20gb linux partition already full

hilliard · 09-21-2008, 04:29 PM

I'm using xubuntu on HP 6715b laptop. I've 160gb partitioned with 20gb allocated to linux and 20 for windows. The system is one month old

Reading a few threads, i'm suspicious that the 20gb partition is full already. I haven't installed many new programs (only amarok & open office & skype).

Is it likely that it would fill in only a few weeks?

I ask as I would like to remove windows and reassign the extra 20gbs. So if there is something unnecessarily eating space in the linux partition I'd like to deal with it.

Cheers

pinniped · 09-21-2008, 04:35 PM

20GB is an awful lot; my apps never amount to that much. You might gain ~1GB though if you delete the installed *.deb packages in /var/cache/apt/archives.

Someone else might be able to help you by suggesting a program to show you where all that disk space is being used. Did you check your log files to see if any program is spamming them?

hilliard · 09-21-2008, 04:52 PM

In looking for the log files I have found 14gb being used by /var/lib/.

There was a relic of an earlier attempt to use Vmware taking up the 14gb.

That was pleasantly quick to solve.

Cheers pinniped!

Scroggs79 · 09-21-2008, 06:17 PM

You should know about df and du.
df will show you how much space is used on each partition
du shows disk usage per directory
both commands have many options (use man df or man du)

try
du --max-depth=1

and the focus on the directories that are using up the most space.