It is clear that sda5 is 100% full. And that is your / (root) partition.
/var is only one of the many off springs there.
BTW I assume that sda6 is the /home file system you changed to ext4.
So you have to check what fills up /.
Again that is an heuristic process. You start (as root) at the bottom, in this case /:
cd /
du -sh *
from what you see there you guess what is out of proportion. Let us assume that is /data (which you probably do not even have), then you go there and repeat
cd /data
du -sh *
etc. until you think you got the culprit.
It then depends on what you found on how to repair. When it is a log file that runs amok, maybe check what the messages show (because that is what went wrong in the first place) and then emtpty or even remove it (most log files will be recreated when gone).
Of course report here with waht you found or if in doubt. Success!
As you are now running in run-level 3, IMHO you can delete all there. But first take a look to get an idea of what is still there that probably should have been deleted, or not have being created (stupid idea: a copy of the tar file of /home?).
Thanks for all your help. Things are now working, and to prove it I’m posting this from the PC that had the problem.
I’ve learned a lot under your guidance, so I can’t say that it’s been wasted time. I hope I haven’t ruined your Christmas.
I used to allocate /tmp to a tmpfs file system once upon a time, and I can’t remember why I stopped doing that. But that’s a minor problem and probably not important now.
# Clear tmp directories separately, to make them easier to override
# SUSE policy: we don't clean those directories
d /tmp 1777 root root -
d /var/tmp 1777 root root -
into
# Clear tmp directories separately, to make them easier to override
# My policy: empty /tmp en /var/tmp on boot.
D! /tmp 1777 root root 1d
D! /var/tmp 1777 root root 1d
See
man 5 tmpfiles.d
================================
For making /tmp a tmpfs:
Add an entry into /etc/fstab
Before mounting this file system for the first time (either by command, or by reboot) you should clean the present /tmp directory as good as possible. Existing contents will still occupy disk space when you mount a file system over it.
Thanks for this advice. I’ll have a look at the mans and have a try at setting something up.
/tmp contained a single file of 26G, which was the culprit. This was entirely my fault. After backing up /home I tried to check the tar file using Ark in KDE and it crashed, but everything else seemed to be okay running in command mode so I went on with reformatting the /home partition. So there’s no one to blame but myself.
Thanks for the explanation as how /tmp filled up. I already guessed it had something to do with your /home action, but it is always satisfying when you can say afterwards that you understand all that happened.
BTW, nothing to blame you, except may be the lesson that when using the CLI, stick to it. :).
Another BTW. It is always difficult to help people when you can not see what they see and can not face to face discuss what to type on the keyboard. That is how it is with forums like these. But you did very well manage these problems and it was a pleasure working with you.
I’m always happiest when I understand what’s gone wrong as well.
BTW, nothing to blame you, except may be the lesson that when using the CLI, stick to it. :).
That lesson is now engraved on my brain!
Another BTW. It is always difficult to help people when you can not see what they see and can not face to face discuss what to type on the keyboard. That is how it is with forums like these. But you did very well manage these problems and it was a pleasure working with you.
It was a pleasure working with you as well (and nrickert, with a wave to gogalthorp).
If I have a problem with your advice on /tmp I’ll start a new thread.