LinuxQuestions.org - [SOLVED] Mistakenly filled up 100% of /dev/root, can no longer start xsession as non-root user

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Mistakenly filled up 100% of /dev/root, can no longer start xsession as non-root user

I was installing packages from SBo when it said that I ran out of space halfway through. Running df, it said that 100% of my /dev/root has been used up. So i tried removing some of the packages I just installed but apparently that didn't bring it down by even 1% which is strange.

For some reason, I can start an x session as root but whenever I try to startx as a non-root user, it says it doesn't have enough space to make a log file;

Code:

usr/bin/startx: line 188: cannot create temp file for here-document: No space left on device

usr/bin/startx: line 205: cannot create temp file for here-document: No space left on device

usr/bin/startx: line 205: cannot create temp file for here-document: No space left on device

then later down the screen it reports:

Code:

The XKEYBOARD keymap compiler (xkbcomp) reports"

> Internal error:  Could not resolve keysym XF86FullScreen

> Error:          Cannot close "/tmp/server-0.xkm" properly  enough space?)

>                  Output file "/tmp/server-0.xkm" removed

Errors from xkbcomp are not fatal to the X server

XKB: Failed to compile keymap

Keyboard intitialization failed. This could be a missing or incorrect setup of xkeyboard (EE)

Fatal server error:

(EE) Failed to activate virtual core keyboard: 2(EE)

(EE)

Boot to console (init 3). Log in. Purge /tmp.

You can check what space is being used by the following command. Then you can go into each folder that is large and check those folders too.

Code:

sudo du -hxd 1 / | sort -h

du is to show your disk usage. -h make the output human readable (using KB, MB, GB, etc). -x will keep it within the same partition (if you have other partitions mounted, it won't go into those). -d 1 will only show the folders within the directory you're specifying. The sort -h will sort things top to bottom using human readable formats.

If you look at my example, you can see that /var/, /usr/, and /tmp/ use a lot of space. /usr/ is pretty normal to take a lot of space, but /var/ and /tmp/ are usually filled with things that can be removed to clear up space. My /tmp/ has a TON of directories, so var is easier to look at. You can use these commands to narrow down and find what is taking up your space and potentially remove it.

Code:

jbhansen@craven-moorhead:~$ sudo du -hxd 1 / | sort -h

4.0K    /srv

12K    /share

16K    /lost+found

44K    /mnt

64K    /media

13M    /bin

21M    /lib64

23M    /sbin

77M    /etc

308M    /boot

3.5G    /opt

4.6G    /lib

7.0G    /root

31G    /var

67G    /usr

120G    /tmp

232G    /

jbhansen@craven-moorhead:~$ sudo du -hxd 1 /var | sort -h

4.0K    /var/data

4.0K    /var/empty

16K    /var/netatalk

16K    /var/state

24K    /var/lock

24K    /var/named

32K    /var/yp

40K    /var/db

44K    /var/man

212K    /var/run

3.3M    /var/spool

12M    /var/www

432M    /var/tmp

796M    /var/log

3.0G    /var/lib

6.7G    /var/cache

20G    /var/slapt-get

31G    /var

Many people have /tmp/SBo taking up a lot of space. I'd start with removing that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bassmadrigal (Post 6145117)

You can check what space is being used by the following command. Then you can go into each folder that is large and check those folders too.

Many people have /tmp/SBo taking up a lot of space. I'd start with removing that.

Looks like /tmp was the main cause of the problem, purging it brought it straight down to 84%.

Output of df:

Code:

Filesystem    1K-blocks    Used Available Use% Mounted on

/dev/root      20511356 16258148  3188248  84% /

devtmpfs        1540744        0  1540744  0% /dev

tmpfs              32768    1200    31568  4% /run

tmpfs            1541280    28032  1513248  2% /dev/shm

cgroup_root        8192        0      8192  0% /sys/fs/cgroup

/dev/sda1        487652    46094    411862  11% /boot

/dev/sda6      103081248 42650972  55171012  44% /home

none              102400        0    102400  0% /run/user/0

none              102400        4    102396  1% /run/user/1000

output of du -hxd 1 | sort -h :

Code:

4.0K  ./srv

16K  ./lost+found

20K  ./tmp

44K  ./mnt

64K  ./media

15M  ./bin

29M  ./sbin

35M  ./etc

77M  ./opt

89M  ./root

893M  ./lib

1.9G  ./var

13G  ./usr

16G  .

Output of du -hxd 1 /var | sort -h :

Code:

4.0K        /var/empty

12K        /var/kerberos

16K        /var/netatalk

20K        /var/state

24K        /var/named

32K        /var/lock

32K        /var/yp

36K        /var/db

48K        /var/man

232K        /var/spool

11M        /var/www

50M        /var/log

175M        /var/tmp

349M        /var/lib

1.3G        /var/cache

1.9G        /var

Output of du -hxd 1 /usr | sort -h :

Code:

4.0K        /usr/X11R6

12K        /usr/i586-slackware-linux

140K        /usr/local

1.8M        /usr/games

20M        /usr/info

68M        /usr/sbin

102M        /usr/man

390M        /usr/libexec

526M        /usr/include

1016M        /usr/bin

1.1G        /usr/src

1.4G        /usr/doc

4.1G        /usr/lib

4.1G        /usr/share

13G        /usr

Thanks, I think it was just /var taking up space. I thought I could have as much disk space as I do for /dev/root, I figured all the software I downloaded would've been in my home partition but I set up the partition scheme before I realized how the LFS works.
How can I increase my root partition size while decreasing my home partition by a few Gb each so I can have more room for future packages?

Quote:

Originally Posted by burning (Post 6145221)

How can I increase my root partition size while decreasing my home partition by a few Gb each so I can have more room for future packages?

As I wrote in your other thread, GParted will do that for you. Shrink your /home partition, move swap partition and resize / so that it fills the available space created. You will get a warning that resizing the boot partition may break your install, but in practice it should work out fine, I've done this more than once without any issues (I suspect shrinking the boot partition can be more risky).

Quote:

Originally Posted by kgha (Post 6145224)

Thanks! Though would I even need to mess with my boot partition? /dev/sda1 is my boot. sda5 is my root. If I shrink sda6 and resize sda5, I don't see how that'd effect sda1, my boot partition? Or does that have to do with moving my swap partition? Actually, what's the reasoning behind moving the swap partition (sda2) at all?

Quote:

Originally Posted by burning (Post 6145456)

Many people have /boot/ on their root partition. If it is a separate partition and you're not touching it, you'll likely not even see that warning.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bassmadrigal (Post 6145475)

Many people have /boot/ on their root partition. If it is a separate partition and you're not touching it, you'll likely not even see that warning.

Thanks.

IIRC the reason I made a separate boot partition was because I plan to at some point in future dual boot, adding a 2nd OS to my computer.

Quote:

Originally Posted by burning (Post 6145789)

Thanks.

IIRC the reason I made a separate boot partition was because I plan to at some point in future dual boot, adding a 2nd OS to my computer.

It is possible to multi-boot even with "/boot" on the "/" (root) partition but UEFI type booting does require a separate "/boot" partition linked via "/etc/fstab" as you have it so it's by no means a bad idea to get used to it now.

Quote:

Originally Posted by enorbet (Post 6145792)

UEFI needs a separate partition of type EFI, not a separate /boot partition. In Slackware the EFI partition is mounted on /boot/efi but this is just a choice and /boot can be just a directory of the root partition, not a partition by itself. Actually the EFI partition needs to be mounted only when writing a file in it like an OS loader, and then it could be mounted manually on /mnt when needed, and not be listed in "/etc/fstab".

One thing I don't understand though; How come I could login as a root user and start an Xsession then? How come it only didn't have enough memory when trying to start an Xsession as a non-root user? Do root sessions not keep logs or something?