Disk full after system crash
Posted: 16. Jun 2021, 12:17
It has been years since the last time I had any problem with Salix, but here comes a weird one.
The system was on for about 24 hours, with Firefox downloading a big file. I was not nearby for some time, and when I came back the system was off, presumably by overheating (this happens sometimes, and it's the only kind of crash I've ever experienced with Salix, so I am confident this was the case). I restarted the system, but I soon realized I couldn't do much because, somehow, the / partition was literally full (df reported 100% partition space usage). Normally that partition is not even half-full, so I thought ok, somehow a huge file was created during the crash; never happened before, but what else can I conclude.
And here comes the weird part: a quick look with du -shx /* revealed that /home directory is taking up almost all partition capacity. Specifically, the home directory of my main user (and the one who was logged in when the system crashed) is huge, taking up all disk space available. However, there is no such a huge file in ~/, and not a huge-sized directory either (at least none visible by du -shx ~/*). In fact, home directory seems pretty normal, in terms of size and otherwise. The system acts as if it thinks disk is literally full, while this doesn't seem to be the case.
I booted from a USB stick running Slackel, and from there I checked the Salix xfs partition for errors or bad sectors. It took a while but it reported zero errors, zero bad sectors.
I am pretty sure there is something I don't know here, and that something will solve the problem. I deleted a few big files so that the system is at least usable in the meantime.
The system was on for about 24 hours, with Firefox downloading a big file. I was not nearby for some time, and when I came back the system was off, presumably by overheating (this happens sometimes, and it's the only kind of crash I've ever experienced with Salix, so I am confident this was the case). I restarted the system, but I soon realized I couldn't do much because, somehow, the / partition was literally full (df reported 100% partition space usage). Normally that partition is not even half-full, so I thought ok, somehow a huge file was created during the crash; never happened before, but what else can I conclude.
And here comes the weird part: a quick look with du -shx /* revealed that /home directory is taking up almost all partition capacity. Specifically, the home directory of my main user (and the one who was logged in when the system crashed) is huge, taking up all disk space available. However, there is no such a huge file in ~/, and not a huge-sized directory either (at least none visible by du -shx ~/*). In fact, home directory seems pretty normal, in terms of size and otherwise. The system acts as if it thinks disk is literally full, while this doesn't seem to be the case.
I booted from a USB stick running Slackel, and from there I checked the Salix xfs partition for errors or bad sectors. It took a while but it reported zero errors, zero bad sectors.
I am pretty sure there is something I don't know here, and that something will solve the problem. I deleted a few big files so that the system is at least usable in the meantime.