Root partition is full

English Install/Boot/Login
#1

opensuse v13.1
linux 3.11.10-25-desktop x86_64

The server has been around a while; the root partition is only 20 GB. Today the squid proxy quit because it could not write whatever to the volume.

$ df -h
Filesystem                            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sdd2                              20G   19G  234M  99% /
devtmpfs                              1.8G   40K  1.8G   1% /dev
tmpfs                                 1.9G     0  1.9G   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs                                 1.9G  6.2M  1.9G   1% /run
tmpfs                                 1.9G     0  1.9G   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
tmpfs                                 1.9G  6.2M  1.9G   1% /var/run
tmpfs                                 1.9G  6.2M  1.9G   1% /var/lock
/dev/sdb1                             230G   53G  166G  25% /data01
/dev/sdd3                             130G  1.2G  122G   1% /home

The root is showing 234M free space because I deleted some files that were extraneous. Before that the free space was listed at 0.

I have gone through all of the root directories using du -sh in search of the one that has consumed the free space. I could not find one. Adding all of the used space reported by du results in 16GB.

What is using the remaining 4 GB? How do I find what has filled the volume?

#2

A quick guess 5% would be reserved blocks (ext3/4 does this to allow root login even if the file system is full) with possibly some application / service having an open file handle that reserves space ( lsof +aL1 would show what applications have unlinked files open )

Have you rebooted the server since you ran out of space?

#3

Have you checked /tmp? Or do you remove everything from there on every boot?

Else you can start from the top (/) and do

du -sh *

Then try to estimate which one has grown out of proportions. got there and repeat

cd culprit
du -sh  *

Repeat. Thus, with trial and intelligent guessing, you might find where all your space has gone.

#4

Yes. Since the swap disk was nearly full, I thought restarting might help. It made no difference.

#5

Please explain. What did you “see” that brought you to this conclusion?

#6

how many kernels do you have installed?

if unsure have a look in /lib/modules/,
how many sub-directories are populated?

#7

Looking in /lib/modules/ there are 18 kernel directories, using 1.3 GB of space. None of 2.6.x or 3.7.x are populated, all of the 3.11.x are. I only have two kernels listed in the boot loader.

Is it safe to remove all of the older kernels? (rm -fr <whatever>). Or is there a more proper system command to do this?

#8

It is of course best to de-install things using YaST > Software > Software Management or zypper. Not to use explosives. You can always revert to violence using rm when all else fails :wink:

#9

There is a graphical tool called filelight. That might help if you’re graphically inclined.

#10

Which is why I asked about a more proper method. However, YaST only lists the most current kernel. Is there another system tool to remove the kernel modules, or just blindly delete them?

#11

it looks as though old kernels are there,

note the installed kernel versions listed in yast, the associated sub-directories /lib/modules/ should not be touched,
it should be safe to delete the contents of the others

also delete the associated kernel parts in /boot/, if any,
e.g.
config-3.11.0-1.xxxxxx
initrd-3.11.0-1.xxxxxx-desktop
sysctl.conf-3.11.0-1.xxxxxx
symvers-3.11.0-1.xxxxxx.gz
System.map-3.11.0-1.xxxxxx
vmlinux-3.11.0-1.xxxxxx.gz
vmlinuz-3.11.0-1.xxxxxx

where 3.11.0-1.xxxxxx is the version of the unwanted kernel/s (NOT shown in yast)

NB. if a mistake is made a full re-install will be necessary

#12

Or you could just remove kernel from multiversion = in /etc/zypp/zypp.conf and run **zypper ve **​which will then promply remove all but the latest kernel.

#13

Did you use the Versions tab?

Or follow Miuku as by above.

That is of course all when you installed those several kernels using YaST/zypper (maybe even Apper). When you moved them in manualy, you have to delete them manualy.