Thunderbird is refusing to download more email because it thinks the disk is full. I have checked all my disks that are connected to this computer and NONE of them are full. The 'file system' disk, which seems to be a catalog of the other disks is full, but that is the only one.

I am using Mint 18.0 64 bit, version 3.0.6 I am not good with the command line. I used the 'Devices and Locations' to look at the disks and the only one that is RED is the 'file system' disk, which is only a 14.2 partition that has 13.5 of data on it. It is identified only as '/' while the others are /media and /home. Under /, I find /etc/thunderbird, but it only contains one file called syspref.js

So my question is, how do I find which disk has the Thunderbird files so I can move/delete some of the other files on that disk?

If I need to use the command line, PLEASE point me to specific directions for how to type it.

I'm not familiar with Thunderbird, but according to this, you can find your mail storage location by "Start Thunderbird and go to "Tools -> Account Settings", and then click on "Local Folders" in the left pane (you may need to scroll down to see it).

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Let's see this from a terminal

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$5.00 says /home is under /

If your File System disk is almost full (as you indicate), you will see problems arising from other programs as well. You need to urgently find a way of increasing its capacity or reducing the overall size of the files it contains. The latter has to be done very carefully however.

Please post the output from the command requested by syg00.

One program that I find useful is Graphical Disk map, which shows you a graphical representation of the relative size of files that exist on any disk (if your system can scrape together enough space to install it that is). Using GD Map allows you to find the largest files on the disk. apt install gdmap. There are command-line alternatives which you may well be using by the end of this thread.

In the short-term, running apt clean is a good idea and may release some free space.

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hydrurga, I ran the command from syg00 (output below) and 'apt clean' in a terminal window. However when I ran the Disk Usage Analyzer it does show a bit more space in the system folder and it is no longer red. I've captured a screen shot but can't figure how to post it here :-(

It shows I'm using 12.5GB of the available 14.2GB.

I also tried to follow the directions from Ezekiel, but my Thunderbird is different then the one on Windows so the commands don't match up. And the bit about putting it in the wrong folder scares me off of experimenting.

Given that this System folder is in a partition Linux created when it installed, I wonder why it is so small. I have a terabyte HD for the primary disk and it has lots of room on it. Is there a way to resize this partition?


This is the output from df -hT
The 3rd one down appears to be the one causing the trouble ;-)

Filesystem Type Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
udev devtmpfs 2.7G 0 2.7G 0% /dev
tmpfs tmpfs 545M 8.4M 537M 2% /run
/dev/sdb9 ext4 14G 12G 911M 93% /
tmpfs tmpfs 2.7G 9.0M 2.7G 1% /dev/shm
tmpfs tmpfs 5.0M 4.0K 5.0M 1% /run/lock
tmpfs tmpfs 2.7G 0 2.7G 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
cgmfs tmpfs 100K 0 100K 0% /run/cgmanager/fs
tmpfs tmpfs 545M 24K 545M 1% /run/user/1000
/dev/sdg5 fuseblk 458G 334G 125G 73% /media/irish/Amy2
/dev/sdg1 fuseblk 469G 194G 276G 42% /media/irish/Amy1
/dev/sda2 fuseblk 920G 772G 149G 84% /media/irish/Rebecca
/dev/sdb8 ext4 20G 8.4G 11G 46% /media/irish/7dcd2591-c5b2-4b96-b0f7-ca3d31e9e82a
/dev/sdb7 ext4 24G 5.7G 17G 26% /media/irish/cb209bfc-c1ed-4d6b-b549-85253a587828
/dev/sdb5 fuseblk 18G 5.3G 13G 30% /media/irish/Dianne
/dev/sdb1 fuseblk 153G 137G 16G 90% /media/irish/Courtney

This is a lot more readable in the terminal window - it doesn't all run together.

Use [code] tags as I have on your data.

As for your disk, run this and post the output - in [code] tags

I figured out how to post some screen shots

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Sorry to be so slow

I do not know what you mean by code tags

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Enclose what you want to maintain layout of (code, output) in [code]Your data here[/code]. Or use the "Go Advanced" and use the "#" button.

As for resize your root, you could try to scrape some space from /dev/sda5 and /dev/sda8, then expand /dev/sda9 - done using gparted liveCD, but could get messy.
Best option might be to allocate a large partition on your big disk and move /home there. Plenty of how-to's online - this looks like a reasonable one for Ubuntu (Mint should be similar).

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Well, that's a non-trivial setup that you have there.

To be honest, due to that reason, and to your avowed aversion to using the command line, your best bet might be to get a friend/colleague experienced in Linux to set up a separate home partition for you. However, don't ask the same person who thought it would be wise to set up a mere 14GB partition for the entire file system including /home.

Given that it might be best to keep /home on the same physical disk (sdb), what do you have on sdb7 and is it likely to expand a great deal in terms of the total size of files stored on it? Personally, if I were in front of your machine, I would probably reduce the sdb7 partition by at least 10GB, set up a new partition in the resultant free space and place your home partition there. It may not be an ultra long-term solution, but it would keep the wolves from the door.

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I'm glad you asked what I have on sdb7 - I have no idea what it is or how it got there. I'll include a screen shot of what is there. The only thing I have ever added to it is the MP4 file, Pistol Packin' Mama. If I wasn't afraid it might be important I'd have deleted everything on it a long time ago.

As I migrated from Windows to Mint I went through some iterations. First to Ubuntu 14, the 16, then Mint 18. I suspect that is the remains of either Windows or one of the Ubuntu installations, but I'm not sure.

And here is where it really gets tricky, I'm the dummy who set up the 14.2GB partition - in my defense I had no idea what I was doing. I just stumbled along until I got it to work. Mint has been working great for months now. It wasn't until I got the message about it being out of space that I had any idea that anything was wrong.

Given what you two gentlemen have said, I think I'd like to delete everything on both sdb7 and sdb8 and reallocate that space to sdb9. I'll include screen shots of both of these (one as a list and the other as icons) and ask what do you think?

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The two filesystems in question certainly look like they are linux installations, and the datestamps of the cb2... one indicate that it hasn't been used in a while (it's difficult to tell with the other one because you're showing it in icon view). If you have no need for them any more then both partitions could be deleted.

You have an ntfs partition between sdb8 and sdb9, which would mean that you would have to move the ntfs partition if you want to combine the two partitions. This is not the easiest of tasks if you're not used to shunting partitions around.

People will always disagree about this, but I've found that a 20GB / partition works well for Mint, and a 20GB /home partition is more than sufficient if you're storing your main data elsewhere (which you appear to be doing), while still allowing for some scope e.g. of downloading huge files temporarily to the desktop.

So, if it were me, I'd be deleting sdb7, increasing sdb9 by 5GB to make it 20GB, and then creating a partition in the 20GB of space still remaining to house /home. sdb8 would be left alone.

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I have misplaced the disk I used to install Mint so I'm having to create another one. This leads me to a question as I see you are running Mint 18.1. Would you recommend I download 18.1 now and use that to do the resizing?

If you're planning to upgrade to Mint 18.1 anyway, which you can do subsequently through Mint Update, you may as well have a Mint 18.1 boot disk in your armoury.

Personally, and it might be something you consider for the future, I keep a YUMI-created usb stick which has all the tools I want on it, including GParted Live (which is what you would use for partition management), Boot Repair Disk, Dban etc. It makes life much easier to be able to boot off this Swiss Army Knife USB stick.

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