Had an error message that something couldn't start because the tmp file was full.....

steve513 · 08-03-2009, 03:40 PM

....so I was unable to boot up; finished up re-installing the whole lot and then restore from a backup, which seemed to work OK until I did a restart but my log-in was not accepted, at which point I gave up, did another re-instal but didn't do the restore. My questions are:- why did the restore not work as I expected it to? why did the tmp file fill up? and how can I make the partition where the tmp file resides, larger?

Disillusionist · 08-04-2009, 01:19 AM

Firstly, the restore. What type of backup do you have, how was it created, how did you try restoring?

Secondly, the partitions. Please can you provide the output from df -k

Thirdly, some advice. Burn a "Live CD" or a rescue disk, so that you can perform maintenance tasks without re-installing in future. I tend to use System Rescue CD (sysresccd) this has utilities for backing up and restoring partitions, modifying partition sizes and many other useful features when you're at the sharp end.

jolphil · 08-04-2009, 06:42 AM

Hi,
I have heard of some problems if during the install you choose to copy the DVD to your drive..I don't know if this may be a problem or not for you..
Goodluck,
jolphil

steve513 · 08-05-2009, 01:10 PM

Hi, and thanks for the reply; the restore I used was the one that is part of the system tools. It seemed quite easy to set up and it appeared to be working fine - I was able to check the back-ups were in the "tmp" file. What I can't understand is why I got the message that the tmp file was full but the partition still had 5 gigs of space......
I'll give the backup you suggest a try, but, sorry, don't know what is meant by "df-k"...I'm only a beginner in Linux.
Apppreciate your help.

Steve

Disillusionist · 08-05-2009, 02:35 PM

That's ok, everyone has to start from the beginning at some stage.

You should see in one of your menu's something saying Terminal or Console.

If you start that application you get a command prompt which allows you to run some low level commands (don't worry)

At the prompt type:

Code:

df -k

Note the space between df and -k this is important. df is a command that shows what filesystems you are currently using and what space is used for each. The -k tells the df command to display the values in kilobytes.

You may want to take some time to read the following: http://rute.2038bug.com/index.html.gz

There is a lot of information there, so don't try to read it all in one sitting

steve513 · 08-06-2009, 12:08 PM

Really appreciate the help - thank you very much - I'll give it a go later.......once I've sorted out why the DVD drive has packed up!!!!