Cleaning up installation

apple eater · 07-19-2011, 07:39 AM

I'm still fairly new to linux so i'm just learning as i go. I'm sure i've seen a program that cleans up and removes downloaded items that are never used/damaged.

Can anyone help me out here as my linux installation is filling up rapidly and i haven't even moved my files from windoze yet.

sundialsvcs · 07-19-2011, 07:58 AM

Portable external hard-drives are cheap now ... real cheap ... (hint, hint).

You can sometimes even boot your system from them, so that means you could have Linux on one of those drives and leave Windows alone instead of, say, dual-booting. (hint, hint...)

mark_alfred · 07-19-2011, 10:41 AM

Which distribution of Linux are you using, apple_eater?

apple eater · 07-20-2011, 07:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mark_alfred

Which distribution of Linux are you using, apple_eater?

The latest ubuntu 11.4 i think. My installation is "mounted" on the windows part of the disc, I don't know how that happened or how to get rid of windows now without a full wipe and re installation of ubuntu alone. I don't know how to burn an installation disc to do this either.

Any helpful advice appreciated.

alfredo10 · 07-20-2011, 08:18 AM

Hi!
You have a live CD with your Ubuntu on it?
Boot from it to Desktop and open a Terminal;
first you must get root:

Code:

sudo su

or

Code:

su -

then:

Code:

fdisk -l

where "l" is a lowercase l like list
and

Code:

parted -l print

Please copy and paste the outputs using the last but one symbol # by pasting the output between the two pairs of brackets.
If you don't have a live medium, you should download the ubuntu.iso and burn an image (not copy!).
alfredo

Edit:
Under Windows I often used with success ImgBurn:
http://www.imgburn.com/index.php?act=download

mark_alfred · 07-20-2011, 02:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by apple eater

The latest ubuntu 11.4 i think.

Perhaps deborphan or gtkorphan could help to minimize your Ubuntu installation. Another program is debfoster (though I'd stick with one of the orphan programs rather than debfoster).

Quote:

Originally Posted by apple eater

My installation is "mounted" on the windows part of the disc, I don't know how that happened or how to get rid of windows now without a full wipe and re installation of ubuntu alone. I don't know how to burn an installation disc to do this either.

I don't know what to suggest about this. Linux usually requires it's own partition separate from Windows. Perhaps alfredo10's suggestions could give some further clarity.

To burn an installation disk, just download the iso file from a site such as ubuntu.com, and then burn it with a program such as k3b or gnomebaker or brasero.

apple eater · 07-26-2011, 08:49 AM

Thanks for the patient help and advice.

I've tried to download gtkorphan but on the right hand side of the page it has this for downloads.

Download Source Package gtkorphan:

[gtkorphan_0.4.4-1.dsc]
[gtkorphan_0.4.4.orig.tar.gz]
[gtkorphan_0.4.4-1.diff.gz]

Which file do i download and what to do with it when it's downloaded as all i get asked for is open with what?

TobiSGD · 07-26-2011, 09:07 AM

None of them, you go down on that site and download the package named all, or better, you use your package-manager for that. A simple

Code:

sudo apt-get install gtkorphan

will do the job, alternatively you can use Synaptic for that.

mark_alfred · 07-26-2011, 10:42 AM

As TobiSGD said, you can install the packaged version using either Synaptic or apt-get rather than installing from source. Installing from source is only useful if you need a newer version of a program than that which is provided as a binary package for the version of Ubuntu that you've got (which is not the case with the gtkorphan program).

The details of how to install source programs can be found here (note, this is for Debian, but it can be used for Ubuntu as well, by changing the repository names to their equivalents in the Ubuntu system. Also note, the step "$ apt-get build-dep foo" should in fact be run as root or sudo, despite what the instructions say. Also, bumping the package version isn't really necessary). Anyway, you don't need to worry about this. Just do as TobiSGD said.