For some reason I have reached 100% capacity on the "/" directory. I have no idea how, but SOME QUICK SUGGESTIONS as to what I should delete before system CRASH! HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

/tmp <remove all if necessary>

/var/log <clear out some log files>

have done this with both and I nhave have got 420K avail! have NO IDEA what could be taking up the space. the "/" size is 372MB

was trying to up2date samba and nsystem said that it could not cos no room on "/"

372Mb? That's all?

Do you have any other partitions or free space elsewhere?

I have GB of free space elsewhere, what can I move to the other place?

Try this to find where your problem is:

du -k / |sort -rn > /your_free_space_elsewhere/duk.txt

then:

less /your_free_space_elsewhere/duk.txt

This will show the size of each directory, and any and all directories below it, with the largest at the top. The -k means show it in kilobytes, so be sure to add ',000' to each number.

So, if you see, for example, /usr with a large size and then somewhere below you see /usr/some_sub_directory, the /usr size includes the subdirectory size.

For instance, here's some lines from mine:
7127587 /
4219980 /usr
1808064 /usr/lib
1575276 /usr/share
1179580 /home
1177452 /home/bsl1
919317 /proc
637032 /home/bsl1/Music

Here, / has a little over 7 gig, which includes /usr which has a little over 4 gig, which includes the 1.8 gig down in /usr/lib, etc...

I wasn't aware that /usr has a direct bearing on /

I thought it was on a different partition. If I chuck some stuff out of /usr, should this alleviate the problem? I am a little unsure as to what directories bear on others close by.

Well, it depends on how you have partitions set up in /etc/fstab.
But if you just have a / partition, then /usr is below it in the tree. I just didn't happen to choose to put /usr on a separate partition on my system. If you have a separate /usr partition that you can see in /etc/fstab, then simply don't include the size of it in the / size.
Basically every directory on your hard drive will be under / if you don't have other partitions.

However, I was just using /usr as an example.
What does your output of the du command show?
That will show the directories with the most stuff in them.

Maybe you could copy and paste here the first 20 or so lines from that output.
Also, copy and paste your /etc/fstab.

If its not on its own partition everything falls and will be installed under /

So if you have /usr under / and not on its own partition, one easy thing to do to free up some space would be to chuck /usr/bin to a new partition and mount it on its own partition in fstab, etc. /usr/bin probably is taking up the bulk of the space as the majority of your command programs and commands are stored and installed there.

Hope this helps you clear out some space, etc.

How can I export these views so that I can paste them here for scrutiny?

Select and highlight the text with your left mouse button and then paste it here with the middle mouse button.
Or , you can select and highlight the text with your left mouse button and then right click and select 'copy'. Then paste it here with right click and 'paste'.