: How can i solve full root partition ?

#5 2025-04-15 16:00:38

Re: How can i solve full root partition ?

#6 2025-04-15 16:21:54

Re: How can i solve full root partition ?

#7 2025-04-15 16:46:17

Re: How can i solve full root partition ?

#8 2025-04-15 17:05:54

Re: How can i solve full root partition ?

#9 2025-04-15 17:26:43

Re: How can i solve full root partition ?

#10 2025-04-15 17:48:11

Re: How can i solve full root partition ?

#11 2025-04-15 20:16:17

Re: How can i solve full root partition ?

#12 Yesterday 07:51:10

Re: How can i solve full root partition ?

#13 Yesterday 09:20:18

Re: How can i solve full root partition ?

#14 Yesterday 10:07:34

Re: How can i solve full root partition ?

#15 Yesterday 10:26:43

Re: How can i solve full root partition ?

#16 Yesterday 14:17:31

Re: How can i solve full root partition ?

#17 Yesterday 14:19:54

Re: How can i solve full root partition ?

#18 Yesterday 18:24:03

Re: How can i solve full root partition ?

#19 Yesterday 19:10:16

Re: How can i solve full root partition ?

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#21 Today 15:13:11

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