My computer doesnt start- stuck on boot

Asked by Taloola

Hello,
I switched on my laptop and probably pressed esc/the power botton by mistake and by restaring it has showed a list of commands.. the las line is:

Started Hold until boot Process finishes up

When enterin recovery mode and Root I recieve:
E: you dont have enough spce in /var/cache/apt/archives/

What can I do??
Thank you!

Question information

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Status:
Solved
For:
Ubuntu Edit question
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Solved by:
Manfred Hampl
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Revision history for this message
actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said :
#1

Hold power button until the system turns off. Wait 5 seconds then press the button to power on as normal

Revision history for this message
Taloola (tali-almon) said :
#2

Thank you!
I did as you wrote, but it Is running [ok ] lines again... :(
Is there a way to attach here a photo of the screen? So you can see all the lines..

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Taloola (tali-almon) said :
#3

Have tried to restart it again as recommended and this is the last line I have recieved:
[ ok ] started GNOME- Displayed Manager.

Can you pls tell me what can I do?
Thank you.

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Taloola (tali-almon) said :
#4

Can it be that it cannot boot due to lack of space??
Is there someone who can help??

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Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said :
#5

"Can it be that it cannot boot due to lack of space??"

Yes, in some cases a full hard disk can prevent correctly booting.

What you can try:

Press ctrl-alt-f2
This should open a virtual terminal with a login prompt.
Enter your username, press enter and when asked for the password, enter it and press enter again.

Now you have a terminal where you can issue cli commands.

What output do you receive for the command

df | grep "/$"

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Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said :
#6

For closing down the computer from within a virtual terminal use the command

sudo poweroff

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said :
#7

also run:

sudo apt clean

When you are able

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Taloola (tali-almon) said :
#8

It doesnt let me open the virtual terminal.. i enter the recovery mode and then root

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Taloola (tali-almon) said :
#9

/dev/sda1 479595176 457240116 0 100%

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Taloola (tali-almon) said :
#10

Sudo apt clean doesnt do anything

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Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said :
#11

Execute the command

sudo du -schx /*

This will take a while for completion (maybe a minute) and will then show the directories with their space usage.
What is the directory with the highest number shown?

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Taloola (tali-almon) said :
#12

Home 413gb

But it seems to be stuck..
Has written also 4 lines like this one (with different file/directory name):
Du: cannot access '/proc/841/task/841/fd/4' : no such file or directory

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Taloola (tali-almon) said :
#13

Ok.. sorry- it has finished with 437 total

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Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said (last edit ):
#14

It seems that you have stored too much in your home directory.

If you already know a big file in your home directory that you will not miss (because it is stored also somewhere else), delete it.

If you need to identify the file name first, repeat with the commands

sudo du -schx /home/*

and

sudo du -schx /home/taloola/*
(or similar, depending on the output of the previous command)

Finally, if you have identified a bug file that you can delete, remove it with the command

sudo rm /home/username/directoryname/subdirectoryname/filename (insert the file name accordingly)

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Taloola (tali-almon) said :
#15

How much gb should i remove? (Minimum)
And how to do so? Like this:
Sudo apt-get remove /home/taloola/Torrentz
?
Or
Sudo rm /home/taloola/Torrentz

Is removing the Torrentz folder will be enough?

Revision history for this message
Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said :
#16

You should aim to remove at least 45 GB (that is around 10% of the disk size)

If you want to delete the whole Torrentz folder with all its contents, then the command is

sud rm -r /home/taloola/Torrentz

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Taloola (tali-almon) said :
#17

How can I see the list of flies the folder has?

And regarding the bug- how do I identify a bug?
Sorry for the ignorrance and thank you so much for your help!

Revision history for this message
Best Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said :
#18

For listing the files and their size use the ls command. e.g.

ls -l /home/taloola/Torrentz

And for "bug":
Sorry, this was a typo error, it should have been
if you identify a big file that you can delete, ...

Revision history for this message
Taloola (tali-almon) said :
#19

Thank you so much, Andrew and Manfred!!!!

Now, one last question:
Is it recomended to format the computer and then install the latest lts version or upgrade, as it suggests me to do?

So, apperantley my computer did not start due to lack of space.

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Taloola (tali-almon) said :
#20

Thanks Manfred Hampl, that solved my question.

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Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said :
#21

For the question about upgrading or a new install see also https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EOLUpgrades#Upgrade_or_fresh_install.3F