For 2 months my Linux webserver is running smoothly,
got Apache 2, PostgreSQL, Tomcat 4 working nicely ...

Until 5 minutes ago.
Out of the blue postgreSQL seems to give no result.
Reboot of the system results in a failure to load X server.
So I have a text box ...

While booting I see postgreSQL comming up ...
directly followed by a line su is shutting it down again or something.

Internet sharing seems to be working,
both Apache and tomcat works ...

Samba is gone ...

And for the moment my mind is gone too ...
Where to start, what to do ?

ok
I figured out my data partition for postgreSQL is full ...
I'm running Mandrake 10.0
and I don't seem to be able to delete any files
(no permission, not as postgres user, not as root)
and still no X server ...

what to do ?

if its a full partition, boot off a live cd and start deleting stuff.

But ofcourse,

the question is HOW ?

I only have an installation cd ....

For the record,
again:
I'm a beginner, I wouldn't have a clue

Can anybody help me ?

It seems to be the / partition that is full,
the problem is, I never save stuff there,
I have no clue what I can delete there
without damaging the system ...

Only 2 days ago I had 400 Mb left there ...

you run a server and you dont know how to use knoppix?

/me shivers

download a live cd, such as knoppix or slax, and boot off it.

do something like this:

(first, do 'df' to make sure that's actually the problem).

then, do

du -hs /*

cd /whichever/was/the/biggest/

and repeat, untill you find it =]

Yeah shiver :+)

I'm a programmer, so I know what I'm doing,
it's just I have the slightest interest in operating systems,
like most users, as long as it works and I can do my thing ...

So I wanted at home a 100% free web server with database and all,
so linux was the obvious choise, along with apache, tomcat, postgreSQL, ...

4 weeks of sweat and tears, a lot of surfing, asking,
and damn know well what I wanted, it was up and running.

My impression:
when it runs, it RUNS.
when it's messed up, it's messed up big time,
unless you know the system much better then an average user want too ...

Ok, the solution ...
be prepared to shiver some more ...
I moved some directories from /usr
so I could run X again.
In graphical mode it's much easier to get things organised and investigate ...

Those damn log files !
hundreds of Mb !
So it's solved, for now.

Next question is:
how do I get rid of all these log files ?
This is going to be nasty I suppose, every program, big or small,
seems to have it own logfiles ...

and they're not putted nicely in /var/log,
although I deleted 600MB ( !!! ) there,
and that's just a result of 2 months running ....

try the du -sh stuff I said above...

and for the log files, look into log-rotate or similar. That will stop the logs piling up like that.

sorry, maybe a stupid question, but....

can't you delete the files logged in as root in KDE or in console?

he can. He did. 600MB worth. But theres more and he apparently doesnt know where they are...