Ubuntu 11.04 Oneiric Low Disk Space
 

I started to receive "Low Disk Space" message on my Ubuntu Oneiric 11.04 few days ago. With GParted I see that my /dev/sda1 where is system is only 1,17 Gb! and this is obviously not enough. I have 3 more (needed) partitions with enough space and about 28 Gb of unalocated disk space on this phisical disk. Now I can't turn on terminal with root privileges "Failed to run /usr/bin/x-terminal-emulator as user root." anymore because linux is "Unable to copy the user's Xauthorization file".

Question is: Can I increase my /dev/sda1 by adding this unallocated space and how to do this? Preffered with GParted if possible. I try to do this by myself but unsuccessfuly. This partition is of ntfs type and here is also system files for windows booting what I choose with grub at startup.

I am not linux guru so please explanation on "simple way".

I would make a backup, and then use gparted to expand your partition. Just be careful doing so....

But GParted dont give me me any space to expand this partition. How is this possible?

We do not have the information to answer your question in any meaningful way.

You say you have Ubuntu installed on 1.7Gb? Does this have a gui? Lubuntu takes over 3 to install.

You say you have 28 gigs of free space. Then you say it is ntfs.

You mention the 1.7 and 28gig spaces but give no information on where they are in reference to each other.

The easiest thing to do is get a screen shot of gparted and post it here.

The complete out put of;
You could get both of those and send them from a live Session on a Live CD if you are having trouble with the install it self which I can easily understand.

Sorry widget, here commes what you asked for:

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xb6f797d8

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2048 2459647 1228800 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2 2459648 322111487 159825920 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3 944003072 976771071 16384000 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda4 391329790 944003071 276336641 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 629266432 876066815 123400192 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 935749632 944003071 4126720 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7 391329792 621010943 114840576 83 Linux
/dev/sda8 621012992 629266431 4126720 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/sdb: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders, total 625142448 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x9f3e0767

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 63 625137344 312568641 b W95 FAT32

OK, the sda1 partition is not your problem. That is some sort of partition put in for your MS install. It is not even half full. Check the Used and Unused columns on the sda1 line in Gparted.

What is on sda5? Is this another Ubuntu install or some other Linux?

You obviously can boot into your 11.04 install and I am assuming the screen shot was taken from there as the Mount Point column for sda7 has only / in it indicating this is the / (root) partition for the install you are currently using. If it is not, please correct me. 11.04 may well be sda5 and you are just using your other Linux install.

Again assuming that you got this information from 11.04, how did you get the "fdisk -l" info?

I ask that because you stated that you could not use a root terminal. A root terminal, while standard in Debian, is not there by default in Ubuntu. Normal procedure is to use "sudo" for most commands or, if you want a multi command session to use "sudo su" which will give you the root prompt.

If you got used the "sudo fdisk -l" command in a terminal under 11.04 then we know it is not a permissions problem with the terminal.

Both of your ext4 partitions are pretty much empty as far as a disk space warning goes.

We need to know where you got this warning. Also how you got it.

Sounds like a MS warning to me although it has been a while since I used MS so I may be wrong.

I have gotten space warnings under Linux but not in that wording. Usually has to do with little installs I put on to look at and end up installing too much. These warning tell me that there is only x amount of space left or that the file I am trying to past into the partition won't go due to insufficient space.

This just can't be the case here so we need details.

Back to the sda1 again, perhaps some kind soul can tell you what that is. Would have to be someone that, unlike me, actually allows MS product in their house. It is however not your problem and I would leave it alone.

Then, this could be partition allocated for pure MS-DOS.

Well, this can be one installation of same ubuntu which was not overriden properly. I don't use them at all but it makes me additional problems.
Under booting of OS I have to press "S" (skip) twice.

Yes, I can boot to 11.04.
I don't know which device is "system" but now I think it can be sda7.

I have two icons for terminal on panel. One gives me root access automatically and that I cannot start.
Other is "normal" from which I run "sudo fdisk -l".

I get warning mostly when I have to save some text document and so that popup window appear where stands "Low Disk Space".
But sometimes warning commes by itself.

If MS means M$ then I don't understand question well.
I uses windows less than 0.1% of my work. Just for testing purposes of my C programms.
But then I boot there.

If someone have idea feel free to tell!

That explains a lot of things like the 2 /swap partitions.

You should be seeing the install on sda5 in the left panel of your file manager. You might want to check and see if there is anything you want there.

You really need to use a Live CD for this so if you don't have one get one.

Do not do this from your installed OS as this could do some serious damage if done that way. It has to be done with the file system unmounted. The Live Session will do this easily as nothing on the HDD will be mounted.

Boot to the Live CD and open a terminal and do;
This will check the file system and do any safe repairs to it on that one partition.

You can get to this forum from the live session. Post all terminal output from that command.

widget,

Finaly, I get things working with created USB systemdisk with gparted.
I will clear /sda5 after inspecting it for possible useful data.
Now things looks like that...

Thanks for helping!

I would not be too quick to get rid of that install just yet.

You were saying that you needed to skip a couple of menu items to boot to your install on sda7. That sounds to me like you are using grub from sda5.

If you were using it from sda5 you would have exactly 2 menu items to skip for it to get to you sda7 install entries.

You really need to run that e2fsck command too. There is some reason why you were getting that disk space warning when your partition clearly has plenty of room.

Now that you have something to boot with off your drive it will be fairly simple to move grub around if needed. However, it should be fine.

I would boot to your sda7 install and run;
then;
The first command will make sure that grub is up with everything on the drive. The second will print you /boot/grub/grub.cfg file on your terminal.

Check to make sure that all three installs are picked up. Doesn't matter if you want to get rid of the one on sda5 or not. They all need picked up or something is not right with grub.

You assuming well!
Now I remember what happens. I accidentally install some video drivers from synaptic and after that I get "black screen". So I tryed to install new linux over existing with idea that this can back things to some default. But this not happend. New linux appears but takes grub settings from old installation. After that I have continuous problems with disks. For example, if I want to use external usb disk I have to plug it twice. Then I get two shortcuts in "Places" menu. But only one works (opens folder).

In order to fix this now I do what you recommend and get required informations but dont know what to do with them.

Isn't here any automatic way that linux can recreate situation properly?

I would say that you had a bad install, at least that second time around. Sometimes things don't go right. Could be that there was no problem with the install but a problem with grub install which happens at the very end of the install process.

Grub is run by scripts that are in /etc/grub.d. The names all start with numbers. The lower the number the earlier it gets used in the process of generating your /boot/grub/grub.cfg file which is what gives you the screen menu. The default layout builds the foundations for the grub.cg file and then 10_linux is run.

That gives you the menu entries for the OS providing the grub files. There will be 2 of them, regular and recovery. Then you get the 30_os-prober entries which are the other installed OS's.

So before getting rid of that sda5 install and loosing the ability to boot it would be easier to install grub from sda7 on the MBR first. Before doing this we should make sure that grub, as now installed, works properly.

To do that just open the terminal and run;
and
we need to know that all 3 installs are shown and that last command will print the grub.cfg file to your terminal where it is easy to check.

You will see a warning not to edit the file. Then a notice for the start of 00_header. A bunch of text and then a notice of the end of 00_header. Then the same for 05_debian-theme (this is where the look of your screen menu is defined).

Then 10_linux. This section should have entries that refer to sda7 and there should be one for every kernel you have installed.

There should then be a section for 20_memtest86.

Then 30_os-prober. This should have an entry for your Ubuntu on sda5 and Win JerryLewis Pro on sda2.

If you do not feel confident about reading that post the entire output here.

If the stuff does not show up we have some tricks that we can use so don't panic.

On the out of disk space issue, I got one today on an install of Debian Sid (unstable) on here. The difference between my install and yours is that my partition has, according to gparted, 1.70 gigs left free. I think I need to do some clean up over there and get some more room.

Well, something goes bad, don't know what. But here I want to tell that with first installation all disks works as should be.

I am still affraid do edit such files alone. Can you comment out some obviously wrong entries?


Yes, that is most obvious to do first. Somenone recommends me to clean a trash :)
My computer works limited when "low disk space" was showed, also wery slow and freezes sometimes. Now is OK.

Well your grub.cfg looks fine to me. Not actually sure what the MS entry is supposed to look like but that is there and I assume it is correct.

What you should do now is make sure that it installs on the MBR right. Should not be a problem there at all. This is done by opening your terminal and;
should give you some message saying it install with no problems.

Reboot and see if it works for sure.

If it does you can then go to your usb drive and run gparted from there to get rid of the install on sda5. If that renumbers your partitions you will have trouble booting to Ubuntu as sda7 is specified. If that is the case just high light the menu entry you want to use and hit e . This will allow you to edit the menu entry from the current "set root='(hd0,msdos7)" to what ever number the "7" has changed to.

This will only work for that boot. When you get in just run "sudo update-grub" again and the entry for the sda5 install will be gone and your menu entries will be fine.

This gives me following message:
After rebooting I was asked for "S" skip or "M" manually mount some disks which I have before but haven't it no more.
To continue booting I need to press "S" for 4 times now.
I am sure that my second installation tryes very hard to get new system working :)