Can't update, not enough space. [SOLVED]

[Sasquatch]

I just tried to perform a normal update and it failed, saying "You do not have enough free space".

Free space where? This is a fresh install. I've alrady done one update after the install. I haven't moved any of my files to the box yet. The only partition that's full is my /. Is that the problem? If so, how much headspace do I need there?

If I need to repartition I'd rather do it now.

[ElderDryas]

The only partition that's full is my /. Is that the problem?

1) what is your partition scheme?
2) How big is your / ?

Unless you have a massively customized system, most apps, libraries, etc (i.e., updates) go in / (not to mention /tmp and /var)

Here's my partition scheme (160GB drive, 2 GB RAM):
/ = 8704, /home = 149480, SWAP = 2176

I have used this for the past 5 years, thru numerous distros, and countless updates. Currently I have 4.6 GB used and 3.4 free, and have never seen the / freespace go below 3 GB, but then you may install much more than I (the autoinstall uses about a 14GB root partition, iirc).

If your / is anywhere close to either of these, and it's full after a new install and one update: 1) You must have the <entire> salix repos installed, or 2) Something is really really wrong; as you said you haven't put your data back on this machine, I'd just re-install. YMMV, of course.

My guess is, however, that your root partition is too small. In that case you have to repartition, but that can be done during the install. Making / too small to make more room for /home has always been a "false economy", imnsho.

Also, take a look at 2.2.2. Partition Management in the Start-Up Guide ( http://guide.salixos.org/222PartitionMa ... html#3_2_2 )

[mimosa]

I'd just add to ElderDryas's excellent advice: a healthy filesystem has room to breathe. Unless your hard disk is tiny, there is no reason not to give / several extra gigabytes, and doing so will improve performance and leave room for future expansion or clutter.

[Sasquatch]

I'm sure y'all will laugh at me. I really like breaking things up.

Code: Select all

Filesystem     1K-blocks    Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1         280003  251863     13684  95% /
/dev/sda5         393516   89180    304336  23% /var
/dev/sda2        9670804   32840   9637964   1% /opt
/dev/sda6        9767184 3961288   5805896  41% /usr
/dev/sda7       19534372  137880  19396492   1% /usr/local
/dev/sda9        4883556   32872   4850684   1% /tmp
/dev/sda8      197700392 3252668 194447724   2% /home
tmpfs             817304       0    817304   0% /dev/shm

It looks to me like I could shrink /opt, /usr/local, and /tmp. But I don't understand why I'd want a few gigs on /. Even one gig would be triple what I have now. And I thought that / would be more or less static after installation since programs all go to other partitions.

Of course, the reason I haven't moved my data yet is because I figured I'd end up repartitioning and reinstalling anyhow.

[mimosa]

In that case, a few hundred megabytes should do the trick

I'm not sure what might get put there that there isn't room for, but in any case, it looks as though the / partition is the crowded one. I'd say you could definitely shrink /opt - very little gets put there normally. As for /usr/local, nothing will go there at all unless you choose to put it there.

[ElderDryas]

I'm sure y'all will laugh at me. I really like breaking things up.

So you <do> have a massively customized system

To be bluntly honest, I think you are just asking for trouble "breaking things up" like that unless you really know what you are doing (re: you've already run out of space on / so soon).

There once was a time and place for partitioning like that (in fact, I've done it before, especially when I had to use several small hdd's). But with storage space so vast (and relatively cheap, at least compared to yesteryear) and the OS's having matured as they have, I see no need to do it anymore. It's analogous to the old 2xRAM for SWAP, there's not a real need for that much SWAP with the amount of RAM in most systems today.

As I see it, the only need for a partitioning scheme more complex than /, SWAP and /home on a home/desktop machine is if you plan to use something like btrfs or place them (/, /opt/, /boot, etc) on different drives.

But as they say, linux is all about choice, and I learned best when my choices backfired on me

[Sasquatch]

I don't have any data to support it, but my laptop seems to run better with a partitioned system. When my previous distro crashed I reinstalled it without any partitions and it was annoyingly slow. Plus I think partitioning is still relevant from a security perspective.

[Sasquatch]

In that case, a few hundred megabytes should do the trick

I'm not sure what might get put there that there isn't room for, but in any case, it looks as though the / partition is the crowded one. I'd say you could definitely shrink /opt - very little gets put there normally. As for /usr/local, nothing will go there at all unless you choose to put it there.

I think I'll bump / up to a gig. Clearly, 300 megs isn't sufficient. But I don't see any reason to give it five or six gigs. And I'll shrink the two you mentioned since I don't plan to add very many programs and it doesn't seem likely /opt is going to grow much.

I remember running into this problem with another distro sometime ago. I needed double the space in the root folder just to allow it to update. That's kind of annoying, really. The system runs just fine as is. It seems silly to tie up a few hundred megs of space just to allow for updates.

[Sasquatch]

One more question comes to mind... what are the pros/cons of the various file systems? Should all the partitions use the same file system? I know root and swap have specific requirements. But if I'm going to do this all again I might as well do it right.

*EDIT*
Just finished reinstalling with the new partion table. And the update went just fine afterwards.

[laprjns]

I remember running into this problem with another distro sometime ago. I needed double the space in the root folder just to allow it to update. That's kind of annoying, really. The system runs just fine as is. It seems silly to tie up a few hundred megs of space just to allow for updates.

Nothing wrong with a highly customized prtition scheme, you just need to under how your distro uses the various directories. You seem to be very frugal with your / directory, which in you're case in cludes /root /boot /etc /bin /sbin /lib /lib64 (maybe not). There is high probability that some files may be added or updated in these directories with a update or adding a new packge. Take a look on how much space each of these directory are using on your system using du. Here's how much space is being used on my system:

Code: Select all

rich@dads-laptop:~$ sudo du -h -c -s /bin /sbin /boot /root /lib /lib64/ /srv/ /etc 
Password:
11M	/bin
16M	/sbin
11M	/boot
2.8M	/root
200M	/lib
18M	/lib64/
0	/srv/
13M	/etca
270M	total

That would leave only 30M for updates and new apps. Now compare that to your /usr/local directory which you have allocated 20G and as mimosa pointed out doesn't really get used by salix / slackware packges. This is what my /usr /local looks like.

Code: Select all

rich@dads-laptop:~$ sudo du -h -c -s /usr/local/
4.0K	/usr/local/
4.0K	total

So I recommend that you get rid of the separate /usr/local and /opt partitions and make your / around 10G and allocate the remaining space to /usr