Files saving to root partition instead of /home after install [SOLVED]

[MU7S]

I recently decided to switch to linux and went with mint 19 cinnamon. The install went smoothly, however when I started to download software, I got a low memory warning and looked into it and it seems all downloads are saving to the root partition instead of the /home partition. I apologize if this is already somewhere but I couldn't find a similar issue during the search (here or google). I feel the fix might be something silly so I thank you in advance for your help as well as patience.

[kukamuumuka]

What are results for the next Terminal-commands?

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whoami

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ls -l /

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inxi -po

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find $HOME ! -user $USER -type f

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[MU7S]

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mu7s@mu7s-NV77H:~$ whoami
mu7s

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mu7s@mu7s-NV77H:~$ ls -l /
total 100
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root  4096 Sep 23 10:19 bin
drwxr-xr-x   3 root root  4096 Sep 23 10:24 boot
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root  4096 Sep 22 22:03 cdrom
drwxr-xr-x  20 root root  4360 Sep 24 13:27 dev
drwxr-xr-x 145 root root 12288 Sep 23 10:49 etc
drwxr-xr-x   5 root root  4096 Sep 23 11:00 home
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root    33 Sep 22 22:05 initrd.img -> boot/initrd.img-4.15.0-20-generic
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root    33 Sep 22 21:49 initrd.img.old -> boot/initrd.img-4.15.0-20-generic
drwxr-xr-x  23 root root  4096 Sep 22 22:06 lib
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root  4096 Jul 17 07:23 lib64
drwx------   2 root root 16384 Sep 22 21:49 lost+found
drwxr-xr-x   3 root root  4096 Sep 22 22:11 media
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root  4096 Jul 17 07:23 mnt
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root  4096 Jul 17 07:23 opt
dr-xr-xr-x 204 root root     0 Sep 24 13:27 proc
drwx------   7 root root  4096 Sep 23 11:10 root
drwxr-xr-x  34 root root  1040 Sep 24 13:32 run
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root 12288 Sep 23 10:19 sbin
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root  4096 Sep 23 10:28 snap
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root  4096 Jul 17 07:23 srv
dr-xr-xr-x  13 root root     0 Sep 24 13:27 sys
drwxrwxrwt  13 root root  4096 Sep 24 13:33 tmp
drwxr-xr-x  10 root root  4096 Jul 17 07:22 usr
drwxr-xr-x  13 root root  4096 Sep 23 10:28 var
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root    30 Sep 22 22:05 vmlinuz -> boot/vmlinuz-4.15.0-20-generic

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mu7s@mu7s-NV77H:~$ inxi -po
Partition: ID-1: / size: 9.2G used: 7.7G (89%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda5
           ID-2: /home size: 64G used: 12G (19%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda7
           ID-3: /media/mu7s/001A-CBA9 size: 3.8G used: 80K (1%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sdb1
           ID-4: swap-1 size: 4.00GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda6
Unmounted: ID-1: /dev/sda1 size: 16.11G label: PQSERVICE uuid: 344225F74225BF0C
           ID-2: /dev/sda2 size: 0.10G label: SYSTEM RESERVED uuid: C4222629222620C2
           ID-3: /dev/sda3 size: 400.01G label: N/A uuid: 30A050F7A050C54E

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mu7s@mu7s-NV77H:~$ find $HOME ! -user $USER -type f
mu7s@mu7s-NV77H:~$

[gm10]

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Partition: ID-1: / size: 9.2G used: 7.7G (89%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda5
           ID-4: swap-1 size: 4.00GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda6

I doubt that you were actually saving any downloads to your root partition. 9.2 GB is a very small root partition and the reason you are getting the warnings.
My suggestion would be to delete that swap partition and grow the / root partition into that space, at least if they are adjacent as the numbering makes likely. You can do that with GParted after booting to a live USB. If you feel you need swap space you can create a swap file on the /home partition instead.

[MU7S]

thanks for the response, I could just shrink the windows partition to increase the root, how much space would you recommend if that is indeed the issue?

[gm10]

I'd say increase it to at least 12 GB, better 15. Note that if you move the left side of the root partition you may have to reinstall GRUB.

[MU7S]

thanks again, I will do that, Ive got plenty of space to pull from on the windows side, and thanks for the warning.

[Flemur]

The install went smoothly, however when I started to download software, I got a low memory warning and looked into it and it seems all downloads are saving to the root partition instead of the /home partition.

If "download software" means install updates and such using the standard methods (apt, synaptic, software-mangler), that is what is supposed to happen; the .deb files end up in /var/cache/apt/archives.