Linux Login screen loop - disk space issue

[zalts1]

Hey, I'm running a dual boot system on my computer (windows 10 and Linux mint cinnamon) lately I used only the Windows OS, and few days ago I tried to enter the Linux OS and got stuck in a login screen loop.

I read about the issue and figured out using "df -h" that my "/" dir is at 100% capacity.

with the help of a friend we mounted the ram and installed "ncdu"to see what's taking that much space.

we figured out the for some reason "timeshift" had around 9GB of snapshots. we deleted those snapshots and then the login screen loop issue was solved. I turned off writing permissions on "timeshift" directory and it seemed like everything worked well.

The morning later, I logged to the Linux system, and while surfing the web (minor usage) my pc got stuck, I rebooted and login screen loop issue was back. "df -h" shows 100% capacity in "/" but now when I run "ncdu /" I can see that the sizes of all files doesn't sum up to the max (19GB).

I really don't have any clue what else can I do, i tried "clean", removce tmp files, remove logs and nothing helps, also I can't understand how 9GB became used just over night
I would be happy for any kind of help/ guidance and be happy to try and provide more information about the issue

Thanks a lot!

adding pictures to make it more clear (couldn't print screen so had to take with phone)

[deck_luck]

With the space exhaustion recurring, it is most likely due to TimeShift running automatically. First let us clean up the root (/) file system.

It looks you are able to get to a terminal running bash. Please post the output from the following command:

Code: Select all

sudo du -xamd 1 / | sort -rn | head -10

The previous command will show the top ten largest file system space consumers.

Once the file system space is back to something more normal, you need to start TimeShift click Settings->Schedule. You can view or change the automatic TimeShift schedules.

[Larry78723]

You should look for a way to increase your / partition to at least 30Gb. At the current 19Gb you're going to continually have problems.

[zalts1]

Hey, I'm running a dual boot system on my computer (windows 10 and Linux mint cinnamon) lately I used only the Windows OS, and few days ago I tried to enter the Linux OS and got stuck in a login screen loop.

I read about the issue and figured out using "df -h" that my "/" dir is at 100% capacity.

with the help of a friend we mounted the ram and installed "ncdu"to see what's taking that much space.

we figured out the for some reason "timeshift" had around 9GB of snapshots. we deleted those snapshots and then the login screen loop issue was solved. I turned off writing permissions on "timeshift" directory and it seemed like everything worked well.

The morning later, I logged to the Linux system, and while surfing the web (minor usage) my pc got stuck, I rebooted and login screen loop issue was back. "df -h" shows 100% capacity in "/" but now when I run "ncdu /" I can see that the sizes of all files doesn't sum up to the max (19GB).

I really don't have any clue what else can I do, i tried "clean", removce tmp files, remove logs and nothing helps, also I can't understand how 9GB became used just over night
I would be happy for any kind of help/ guidance and be happy to try and provide more information about the issue

Thanks a lot!

adding pictures to make it more clear (couldn't print screen so had to take with phone)

disk issue2.jpeg

disk issue1.jpeg

First of all thanks for the help!
I did try this command- this was the output:

it seems that timeshift is for some reason exploding my disk space, i removed all the timeshift dir and i could log in again.
I don't remember ever using it, or activating it.
is it safe to just remove it from my system?
is there an alternative or recommendation regarding snapshots?

Thanks a lot again!

[zalts1]

You should look for a way to increase your / partition to at least 30Gb. At the current 19Gb you're going to continually have problems.

Is it possible to do after I already allocated partition to the system?
I installed the dual boot myself and been allocated 20GB (i guess for /) and another 80GB (which i don't remember what for)
I'm not expert, and worried about screwing up my files, if you can refer me to a reliable guide on how to increase size, i would be happy

[Flemur]

Is it possible to do after I already allocated partition to the system?

Yes. Run gparted from the DVD/USB boot/installation media.

I installed the dual boot myself and been allocated 20GB (i guess for /) and another 80GB (which i don't remember what for)
I'm not expert, and worried about screwing up my files, if you can refer me to a reliable guide on how to increase size, i would be happy

It'll be really easy if you have empty space, or an 80GB partition which you can shrink, *after* the "/" partition you want to increase the size of.

Run gparted in the installed OS and post a picture of it here (or start a new thread). In this picture, I can increase the size of DATA with no problem since free space follows it; but to increase the size of e.g. UB18 I'd need to shrink the DATA partition in order to create free space in front of it, then stick that free space onto the end of UB18.

First thing to do is to make timeshift use a better location than under your "/" (OS) partition; storing a backup of a partition on the same partition seems to me like a retardo idea anyway.

Pro tip! Backup your important files before doing anything like this.

[zalts1]

Is it possible to do after I already allocated partition to the system?

Yes. Run gparted from the DVD/USB boot/installation media.

I installed the dual boot myself and been allocated 20GB (i guess for /) and another 80GB (which i don't remember what for)
I'm not expert, and worried about screwing up my files, if you can refer me to a reliable guide on how to increase size, i would be happy

It'll be really easy if you have empty space, or an 80GB partition which you can shrink, *after* the "/" partition you want to increase the size of.

Run gparted in the installed OS and post a picture of it here (or start a new thread). In this picture, I can increase the size of DATA with no problem since free space follows it; but to increase the size of e.g. UB18 I'd need to shrink the DATA partition in order to create free space in front of it, then stick that free space onto the end of UB18.
gparted.jpg
First thing to do is to make timeshift use a better location than under your "/" (OS) partition; storing a backup of a partition on the same partition seems to me like a retardo idea anyway.

Pro tip! Backup your important files before doing anything like this.

Thanks a lot for the comment, really appreciated

that's the outcome of gparted:

you can see what i meant about allocating 20GB for system (sda5), and another 80GB (sda7) meant to be allocated to as disk space (i'm a bit confused about those allocations - followed a step-by-step guide and it seems that everything is on that 20GB)

btw- for the moment in uninstalled timeshift - not sure if keep it that way or reinstall it or other alternative

[jShumway00]

I had an experience with a loop on the login screen on my computer. I think it was a bug with auto login because after I disabled the auto login (after fighting it) I was able to use the login screen normally.

[deck_luck]

it seems that timeshift is for some reason exploding my disk space, i removed all the timeshift dir and i could log in again.
I don't remember ever using it, or activating it.
is it safe to just remove it from my system?
is there an alternative or recommendation regarding snapshots?

Thanks a lot again!

TimeShift is a very useful tool if it is properly setup. The following links is a high level overview concerning TimeShift and disk space planning: viewtopic.php?p=1702135&sid=de3907315ed ... 0#p1702135

The following TimeShift links might be helpful concerning usage and settings:

teejee2008's timeshift/README.md
HaveaMint's Timeshift and the Settings

[AndyMH]

that's the outcome of gparted:

Given it looks like you've just started, it might be easier to re-install. If you stick with what you have, I'd shrink sda4* so you can move sda5 left and increase its size. Make sda5 at least 30GiB, more if you intend to install a lot of flatpaks/snaps. My / partition is 32GiB with 19GiB used (and a lot installed). I'd also add a further ext4 partition and use it solely for timeshift snapshots, make this around 60GiB. That way you won't have to worry about timeshift filling up your / partition.

You will need to run gparted from your mint install media and use that to make the changes to sda5 as you can't change a live filesystem and you can't un-mount your / partition.


* I'd do this using win's disk management tools, although you can do it in gparted

[zalts1]

that's the outcome of gparted:

Given it looks like you've just started, it might be easier to re-install. If you stick with what you have, I'd shrink sda4* so you can move sda5 left and increase its size. Make sda5 at least 30GiB, more if you intend to install a lot of flatpaks/snaps. My / partition is 32GiB with 19GiB used (and a lot installed). I'd also add a further ext4 partition and use it solely for timeshift snapshots, make this around 60GiB. That way you won't have to worry about timeshift filling up your / partition.

You will need to run gparted from your mint install media and use that to make the changes to sda5 as you can't change a live filesystem and you can't un-mount your / partition.


* I'd do this using win's disk management tools, although you can do it in gparted

thanks a lot!
work week started here, i hope i'll have to to deepen my learning about it and do it this week, otherwise i will do it next weekend.
and yes, my linux system is pretty new and unused (just wanted to learn some AWS and django), you think it's better completely remove Linux and reinstall it?
I will have to make a new USB flash drive with installation since i already formatted the USB flash for other purposes

Thanks everyone for your commenting! really appreciated!

[Flemur]

you can see what i meant about allocating 20GB for system (sda5), and another 80GB (sda7) meant to be allocated to as disk space (i'm a bit confused about those allocations - followed a step-by-step guide and it seems that everything is on that 20GB)

The OS itself is on the 20GB partition; your /home is 80GB and won't use anywhere near that much space until and unless you start adding files to it: videos and mp3s, etc.

Because you can't change a partition while it's mounted, you'll have to boot the install media, and run gparted from there - it looks like the easiest way to grow sda5 would be to shrink sda4 by 20GB or so, then expand sda5 into that free space. If possible, it'd be a good idea to modify (shrink) the ntfs partition sda4 under windows with windows tools.

[Larry78723]

If he installed 19.3 or 20, it might be easier at this point to eliminate the swap partition and move 10Gb from /home partition to / partition.

[Flemur]

If he installed 19.3 or 20, it might be easier at this point to eliminate the swap partition and move 10Gb from /home partition to / partition.

I started to write that but then noticed there's > 100GB unused in the ntfs partition, and figured using that so a new guy wouldn't have to mess with making a swap file.