Ubuntu
apt package

hard drive partition free space problems

Asked by Bremner

I am trying to upgrade to 12.04 but on each occasion I do I receive a message stating there is not enough space on my hard drive.I do not have any data of bulk on the system which os only supposed to take up 256mgb I have deleted a lot of the soft ware on the system but this only is only reducing its capacity by a very small amount.I am begining to think I have some sort of virus.The op system is Lucid The hard drive is 8gig of which 827mgbs remain free.

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Sam_ (and-sam) said : 		#1

Please clean up package cache,
e.g.
apt-get clean
apt-get autoclean
apt-get autoremove

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AptGet/Howto#Maintenance_commands
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UsingTheTerminal

older kernel images

http://jaypeeonline.net/tips-tricks/howto-remove-old-ubuntu-kernels/
http://chrisjean.com/2009/03/05/cleaning-out-old-linux-kernels-in-ubuntu/

and verify disk space.
df -h
mount

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RecoverLostDiskSpace

When there is a separate /home partition rather consider fresh installation.
Please note sys requirements and release notes first.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PrecisePangolin/ReleaseNotes/UbuntuDesktop
https://help.ubuntu.com/12.04/ubuntu-help/

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Bremner (paullinden) said : 		#2

Thanks for advice Sam but when I feed this data into terminal I get the message COULD NOT OPEN LOCK FILE/VAR/LIB/APT/LISTS/ LOCK-OPEN (13 PERMISSION DENIED) UNABLE TO LOCK LIST DIRECTORY
Unfortunately I am no further forward . I have used Iced Tea to clear some of the cache but it has made little difference other than making OS a little faster.I loaded Lucid after using Linpus on this machine and it is probably taking up needed space.

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Sam_ (and-sam) said : 		#3

> Lucid after using Linpus

Well again I'd rather consider a fresh installation.

Boot any live medium, backup important files to an external medium and start fresh.

Some apt commands need 'sudo' to apply.
Although when there is no disk space left nothing will apply, except from a virtual terminal, maybe.

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Bremner (paullinden) said : 		#4

Thanks for further advice which I did take and re-loaded system(Lucid) then with the created space on disc I attempted to update to 12.04 the packages downloaded but update manager failed to install them as I believe RAM may be to small on ACER ASPIRE ONE net book only 512mgbts. I reloaded Lucid which appears to work OK but still can not unlock APT in terminal.Any ideas to solve this.

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Sam_ (and-sam) said : 		#5

While working from a terminal please make sure that no other package management app is running, like software center or update manager.
Then try this.
http://linuximagination.blogspot.de/2010/04/could-not-open-lock-file.html

At least 1 GB RAM should be fine.

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Bremner (paullinden) said : 		#6

ok thanks will try that advice

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