Why a root partition doesn't need more than 20 GB
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Why a root partition doesn't need more than 20 GB
I have been setting up my root partition sizes to at least 120 GB, because I simply presumed those advising no more than 20 GB only have very few software installations in their systems. That is until one post in the forum threads caught my attention: "If you split system and data, then 100 GB for root is excessive.."
Then it suddenly hit me...that was exactly the thing I've been missing. Every time I install a software, I leave it to decide where it saves its data. Had I known to do it right early on, I would have had 30 distros in multi-boot setup on my test machine (instead of just 5 distros).
My question is: Is there any Linux software which does not allow moving its default data directory somewhere else?
Then it suddenly hit me...that was exactly the thing I've been missing. Every time I install a software, I leave it to decide where it saves its data. Had I known to do it right early on, I would have had 30 distros in multi-boot setup on my test machine (instead of just 5 distros).
My question is: Is there any Linux software which does not allow moving its default data directory somewhere else?
If you're looking for a greener Linux pasture, you won't find any that is greener than Linux Mint. ;)
Re: Why a root partition doesn't need more than 20 GB
The context in which I made that statement that you quoted was that a separate partition was mounted at /home. Your user folder is located in /home and thus what I assume you mean with the "default data directory".
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Re: Why a root partition doesn't need more than 20 GB
I mean other directories outside /home. For example, Apache and MariaDB store their data inside /var by default. I could just move them somewhere in the /home folder.
If you're looking for a greener Linux pasture, you won't find any that is greener than Linux Mint. ;)
Re: Why a root partition doesn't need more than 20 GB
It depends on whether you have separate boot and home partitions. My LM 19 install only has a root partition and its total size is about 30 GB now
Re: Why a root partition doesn't need more than 20 GB
My two cents -
/home is a directory under "/" - and part of that OS, really - and "data" is stored somewhere else.
/home has settings for programs which make up the OS in "/". These settings won't necessarily work 100% correctly, or at all, with other OSs and/or desktops.
"data" = files which are independent of the OS - music, movies, etc, and aren't on the same partition as the OS. They work with any OS or desktop. The data is on a separate partition from "/", mounted to /data or wherever, /mnt/DATA...
And then "/" doesn't generally need more than 20GB.
/home is a directory under "/" - and part of that OS, really - and "data" is stored somewhere else.
/home has settings for programs which make up the OS in "/". These settings won't necessarily work 100% correctly, or at all, with other OSs and/or desktops.
"data" = files which are independent of the OS - music, movies, etc, and aren't on the same partition as the OS. They work with any OS or desktop. The data is on a separate partition from "/", mounted to /data or wherever, /mnt/DATA...
And then "/" doesn't generally need more than 20GB.
Please edit your original post title to include [SOLVED] if/when it is solved!
Your data and OS are backed up....right?
Your data and OS are backed up....right?
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Re: Why a root partition doesn't need more than 20 GB
I should have probably made it clear that my data partition is separate from the root partitions. I also loosely referred to the same data partition as /home. My apologies for the inaccurate description.
If you're looking for a greener Linux pasture, you won't find any that is greener than Linux Mint. ;)
Re: Why a root partition doesn't need more than 20 GB
hi mediclaser and all!
This interests me too, having seen the same comment you refer to by gm10, as I Do make separate partitions (/, /home, swap, even a /mnt/data for personal files)
and I have yet to see root smaller than 12GB locally (currently this laptop has root at 13.64GB, close to my old laptop and exact same as significant other's laptop) a far cry from 8GB I also saw that thread as normal sounding and too close to 20GB many say is future proof for root.
Not sure how I make such a messy pile but being off by that many GB is weird sounding to me but I rest assured my min root partition size is 50GB so I'm not too concerned about elbow room there... yet
This interests me too, having seen the same comment you refer to by gm10, as I Do make separate partitions (/, /home, swap, even a /mnt/data for personal files)
and I have yet to see root smaller than 12GB locally (currently this laptop has root at 13.64GB, close to my old laptop and exact same as significant other's laptop) a far cry from 8GB I also saw that thread as normal sounding and too close to 20GB many say is future proof for root.
Not sure how I make such a messy pile but being off by that many GB is weird sounding to me but I rest assured my min root partition size is 50GB so I'm not too concerned about elbow room there... yet
Re: Why a root partition doesn't need more than 20 GB
Mine is at 11.8 and has been for quite some time.redlined wrote: ⤴Wed Nov 28, 2018 7:38 pm ...
and I have yet to see root smaller than 12GB locally (currently this laptop has root at 13.64GB, close to my old laptop and exact same as significant other's laptop) a far cry from 8GB I also saw that thread as normal sounding and too close to 20GB many say is future proof for root.
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Re: Why a root partition doesn't need more than 20 GB
I hear you. My Mint 19 root partition is already at 22 GB. I was trying to applaud the idea I thought gm10 was describing. I still give him credit for it though.redlined wrote: ⤴Wed Nov 28, 2018 7:38 pm hi mediclaser and all!
This interests me too, having seen the same comment you refer to by gm10, as I Do make separate partitions (/, /home, swap, even a /mnt/data for personal files)
and I have yet to see root smaller than 12GB locally (currently this laptop has root at 13.64GB, close to my old laptop and exact same as significant other's laptop) a far cry from 8GB I also saw that thread as normal sounding and too close to 20GB many say is future proof for root.
Not sure how I make such a messy pile but being off by that many GB is weird sounding to me but I rest assured my min root partition size is 50GB so I'm not too concerned about elbow room there... yet
If you're looking for a greener Linux pasture, you won't find any that is greener than Linux Mint. ;)
Re: Why a root partition doesn't need more than 20 GB
it is weird, for sure and I don't know how it bloats like that but this laptop was LM19 fresh installed to a new ssd over the past couple weeks, SO's laptop has gone from 18.3 in June thru upgrade process to LM19 last month and both laptops are at 13.6GB used for root (I set hers up so having 13 of 50GB used for root look similar at this point is expected). I need to break open some man pages and see if I can find some offending space use, how else to account for "a couple of Gigs" more on new installs versus folks with systems been around for quite some time?JerryF wrote: ⤴Wed Nov 28, 2018 8:21 pmMine is at 11.8 and has been for quite some time.redlined wrote: ⤴Wed Nov 28, 2018 7:38 pm ...
and I have yet to see root smaller than 12GB locally (currently this laptop has root at 13.64GB, close to my old laptop and exact same as significant other's laptop) a far cry from 8GB I also saw that thread as normal sounding and too close to 20GB many say is future proof for root.
Shutter_020.jpg
Re: Why a root partition doesn't need more than 20 GB
now 22GB sounds more my style!mediclaser wrote: ⤴Wed Nov 28, 2018 8:35 pm I hear you. My Mint 19 root partition is already at 22 GB. I was trying to applaud the idea I thought gm10 was describing. I still give him credit for it though.
and if I understood correctly you do have a separate /home (and data?) from root partition, correct?
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Re: Why a root partition doesn't need more than 20 GB
Correct.redlined wrote: ⤴Wed Nov 28, 2018 8:40 pmnow 22GB sounds more my style!mediclaser wrote: ⤴Wed Nov 28, 2018 8:35 pm I hear you. My Mint 19 root partition is already at 22 GB. I was trying to applaud the idea I thought gm10 was describing. I still give him credit for it though.
and if I understood correctly you do have a separate /home (and data?) from root partition, correct?
If you're looking for a greener Linux pasture, you won't find any that is greener than Linux Mint. ;)
Re: Why a root partition doesn't need more than 20 GB
awesome!mediclaser wrote: ⤴Wed Nov 28, 2018 8:49 pmCorrect.redlined wrote: ⤴Wed Nov 28, 2018 8:40 pmnow 22GB sounds more my style!mediclaser wrote: ⤴Wed Nov 28, 2018 8:35 pm I hear you. My Mint 19 root partition is already at 22 GB. I was trying to applaud the idea I thought gm10 was describing. I still give him credit for it though.
and if I understood correctly you do have a separate /home (and data?) from root partition, correct?
(although I do enjoy being weird, I don't think if its just two of us that has category changed to a new norm
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Re: Why a root partition doesn't need more than 20 GB
Just in case a beginner (like me) stumbles across this thread, the main idea is to keep your root partition from growing fast if you decide to do separate root and data partitions. And a cool way to accomplish this to switch or move the default "data" directory of your apps to the data partition.
Example of the apps are:
* Timeshift -- I know in Mint 19, it saves the snapshots in the root partition if you do not specify a different location.
* Apache web server -- Your web files can grow big when your images or other big files reside in the "www" folder inside /var
* MySQL/MariaDB -- Databases I create can grow pretty quick, especially when I store PDF and images in binary fields.
Example of the apps are:
* Timeshift -- I know in Mint 19, it saves the snapshots in the root partition if you do not specify a different location.
* Apache web server -- Your web files can grow big when your images or other big files reside in the "www" folder inside /var
* MySQL/MariaDB -- Databases I create can grow pretty quick, especially when I store PDF and images in binary fields.
If you're looking for a greener Linux pasture, you won't find any that is greener than Linux Mint. ;)
Re: Why a root partition doesn't need more than 20 GB
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df
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1 20107524 4327644 14735420 23% / <Mint 19>
/dev/sda6 137034856 46277696 83962592 36% /mnt/DATA
/dev/sda7 25800208 4331836 20134716 18% /mnt/ <lubuntu18>
/dev/sda2 19946764 4410544 14499932 24% /mnt/ <Mint18.3>
Please edit your original post title to include [SOLVED] if/when it is solved!
Your data and OS are backed up....right?
Your data and OS are backed up....right?
Re: Why a root partition doesn't need more than 20 GB
Older kernels should be removed. I keep 3 and rotate them.redlined wrote: ⤴Wed Nov 28, 2018 8:36 pm it is weird, for sure and I don't know how it bloats like that but this laptop was LM19 fresh installed to a new ssd over the past couple weeks, SO's laptop has gone from 18.3 in June thru upgrade process to LM19 last month and both laptops are at 13.6GB used for root (I set hers up so having 13 of 50GB used for root look similar at this point is expected). I need to break open some man pages and see if I can find some offending space use, how else to account for "a couple of Gigs" more on new installs versus folks with systems been around for quite some time?
For example:
4.15.0-34
4.15.0-36
4.15.0-38
then,when 4.15.0-39 comes through, I apply it, reboot, and work with that kernel. After a couple of weeks if things run smoothly, I then remove the oldest kernel, 4.15.0-34
Re: Why a root partition doesn't need more than 20 GB
yet I've always set my PCs to have:
- / root = 10Gb
- /swap = 1 -2 Gb
- /home = rest of drive.
and then found that LM19 was getting too fat for a 10Gb / root
thus it's now at 15Gb in size & seems to be holding at 13,5Gb in used area ATM.
if you did keep the standard install of / root only & the /home as a sub-directory of that,
then you wouldn't necessary need a huge / root partition - maybe 50 - 100Gb or so.
- / root = 10Gb
- /swap = 1 -2 Gb
- /home = rest of drive.
and then found that LM19 was getting too fat for a 10Gb / root
thus it's now at 15Gb in size & seems to be holding at 13,5Gb in used area ATM.
if you did keep the standard install of / root only & the /home as a sub-directory of that,
then you wouldn't necessary need a huge / root partition - maybe 50 - 100Gb or so.
Please edit your original post title to include [SOLVED] - when your problem is solved!
and DO LOOK at those Unanswered Topics - - you may be able to answer some!.
Re: Why a root partition doesn't need more than 20 GB
If you've got /home as a separate partition and no /swapfile then all that needs to be in / root is the system itself plus whichever packages you are installing, plus system data. Unless you are installing a huge amount of applications and/or are running some servers with their large data files in / root as someone mentioned above, then there is no reason for your system to be that large. For 22 GB I would actually expect something like /timeshift snapshots in root, which does, of course, double your disk space usage.mediclaser wrote: ⤴Wed Nov 28, 2018 8:35 pmI hear you. My Mint 19 root partition is already at 22 GB. I was trying to applaud the idea I thought gm10 was describing. I still give him credit for it though.redlined wrote: ⤴Wed Nov 28, 2018 7:38 pm This interests me too, having seen the same comment you refer to by gm10, as I Do make separate partitions (/, /home, swap, even a /mnt/data for personal files)
and I have yet to see root smaller than 12GB locally (currently this laptop has root at 13.64GB, close to my old laptop and exact same as significant other's laptop) a far cry from 8GB I also saw that thread as normal sounding and too close to 20GB many say is future proof for root.
Not sure how I make such a messy pile but being off by that many GB is weird sounding to me but I rest assured my min root partition size is 50GB so I'm not too concerned about elbow room there... yet
Now unfortunately the Mint system is very messy, none of the tools clean up after themselves. I tried to get some automatic maintenance squeezed into 19.1 but seems you'll only get that for 19.2, if at all.
But here's a little experiment for you, let's make some room on your / root, see how much we'll free up:
First let's keep track of where we're at:
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BEFORE=$(df / -h|tail -1|awk '{print $3}')
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apt clean
apt autoremove --purge -y $(dpkg -l | grep '^rc' | awk '{print $2}')
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dpkg-query -W -f '${Version}\n' 'linux-image-[^g]*'|sort -u|sed -e "/^$/d;s/\~[^~]*$//;s/\.[^.]*$//;/$(uname -r|sed 's/-generic\|-lowlatency//')/d;s/.*/linux-*-&*/"|tr '\n' ' '|xargs -r sudo apt-get remove --purge -y
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sudo rm -rfv /usr/lib/locale/*
sudo locale-gen --purge
--no-archive
to that last command line. Further control about localization data incl. automated removal can be had with scripts like the package localepurge
, check that out later if you're interested.If you're one of those who like to run their file browser or worse as root, then you've probably got disk space to recover there as well (deleting to Trash as root is a classic, since you cannot clear it via the GUI):
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sudo rm -rfv /root/.local/share/Trash
sudo rm -rfv /root/.cache
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AFTER=$(df / -h|tail -1|awk '{print $3}')
echo "/ usage was $BEFORE, is now $AFTER"
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sudo du / -hxd 1 -t 100M
Last edited by gm10 on Mon Dec 10, 2018 8:26 am, edited 2 times in total.
Re: Why a root partition doesn't need more than 20 GB
most excellent list of commands gm10, thanks for that (definitely a bookmarked thread:). (one typo to fix, move dash to right, change
also, i had not come across command
JerryF I've trimmed old kernels on my old laptop but this one is install less than two weeks. I did run command to remove them though.
Pierre, thanks for sharing your experience with 19 taking so much more, this was the weird part for me as I started this past Spring on LM18.3 and drive use for root go to 8GB quickly, but the bump to 13GB with LM19 was surprising and wasn't sure how to read linux veterans maintaining root under 10GB.
Like mediclaser mentions I have been working to keep everything out of root partition (home, personal files, timeshift backups, etc) that I could.
anyways, my mess
sudo rm- rfv /root/.cache
to read sudo rm -rfv /root/.cache
also, i had not come across command
df
before Flemur I've adeded results from that and gm10s group of commands below. JerryF I've trimmed old kernels on my old laptop but this one is install less than two weeks. I did run command to remove them though.
Pierre, thanks for sharing your experience with 19 taking so much more, this was the weird part for me as I started this past Spring on LM18.3 and drive use for root go to 8GB quickly, but the bump to 13GB with LM19 was surprising and wasn't sure how to read linux veterans maintaining root under 10GB.
Like mediclaser mentions I have been working to keep everything out of root partition (home, personal files, timeshift backups, etc) that I could.
anyways, my mess
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anyuser@f023:~$ df
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
udev 3998140 0 3998140 0% /dev
tmpfs 806076 1412 804664 1% /run
/dev/sda3 48952100 12361448 34074268 27% /
tmpfs 4030368 33612 3996756 1% /dev/shm
tmpfs 5120 4 5116 1% /run/lock
tmpfs 4030368 0 4030368 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
tmpfs 4030368 400 4029968 1% /tmp
/dev/sda2 999320 154020 776488 17% /boot
/dev/sda5 294243128 8742416 270484316 4% /home
/dev/sda6 364220008 29807464 317553168 9% /mnt/data
tmpfs 806072 52 806020 1% /run/user/1000
anyuser@f023:~$ BEFORE=$(df / -h|tail -1|awk '{print $3}')
anyuser@f023:~$ apt clean
[sudo] password for anyuser:
anyuser@f023:~$ apt autoremove --purge -y $(dpkg -l | grep '^rc' | awk '{print $2}')
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
firejail-profiles* fonts-texgyre* libenet7*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 3 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
(Reading database ... 341022 files and directories currently installed.)
Purging configuration files for libenet7:amd64 (1.3.12+ds-2) ...
Purging configuration files for fonts-texgyre (20160520-1) ...
Purging configuration files for firejail-profiles (0.9.52-2) ...
anyuser@f023:~$ dpkg-query -W -f '${Version}\n' 'linux-image-[^g]*'|sort -u|sed -e '/^$/d' -e 's/\~[^~]*$//' -e 's/\.[^.]*$//' -e "/$(uname -r|sed 's/-generic\|-lowlatency//')/d" -e 's/.*/linux-*-&*/'|tr '\n' ' '|xargs -pr sudo apt-get remove --purge -y
sudo apt-get remove --purge -y linux-*-4.15.0-20* ?...
anyuser@f023:~$ sudo rm -rfv /usr/lib/locale/*
removed '/usr/lib/locale/C.UTF-8/LC_PAPER'
removed '/usr/lib/locale/C.UTF-8/LC_TIME'
removed '/usr/lib/locale/C.UTF-8/LC_NUMERIC'
removed '/usr/lib/locale/C.UTF-8/LC_NAME'
removed '/usr/lib/locale/C.UTF-8/LC_TELEPHONE'
removed '/usr/lib/locale/C.UTF-8/LC_ADDRESS'
removed '/usr/lib/locale/C.UTF-8/LC_MEASUREMENT'
removed '/usr/lib/locale/C.UTF-8/LC_MONETARY'
removed '/usr/lib/locale/C.UTF-8/LC_IDENTIFICATION'
removed '/usr/lib/locale/C.UTF-8/LC_MESSAGES/SYS_LC_MESSAGES'
removed directory '/usr/lib/locale/C.UTF-8/LC_MESSAGES'
removed '/usr/lib/locale/C.UTF-8/LC_CTYPE'
removed '/usr/lib/locale/C.UTF-8/LC_COLLATE'
removed directory '/usr/lib/locale/C.UTF-8'
removed '/usr/lib/locale/locale-archive'
anyuser@f023:~$ sudo locale-gen --purge
Generating locales (this might take a while)...
en_AG.UTF-8... done
en_AU.UTF-8... done
en_BW.UTF-8... done
en_CA.UTF-8... done
en_DK.UTF-8... done
en_GB.UTF-8... done
en_HK.UTF-8... done
en_IE.UTF-8... done
en_IL.UTF-8... done
en_IN.UTF-8... done
en_NG.UTF-8... done
en_NZ.UTF-8... done
en_PH.UTF-8... done
en_SG.UTF-8... done
en_US.UTF-8... done
en_ZA.UTF-8... done
en_ZM.UTF-8... done
en_ZW.UTF-8... done
Generation complete.
anyuser@f023:~$ sudo rm -rfv /root/.local/share/Trash
anyuser@f023:~$ sudo rm- rfv /root/.cache
sudo: rm-: command not found
anyuser@f023:~$ sudo rm -rfv /root/.cache
removed '/root/.cache/thumbnails/fail/gnome-thumbnail-factory/ff169c4ac6079d5e0e12dc32ed07906a.png'
removed directory '/root/.cache/thumbnails/fail/gnome-thumbnail-factory'
removed directory '/root/.cache/thumbnails/fail'
removed '/root/.cache/thumbnails/normal/94347497fef358e3e8cb7743ba55cf14.png'
removed '/root/.cache/thumbnails/normal/73bfc520ff78e7e0cf8f858d61c9af5a.png'
removed '/root/.cache/thumbnails/normal/ae15fe71f3c5fb928a58f630c5940824.png'
removed directory '/root/.cache/thumbnails/normal'
removed directory '/root/.cache/thumbnails'
removed '/root/.cache/dconf/user'
removed directory '/root/.cache/dconf'
removed '/root/.cache/gufw.py/WebKitCache/Version 13/salt'
removed directory '/root/.cache/gufw.py/WebKitCache/Version 13/Blobs'
removed directory '/root/.cache/gufw.py/WebKitCache/Version 13'
removed directory '/root/.cache/gufw.py/WebKitCache'
removed directory '/root/.cache/gufw.py'
removed '/root/.cache/gstreamer-1.0/registry.x86_64.bin'
removed directory '/root/.cache/gstreamer-1.0'
removed directory '/root/.cache'
anyuser@f023:~$ AFTER=$(df / -h|tail -1|awk '{print $3}')
anyuser@f023:~$ echo "/ usage was $BEFORE, is now $AFTER"
/ usage was 12G, is now 12G
anyuser@f023:~$ df
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
udev 3998140 0 3998140 0% /dev
tmpfs 806076 1412 804664 1% /run
/dev/sda3 48952100 12354748 34080968 27% /
tmpfs 4030368 33300 3997068 1% /dev/shm
tmpfs 5120 4 5116 1% /run/lock
tmpfs 4030368 0 4030368 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
tmpfs 4030368 400 4029968 1% /tmp
/dev/sda2 999320 154020 776488 17% /boot
/dev/sda5 294243128 8742432 270484300 4% /home
/dev/sda6 364220008 29807464 317553168 9% /mnt/data
tmpfs 806072 52 806020 1% /run/user/1000
anyuser@f023:~$ sudo du / -hxd 1 -t 100M
793M /lib
5.8G /usr
149M /opt
5.0G /var
12G /
anyuser@f023:~$ inxi -Fxzd
System: Host: f023 Kernel: 4.15.0-39-generic x86_64 bits: 64 gcc: 7.3.0
Desktop: Cinnamon 3.8.9 (Gtk 3.22.30-1ubuntu1)
Distro: Linux Mint 19 Tara
Machine: Device: laptop System: Hewlett-Packard product: HP 15 Notebook PC v: 0973100003405F00000620180 serial: N/A
Mobo: Hewlett-Packard model: 233F v: 06.16 serial: N/A
UEFI [Legacy]: Insyde v: F.23 date: 08/05/2015
Battery BAT0: charge: 26.3 Wh 100.0% condition: 26.3/26.3 Wh (100%)
model: Hewlett-Packard Primary status: Full
CPU: Quad core Intel Celeron N2920 (-MCP-)
arch: Silvermont rev.3 cache: 1024 KB
flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 14929
clock speeds: max: 1999 MHz 1: 1387 MHz 2: 1317 MHz 3: 933 MHz
4: 933 MHz
Graphics: Card: Intel Atom Processor Z36xxx/Z37xxx Series Graphics & Display
bus-ID: 00:02.0
Display Server: x11 (X.Org 1.19.6 )
drivers: modesetting (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
Resolution: 1366x768@60.02hz
OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Bay Trail
version: 4.2 Mesa 18.0.5 Direct Render: Yes
Audio: Card Intel Atom Processor Z36xxx/Z37xxx Series High Def. Audio Controller
driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.15.0-39-generic
Network: Card-1: Realtek RTL8188EE Wireless Network Adapter
driver: rtl8188ee port: 2000 bus-ID: 02:00.0
IF: wlp2s0 state: down mac: <filter>
Card-2: Realtek RTL8101/2/6E PCIE Fast/Gigabit Ethernet controller
driver: r8169 v: 2.3LK-NAPI port: 1000 bus-ID: 03:00.0
IF: enp3s0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives: HDD Total Size: 1000.2GB (6.0% used)
ID-1: /dev/sda model: Samsung_SSD_860 size: 1000.2GB temp: 0C
Optical-1: /dev/sr0 model: hp DVDRW DU8A5SHL
rev: ZH63 dev-links: cdrom,cdrw,dvd,dvdrw
Features: speed: 24x multisession: yes
audio: yes dvd: yes rw: cd-r,cd-rw,dvd-r,dvd-ram state: running
Partition: ID-1: / size: 47G used: 12G (27%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda3
ID-2: /boot size: 976M used: 151M (17%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
ID-3: /home size: 281G used: 8.4G (4%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda5
ID-4: swap-1 size: 8.19GB used: 0.00GB (0%)
fs: swap dev: /dev/sda4
RAID: No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 48.0C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info: Processes: 214 Uptime: 1 day Memory: 3085.8/7871.8MB
Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 7.3.0
Client: Shell (bash 4.4.191) inxi: 2.3.56
anyuser@f023:~$
Re: Why a root partition doesn't need more than 20 GB
One place I'd check is
Mine is 2 GB full.
/var/log
Mine is 2 GB full.