[SOLVED]Low disk space on linux mint 19.2

[mariolago]

Hi all! I did read every topic about low disk space messages that keep poping on linux mint 19.2, but none of them helped me. I also did the cleaning drill described at https://easylinuxtipsproject.blogspot.c ... -mint.html, but to no avail.

I have a nuc i3 with a 480gb ssd and just a linux mint 19.2 install. Timeshift has no backup/restore point. but after a while (1 and a half week) the low disk message pops. After a reboot the disk is normal again. What may be happening?

Thank you all.

inxi report below

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System:    Host: aaaa-NUC8i3BEH Kernel: 4.15.0-54-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 7.4.0 
           Desktop: Cinnamon 4.2.4 wm: muffin dm: LightDM Distro: Linux Mint 19.2 Tina 
           base: Ubuntu 18.04 bionic 
Machine:   Type: Desktop System: Intel Client Systems product: NUC8i3BEH v: J72753-304 
           serial: <filter> Chassis: Intel Corporation type: 3 v: 2.0 serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: Intel model: NUC8BEB v: J72693-305 serial: <filter> UEFI: Intel 
           v: BECFL357.86A.0064.2019.0213.1122 date: 02/13/2019 
CPU:       Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core i3-8109U bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Kaby Lake 
           rev: A L2 cache: 4096 KiB 
           flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 24000 
           Speed: 1600 MHz min/max: 400/3600 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1600 2: 1600 3: 1600 
           4: 1600 
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 chip ID: 8086:3ea5 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.19.6 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa 
           resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics (Coffeelake 3x8 GT3) v: 4.5 Mesa 19.0.8 
           compat-v: 3.0 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1f.3 chip ID: 8086:9dc8 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.15.0-54-generic 
Network:   Device-1: Intel driver: iwlwifi v: kernel port: 4000 bus ID: 00:14.3 chip ID: 8086:9df0 
           IF: wlp0s20f3 state: up mac: <filter> 
           Device-2: Intel Ethernet I219-V driver: e1000e v: 3.2.6-k port: efa0 bus ID: 00:1f.6 
           chip ID: 8086:15be 
           IF: eno1 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 447.14 GiB used: 310.99 GiB (69.5%) 
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Western Digital model: WDS480G2G0B-00EPW0 size: 447.14 GiB 
           speed: 6.0 Gb/s serial: <filter> 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 438.63 GiB used: 310.98 GiB (70.9%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2 
USB:       Hub: 1-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 12 rev: 2.0 chip ID: 1d6b:0002 
           Device-1: 1-2:2 info: SiGma Micro Keyboard TRACER Gamma Ivory type: Keyboard,HID 
           driver: hid-generic,usbhid rev: 1.1 chip ID: 1c4f:0002 
           Device-2: 1-4:3 info: SiGma Micro type: Mouse driver: hid-generic,usbhid rev: 1.1 
           chip ID: 1c4f:0034 
           Hub: 2-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 6 rev: 3.1 chip ID: 1d6b:0003 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 56.0 C mobo: 27.8 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Repos:     No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list 
           1: deb https: //cloud.r-project.org/bin/linux/ubuntu bionic-cran35/
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nodesource.list 
           1: deb https: //deb.nodesource.com/node_8.x bionic main
           2: deb-src https: //deb.nodesource.com/node_8.x bionic main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list 
           1: deb http: //packages.linuxmint.com tina main upstream import backport #id:linuxmint_main
           2: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic main restricted universe multiverse
           3: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates main restricted universe multiverse
           4: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-backports main restricted universe multiverse
           5: deb http: //security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic-security main restricted universe multiverse
           6: deb http: //archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ bionic partner
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/unit193-encryption-bionic.list 
           1: deb http: //ppa.launchpad.net/unit193/encryption/ubuntu bionic main
Info:      Processes: 208 Uptime: 3d 15h 18m Memory: 31.28 GiB used: 11.37 GiB (36.4%) 
           Init: systemd v: 237 runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 7.5.0 alt: 7 
           Client: Unknown python3.6 client inxi: 3.0.32 

[manyroads]

Hard to say what might be happening without the error messages & logs.

[Larry78723]

Please open a terminal and run the following command:

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df -h

Post the results in your reply.

[mariolago]

df -h

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Sist. Arq.      Tam. Usado Disp. Uso% Montado em
udev             16G     0   16G   0% /dev
tmpfs           3,2G  1,4M  3,2G   1% /run
/dev/sda2       439G  312G  106G  75% /
tmpfs            16G  533M   16G   4% /dev/shm
tmpfs           5,0M  4,0K  5,0M   1% /run/lock
tmpfs            16G     0   16G   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/sda1       511M  6,1M  505M   2% /boot/efi
tmpfs           3,2G   36K  3,2G   1% /run/user/1000

[Larry78723]

I see nothing in your df -h output that might cause a "low diskspace" message.

[mariolago]

That's why I did reboot, and then it comes back to normal. Would some log help?

[Flemur]

That's why I did reboot, and then it comes back to normal. Would some log help?

Reboot, open a terminal and run this, and keep an eye on it; it shows which directories are using how much space;

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watch "sudo du -hxcd1 / | sort -h"

-h = human-readable
-x = stay on filesystem
-c = show total
-d1 = depth 1 (= only top level directories)
--> sort "human readable" output so big directories at the end.

If a log file is filling up the partition, you'll see /var getting bigger; then you can do, e.g.

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watch "sudo du -hxc /var | sort -h"

Edit: the above is liable to output too many lines for watch to display gracefully...so
or just run

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sudo du -hxc /var | sort -h

or even show every file (-a), largest last:

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sudo du -hxac /var | sort -h

[mariolago]

Thank you very much! I did the first command line. Let's see what happens.

[Flemur]

Thank you very much! I did the first command line. Let's see what happens.

I should mention that the watch output will probably look like nothing's happening (output stays the same) until some file(s) get big(ger).

[mariolago]

Thank you very much! I did the first command line. Let's see what happens.

I should mention that the watch output will probably look like nothing's happening (output stays the same) until some file(s) get big(ger).

Understood. Thank you again. I will post here when something happen.

[mariolago]

Guess what? Yesterday there was 106gb of free space. Earlier today there was 100 gb. Now there is 92 and the "watch" terminal window doesn't show a difference in the folders size. At this rate tomorrow it will give the low disk message. This desktop is not connected to the web, runs some local statistical R scripts and a shinobi server that saves surveilance videos and deletes the older ones of them (shinobi folder where videos are saved still has the same size). Still wondering from where did come the 14 gb and where it is on the disk.

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Sist. Arq.      Tam. Usado Disp. Uso% Montado em
udev             16G     0   16G   0% /dev
tmpfs           3,2G  1,5M  3,2G   1% /run
/dev/sda2       439G  325G   92G  78% /
tmpfs            16G  547M   16G   4% /dev/shm
tmpfs           5,0M  4,0K  5,0M   1% /run/lock
tmpfs            16G     0   16G   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/sda1       511M  6,1M  505M   2% /boot/efi
tmpfs           3,2G   36K  3,2G   1% /run/user/1000

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A cada 2,0s: sudo du -hxcd1 / | so...  aaaa-NUC8i3BEH: Wed Jun 23 13:27:04 2021

4,0K    /cdrom
4,0K    /lib64
4,0K    /mnt
4,0K    /srv
8,0K    /media
16K     /lost+found
1,5M    /tmp
16M     /bin
17M     /etc
19M     /sbin
76M     /boot
139M    /root
202M    /opt
602M    /lib
1,7G    /var
6,4G    /usr
301G    /home
313G    /
313G    total

[Larry78723]

It appears that the problem area might be your /home folder. I suggest you start monitoring it using the following command:

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sudo du -hxac /home | sort -h

[Flemur]

At this rate tomorrow it will give the low disk message.

du will show the difference but you might be missing it; to save values from du for comparison, try one of these every once in a while:

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sudo du -hxcd1 / | sort -h > du.$(date +"%F-%T").txt

to create some files like (du.date-time.txt) = du.2021-06-23-11:48:30.txt; you can change the %F %T formats, see man date.

Edit: I agree with Larry78723 that it's probably your /home, the values for the other directories look OK.

[mariolago]

Thank you again Larry and Flemur! I am printscreening the terminal once in a while to compare. But I will do it.

[mariolago]

Disk space still slowly decreasing, but I don't see big differences in /home files.

One question: is it normal for df -h (332G) and sudo du -hxcd1 / (313G) to inform different used disk space?

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df -h

Sist. Arq.      Tam. Usado Disp. Uso% Montado em
udev             16G     0   16G   0% /dev
tmpfs           3,2G  1,4M  3,2G   1% /run
/dev/sda2       439G  332G   85G  80% /
tmpfs            16G  548M   16G   4% /dev/shm
tmpfs           5,0M  4,0K  5,0M   1% /run/lock
tmpfs            16G     0   16G   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/sda1       511M  6,1M  505M   2% /boot/efi
tmpfs           3,2G   40K  3,2G   1% /run/user/1000

sudo du -hxcd1 / | sort -h
4,0K	/cdrom
4,0K	/lib64
4,0K	/mnt
4,0K	/srv
8,0K	/media
16K	/lost+found
1,5M	/tmp
16M	/bin
17M	/etc
19M	/sbin
76M	/boot
139M	/root
202M	/opt
602M	/lib
1,7G	/var
6,4G	/usr
302G	/home
313G	/
313G	total

[DAMIEN1307]

Guess what? Yesterday there was 106gb of free space. Earlier today there was 100 gb. Now there is 92 and the "watch" terminal window doesn't show a difference in the folders size. At this rate tomorrow it will give the low disk message. This desktop is not connected to the web, runs some local statistical R scripts and a shinobi server that saves surveilance videos and deletes the older ones of them (shinobi folder where videos are saved still has the same size). Still wondering from where did come the 14 gb and where it is on the dis

Do you have Timeshift enabled and running in default mode talking constant snapshots of your system and storing them in /dev/sda2 ???...DAMIEN

[mariolago]

Guess what? Yesterday there was 106gb of free space. Earlier today there was 100 gb. Now there is 92 and the "watch" terminal window doesn't show a difference in the folders size. At this rate tomorrow it will give the low disk message. This desktop is not connected to the web, runs some local statistical R scripts and a shinobi server that saves surveilance videos and deletes the older ones of them (shinobi folder where videos are saved still has the same size). Still wondering from where did come the 14 gb and where it is on the dis

Do you have Timeshift enabled and running in default mode talking constant snapshots of your system and storing them in /dev/sda2 ???...DAMIEN

It is not running, it has no snapshots (backups). But guess what, I just opened Timeshift and it says that /dev/sda2 has 113gb of free space. Nemo reports 88gb free space. How is that possible?

[DAMIEN1307]

How is that possible?

When you did some clean up, Did you by any chance also empty the "trash can" ???...Trash having anything in it may do things like this...DAMIEN

[mariolago]

Thank you Damien. I can see the trash can on the Desktop and on Nemo. It is empty. /home keeps in 302G.

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df -h

Sist. Arq.      Tam. Usado Disp. Uso% Montado em
udev             16G     0   16G   0% /dev
tmpfs           3,2G  1,4M  3,2G   1% /run
/dev/sda2       439G  335G   82G  81% /
tmpfs            16G  548M   16G   4% /dev/shm
tmpfs           5,0M  4,0K  5,0M   1% /run/lock
tmpfs            16G     0   16G   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/sda1       511M  6,1M  505M   2% /boot/efi
tmpfs           3,2G   40K  3,2G   1% /run/user/1000

sudo du -hxcd1 / | sort -h
4,0K	/cdrom
4,0K	/lib64
4,0K	/mnt
4,0K	/srv
8,0K	/media
16K	/lost+found
1,5M	/tmp
16M	/bin
17M	/etc
19M	/sbin
76M	/boot
139M	/root
202M	/opt
602M	/lib
1,8G	/var
6,4G	/usr
302G	/home
313G	/
313G	total

[mariolago]

Free space still decreasing. I uninstalled some things (virtualbox, etc) to get more time till the next low disk space message.
How can the used disk space reported by df (/dev/sda2 352G) be bigger than du's report (/ 303G)? I think maybe this path leads to the
problem solution.

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df -h

Sist. Arq.      Tam. Usado Disp. Uso% Montado em
udev             16G     0   16G   0% /dev
tmpfs           3,2G  1,9M  3,2G   1% /run
/dev/sda2       439G  352G   65G  85% /
tmpfs            16G  532M   16G   4% /dev/shm
tmpfs           5,0M  4,0K  5,0M   1% /run/lock
tmpfs            16G     0   16G   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/sda1       511M  6,1M  505M   2% /boot/efi
tmpfs           3,2G   40K  3,2G   1% /run/user/1000

sudo du -hxcd1 / | sort -h
4,0K	/cdrom
4,0K	/lib64
4,0K	/mnt
4,0K	/srv
8,0K	/media
16K	/lost+found
1,5M	/tmp
16M	/bin
17M	/etc
19M	/sbin
76M	/boot
139M	/root
202M	/opt
602M	/lib
1,4G	/var
6,3G	/usr
293G	/home
303G	/
303G	total

Situation update, 4 hours later, still no clue.

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df -h

Sist. Arq.      Tam. Usado Disp. Uso% Montado em
udev             16G     0   16G   0% /dev
tmpfs           3,2G  1,9M  3,2G   1% /run
/dev/sda2       439G  357G   60G  86% /
tmpfs            16G  555M   16G   4% /dev/shm
tmpfs           5,0M  4,0K  5,0M   1% /run/lock
tmpfs            16G     0   16G   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/sda1       511M  6,1M  505M   2% /boot/efi
tmpfs           3,2G   40K  3,2G   1% /run/user/1000

sudo du -hxcd1 / | sort -h
4,0K	/cdrom
4,0K	/lib64
4,0K	/mnt
4,0K	/srv
8,0K	/media
16K	/lost+found
1,5M	/tmp
16M	/bin
17M	/etc
19M	/sbin
76M	/boot
139M	/root
202M	/opt
602M	/lib
1,5G	/var
6,3G	/usr
293G	/home
303G	/
303G	total

Baobab print screen


Trash can print screen


Timeshift print screen