Not enough free disk space after upgrading to 9.04

Do you have '/' and '/home' on different partitions or the same one?

Thanks for your help! I don't know how to check this. But I believe the installer created a swap partition and one other partition for Ubuntu. Therefore, I am guessing that '/' and '/home' are on the same partition.

Tom, run the following commands in a terminal and post back here:

sudo fdisk -l

df -h

That will reveal where your disc usage has gone.

Thanks for your help!

Here are the results of the two commands:

Disk /dev/sda: 60.0 GB, 60011642880 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7296 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x6a0ff906

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 6970 55986493+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 6971 7296 2618595 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 6971 7274 2441848+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 7275 7296 176683+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

tom@tom-laptop:~$ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda5 2.3G 2.2G 41M 99% /
tmpfs 750M 0 750M 0% /lib/init/rw
varrun 750M 104K 750M 1% /var/run
varlock 750M 0 750M 0% /var/lock
udev 750M 152K 750M 1% /dev
tmpfs 750M 508K 750M 1% /dev/shm
lrm 750M 2.4M 748M 1% /lib/modules/2.6.28-11-generic/volatile

According to this, my '/' partition is full, right? But how? I think I installed 8.10 the same way and it worked out okay. My plan was to use 45 GB on Windows and 15 GB on Linux. I have never had a problem like this before that I can remember.

From the figures you provided, it looks like sda5, your boot directory is full (99%) as you realised.
Did you have a backup program running?

Use the command: sudo find / -type f -size +100000k
to find large files in /. You can reduce or increase the size parameter but this may not be necessary.

You can also look into your boot directory to see what is there.

45+15=60 but not when you count disc space. I have 2 x 80GB drives which in fact are reported as 74.53 GB each. Windows does not need 45 GB, 20 GB would be ample.

Thanks again, Andre! I didn't have a backup program running. And I have no idea what these large PCI files are. I think I am going back to 8.10 at my earliest convenience. I installed it the same way (in the same amount of space) and it left me plenty of room for installing updates, programs, and downloading stuff.

Here are the results of the find command:
tom@tom-laptop:~$ sudo find / -type f -size +100000k
[sudo] password for tom:
find: `/home/tom/.gvfs': Permission denied
/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/resource0
/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/resource0_wc
/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.1/resource0
/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.1/resource0_wc
/proc/kcore
find: `/proc/4672/task/4672/fd/5': No such file or directory
find: `/proc/4672/task/4672/fdinfo/5': No such file or directory
find: `/proc/4672/fd/5': No such file or directory
find: `/proc/4672/fdinfo/5': No such file or directory
tom@tom-laptop:~$ ls -l /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/resource0
-rw------- 1 root root 134217728 2009-04-27 21:08 /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/resource0
tom@tom-laptop:~$

The other directories I would check for size are: /var/log - and - /mnt

I will have to get back to you later.

Thanks! I checked these and didn't find anything unusual.

On Mon, Apr 27, 2009 at 9:41 PM, Andre Mangan <
<email address hidden>> wrote:

> Your question #68969 on Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/68969
>
> Status: Open => Answered
>
> Andre Mangan proposed the following answer:
> The other directories I would check for size are: /var/log - and - /mnt
>
> I will have to get back to you later.
>
> --
> If this answers your question, please go to the following page to let us
> know that it is solved:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/68969/+confirm?answer_id=6
>
> If you still need help, you can reply to this email or go to the
> following page to enter your feedback:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/68969
>
> You received this question notification because you are a direct
> subscriber of the question.
>

Thanks, Micah. But I don't know how this happened. Something changed from 8.10 to 9.04 in the installer routines (I guess).

According to what you posted, your windows partition is about 55GB and your Linux partition is 2.5GB. You can use an Ubuntu boot CD and resize your windows partion, resize the extended partition and then resize the linux parition. Or, you can use the Windows installer and install it inside the windows parition. I would suggest backing up your data if you're going to resize the paritions.

Thanks Micah,

I am going to wipe the 15 GB partition and re-install 8.10. It worked fine
with 15 GB. And Windows is only using 45 GB (or whatever that turns out to
be in actual bytes) because I limited it when I first installed it.

Thanks to everyone for their help. I'll check back in October to see if
9.10 will work for me.

On Mon, Apr 27, 2009 at 11:39 PM, Micah Gersten <
<email address hidden>> wrote:

> Your question #68969 on Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/68969
>
> Status: Open => Answered
>
> Micah Gersten proposed the following answer:
> According to what you posted, your windows partition is about 55GB and
> your Linux partition is 2.5GB. You can use an Ubuntu boot CD and resize
> your windows partion, resize the extended partition and then resize the
> linux parition. Or, you can use the Windows installer and install it
> inside the windows parition. I would suggest backing up your data if
> you're going to resize the paritions.
>
> --
> If this answers your question, please go to the following page to let us
> know that it is solved:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/68969/+confirm?answer_id=10
>
> If you still need help, you can reply to this email or go to the
> following page to enter your feedback:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/68969
>
> You received this question notification because you are a direct
> subscriber of the question.
>

Looking back on this, it does appear that the Ubuntu 9.04 installer may have "given back" some of the disk space I allocated for it. Micah may be correct about the amount of disk space being used by Windows. But if so, the Ubuntu 9.04 installer did not use the 15 GB I told it to use. And the 8.10 installer worked great. I think I am going to skip 9.04. I'll keep my eyes and ears open to see if there are others who experienced this with 9.04. I found that some people had a similar experience back around version 6, but 7.xx fixed the problem. Thanks again to everyone who tried to help me!

Thanks to Micah bringing me back to reality, I am now up and running on 9.04 with plenty of disk space! I had to use the manual partitioning method though. But this experience has taught me a lot about partitioning with Ubuntu, so I was very comfortable resizing my Windows partition back to what I wanted it to be, then using the 15 GB left over for a 12 GB Ubuntu partition and a 3 GB Swap partition!!! Here are the new stats on my disk space:
tom@tom-laptop:~$ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda5 12G 2.1G 8.4G 21% /
tmpfs 750M 0 750M 0% /lib/init/rw
varrun 750M 104K 750M 1% /var/run
varlock 750M 0 750M 0% /var/lock
udev 750M 152K 750M 1% /dev
tmpfs 750M 76K 750M 1% /dev/shm
lrm 750M 2.4M 748M 1% /lib/modules/2.6.28-11-generic/volatile

I haven't tried booting to Windows yet, but I'm sure the chkdsk utility will re-assess the new partitioning situation and get things back to normal there.

Thanks again to everyone for their help (and patience)!

Thanks Micah Gersten, that solved my question.

I'm experiencing exactly this problem and I wanna know how did you use your ubuntu boot cd to resize your partition? I need help badly, please post back!

and should I uninstall ubuntu or what? (I really don't want to) I've heard that it's a pain in the butt.

Hi Ragnar,

Remember to back up any personal data before proceeding. Mine was a new install, so I had no data to backup. I went into my Windows XP OS and deleted the partitions (using Disk Manager) which were in use by Ubuntu. After this, you can boot from the Ubuntu CD. Then choose the "Install" option. When you get to the point where Ubuntu shows you your hard drive, choose the manual option (at the bottom). If you are doing a dual boot (as I am) you'll need to allow enough room for the other OS, but you can resize that with the manual option. Just don't resize it too small to hold the data from the other OS! Then you'll need at least two partitions for Ubuntu. I was installing into 15 GB of free space. I chose 12 GB for EXT3 and the mount point of '/'. Then I chose the remainder (3 GB) for a swap partition. The swap partition will not ask for a mount point. Once you proceed, there is no "undo" option. But if you continue, Ubuntu will copy the files it needs to run on your hard drive. When it is done, it will eject your CD and you can boot from your hard drive.
HTH, Tom.

Wow thanks man, this totally worked! Glad I found this thread.

(First post ever in a linux forum!!) Hey! I'm also a total newbie and I was quite frustrated by this huge problem.
1)What I cant understand is why dont I have the choise of downloading something in a different place (par example my windows partition) and then running it...
2)and Is there any faster easier way to fix this? I manually made the partitions in the installation of 9.04 that i'm currently running but still have the same problem!! Maybe I just didnt give it enough space...
3)What will happen if I use this way of fixing the problem and then use up all my linux disk space? I wont be able to download stuff and updates like now?? Please enlighten me! Thanx in advance!
(I admit I didnt give enough time studying linux file system -Basic theory etc..)

I have gone through two separate installations and have the same problem every time. Frankly, given, I am a persistent newbie I will be able to figure it out....but I can certainly see why Linux has a small cult-like following. Until these types of challenges / problems are sorted out it will continue with a modest following. How back to trying to get the @$@#%#%! to install and WORK properly.

Hi kakofonix,

I have pasted your questions within my answers and comments below.

(First post ever in a linux forum!!)

Welcome to Ubuntu!

1)What I cant understand is why dont I have the choise of downloading something in a different place (par example my windows partition) and then running it...

I have never tried it, but the Ubuntu CD will let you install Ubuntu as an "application" under Windows. I think it still uses the Grub loader to let you choose which OS to run at startup.

2)and Is there any faster easier way to fix this? I manually made the partitions in the installation of 9.04 that i'm currently running but still have the same problem!! Maybe I just didnt give it enough space...

That is possible. I gave mine 12 GB and I am still running that same install. I have downloaded numerous updates since then. I have also installed third party software, such as Lotus Notes. I have not had the disk space issue again.

3)What will happen if I use this way of fixing the problem and then use up all my linux disk space? I wont be able to download stuff and updates like now?? Please enlighten me!

Yes, if you run out of disk space you can't download or install updates or new software. This is the case with any OS.

Thanx in advance!

You are welcome!

(I admit I didnt give enough time studying linux file system -Basic theory etc..)

That's okay - you will learn plenty if you keep pursuing it!