LMDE XFCE really strange behaviour

[piovrauz]

I'm experiencing a really strange, and dangerous if let alone, issue in LMDE 2012 XFCE release.

If I check disk space (via thunar) I get inconsistents values, like:
- used space 26GB, free spade 12GB (on a 32GB ext3 root partition)

If I check disk space (via df) I get apparently correct values, like:
- used space 20GB, free spade 12GB (on the same partition)

If I manually check some directories where I have big files, I see a total of 18GB of files, so adding the OS/Programs used space (4GB or more, as reported by GParted on a fresh install) the used space becames at least 22GB.

Then I created a 96GB ext3 partition with GParted, and after mounting it it is just 89,5GB...

*** EDIT ***
It checked this with LMDE 2012 MATE, the values are consistent (Gparted, df, file browser), and the ) 96GB partition is 96GB, so this issue applys to LMDE XFCE only. It didn't happens with Ubuntu Maverick, the distro I used before on that box.

I checked the HDD, partitions, etc (just in case), all is ok, but still I can't get a proper report of used and free space, reporting free space where there is not is really dangerous. True, it's a small 32GB partition for testing pourpouse, but I happened to actually run out of space, and it isn't funny until you fix it.

Something must be really wrong here, I'd really appreciate some help here... Thanks a lot.

[Oscar799]

Moved here by moderator

[piovrauz]

meh, I expected more feedback on this matter, since I deem it as a serious one, but seems like nobody is eperiencing it, or ppl just go MATE or Cinnamon... HDDs are just too big nowadays...

[Brian49]

It looks like an issue with Thunar, rather than with Xfce as a whole. Could it have anything to do with the size of the units Thunar uses to report the allocation of drive space? Or maybe Thunar just isn't very clever at calculating spaces; I've certainly found that, with noticeable discrepancies between what Thunar reports and what Conky reports.

[piovrauz]

df output is inconsistent too. the only output data consistent with reality seems gparted.

[Ady]

Each tool (Thunar file manager, Gparted and so on) may use a different combination of 1000 / 1024 values and a combination of file size and actual space used.

Sadly, I would not expect a specific precise complete answer here in the forum.

If you are mostly interested in the free (or available) space, open a terminal and run

Code: Select all

df –-block-size=1

and concentrate on the “Available” column (values in bytes). The free space info provided in the lower status bar of Thunar should be close enough to that “Available” value from the above df command.

[piovrauz]

at this point I don't expect a complete answer too.
still, output between main program utilities should be consistent, and when it's not it's the distro as a whole that suffers of it (the DE, in this case), and a distro should be consistent (well, mint with gnome 2 was that)
The thing that puzzles me, is that the 96GB ext3 partition created and formetted with GParted, after mounting it it is just 89,5GB... and it's empty! way to go... well, as I said LMDE with MATE doesn't suffer of this, more than rounding I think some lib or virtual fs reporting wrong data in the middle...