root subdirectory under /root

[LindseyD.]

I tried to use mintconstructor but ran out of room on my root partition. I can't recall now how I got out of the procedure, but I did, cleaned up some space and have a working computer again.

However, the root partition is almost full, and in searching for what could be causing that, I found a root directory inside the root directory in /. That is, /root/root.

The root subdirectory contains all the directories that are also on /. That is, bin, etc, var et al. Also a root directory!

Oh boy, this is complicated. I've attached a screenshot.

pink side is the "new" root directory

borked_root1.png (125.86 KiB) Viewed 1253 times

Note the dates: the root subdirectory files are older, but the directory itself was created/modified on the day I tried mintconstructor, and is not identical to the "normal" one--file sizes are different, but that could be due to the fact I interrupted the mintconstructor thing midstream (constructus interruptus?) (sorry.couldn't resist)

FWIW, I'm on Mint9, but the iso I was trying to modify was Mint12. I think the 2011 dates refer to Mint12.

Anyway, is it safe to delete that root subdirectory? Is there some way of checking which are the vailid files?

[terdon]

As far as I know there is no reason to have a /root/root subdirectory. /root is just the home directory ($HOME) of the root user. It does not contain any system critical files. So yes, you should be able to delete /root/root with no problems.

Now, what were you doing with mintconstructor? From your question I am assuming that you are not a very experienced user. As far as I know mintconstructor is useful to make a mint iso :

Used by the dev team to automate all the tedious repetitive work (mksquashfs, mkisofs, chroot, etc..) while making a mint iso.

Are you sure it is what you wanted to use?

[LindseyD.]

As far as I know there is no reason to have a /root/root subdirectory. /root is just the home directory ($HOME) of the root user. It does not contain any system critical files. So yes, you should be able to delete /root/root with no problems.

That's what I was thinking, but deleting anything labelled root is not for the faint of heart, so I wanted to double check. Thanks.

Now, what were you doing with mintconstructor? ...

Are you sure it is what you wanted to use?

Yes. I plan on installing Mint 13 KDE, but from the size of the iso (under 1G) I suspect there's not a lot of applications included. Since I only have a dialup account at home, I'd have to install applications to build into the iso at the library (free wireless), so I wanted to do a dry run first. I actually had enough room on my root partition for the iso, but had no idea it would expand the way it did--this without installing anything. So much in Linux sounds easy until you actually try it

[terdon]

Fair enough. And that's a perfectly good reason to use mintconstructor

Sorry if I sounded patronising, I was just checking. Good luck with it!

[LindseyD.]

Sorry if I sounded patronising

You didn't, hope I didn't sound like I felt patronised

I needed hand-holding, and you provided it, and for that I'm grateful. I've been on Linux for a few years now, but I'm not familiar with most "under the hood" stuff--I haven't had the need to know it.

Good luck with it!

I still don't know how much space I'd need, so I'll have to play it safe and abandon the idea. Have to install the hard way: one trip to the library to download the iso, then a second to install what I'll need by way of applications. Sigh!

[dalcde]

When you use mintconstructor, you have to extract everything in the iso to your working directory (/root) in order to work with them (the iso is compressed and you can't directly work with it). So you can delete all of them.