Low Disk Space Warning

[LMint]

Hello,

I get this error: "The volume Filesystem root" has only 1.2GB disk space remaining.

My hard drive seems to churn every day. I did a "df -h" and find that the root (/) is 91% used with 24 GB of 28 GB used. It says to get rid of some programs or move some of them. I have never had this problem before.

Any ideas why I have no space anymore? I have not installed a lot of stuff. I only have 5 games installed and just whatever came with LM.

Thanks.

LM 20.3

[MiZoG]

In the medium run you will perhaps have to resize your partitions.
Claimed minimum storage requirement for Mint (20 GB) is becoming increasingly unrealistic.
For now at least clean apt cache: sudo apt clean.
Do y use flatpaks? Flatpak runtimes can occupy a bit too much of space.

[motoryzen]

24 GB of 28 GB

I mean no insult when I explain this, but facts are facts. This is 2023, not 2010.

1. Trying to run any reasonably modern operating system ( including LM 20.x series) with any storage drive smaller than 80GB is basically asking for problems eventually.

2. Tying into point number One..... I am curious if you have many kernels installed and/or you haven't targeted a separate drive for your Timeshift backups and/or forgot to disable automatic snapshot creations within Timeshift's gui settings.

Solutions

A. Get a bigger drive ( really should be shooting for a minimum of 120GBs ssd since they are very low cost these days at sub 30 bucks USD ..but preferably 250GB)

B. Ensure timeshift automatic snapshots creation is disabled and target a separate drive for it.

C. You may end up having to reinstall Linux Mint from scratch if all else fails...BUT..don't assume that is necessary just yet.

But there is one thing you haven't done yet. If you're able to boot into your desktop......
....
... see that section above surrounded in pink ( almost impossible to miss) that has a blue font link saying how to get help
. step 5 shows you one way to post your system details .

If you prefer the gui way.....

1. Windows logo aka start button on your keyboard, type without quotes " system reports"
2. "system information" button in upper left, " copy " button bottom right.
3. Come back here. paste into the reply white area

Neither way provides personally identifiable info so no worries.

Those system details often save everyone time wasting guessing aka speculation. That's why this sights management put that link there

[linux-rox]

Any ideas why I have no space anymore? ... LM 20.3

Have you been deleting kernels as you went along? If not, that could be the problem in a nutshell. Please open Terminal and run ls /boot. If there are dozens of kernels, the simple and quick way to clear the deadwood is apt autoremove; will delete all but the current kernel and one backup, which is all most people need anyway. If kernels isn't the problem, please report the output of sudo du -xhd1 / | sort -hr.

[madelinesaxen]

I'd suggest running on a cheap 64-128gb flash drive. They go for about $14-40US and are faster than most hard drives.

[Gerapa]

I get this error: "The volume Filesystem root" has only 1.2GB disk space remaining.

I had exaclty the same problem, and the fault was point B. from motoryzen :

B. Ensure timeshift automatic snapshots creation is disabled and target a separate drive for it.

I had several snapshots of the system saved on the disk. If that's your case, set Timeshift to keep less snapshots of the system or to save them on another drive.

[LMint]

24 GB of 28 GB

1. Windows logo aka start button on your keyboard, type without quotes " system reports"
2. "system information" button in upper left, " copy " button bottom right.
3. Come back here. paste into the reply white area

I don't have Timeshift turned on. Here is my system information:

Code: Select all

System:    Kernel: 5.4.0-150-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.4.0 Desktop: MATE 1.26.0 
           wm: marco dm: LightDM Distro: Linux Mint 20.3 Una base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal 
Machine:   Type: Desktop System: MSI product: MS-7786 v: 1.0 serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: MSI model: A55M-P33 (MS-7786) v: 1.0 serial: <filter> BIOS: American Megatrends 
           v: 2.0 date: 02/04/2013 
Battery:   Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech Wireless Mouse serial: <filter> 
           charge: 55% (should be ignored) status: Discharging 
CPU:       Topology: Dual Core model: AMD A4-3400 APU with Radeon HD Graphics bits: 64 type: MCP 
           arch: Fusion L2 cache: 1024 KiB 
           flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4a svm bogomips: 10779 
           Speed: 2695 MHz min/max: N/A Core speeds (MHz): 1: 2695 2: 2700 
Graphics:  Device-1: AMD SuperSumo [Radeon HD 6410D] vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: radeon 
           v: kernel bus ID: 00:01.0 chip ID: 1002:9644 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.13 driver: ati,radeon unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa 
           compositor: marco resolution: 1680x1050~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: AMD SUMO2 (DRM 2.50.0 / 5.4.0-150-generic LLVM 12.0.0) 
           v: 3.3 Mesa 21.2.6 compat-v: 3.1 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: AMD BeaverCreek HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 6500D and 6400G-6600G series] 
           vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:01.1 
           chip ID: 1002:1714 
           Device-2: AMD FCH Azalia vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
           bus ID: 00:14.2 chip ID: 1022:780d 
           Device-3: Logitech Webcam C270 type: USB driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo bus ID: 2-4:2 
           chip ID: 046d:0825 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-150-generic 
Network:   Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet vendor: Micro-Star MSI 
           driver: r8169 v: kernel port: e000 bus ID: 01:00.0 chip ID: 10ec:8168 
           IF: enp1s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 945.97 GiB used: 43.17 GiB (4.6%) 
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST1000DM003-1CH162 size: 931.51 GiB 
           speed: 3.0 Gb/s serial: <filter> 
           ID-2: /dev/sdb type: USB vendor: SanDisk model: Cruzer Glide size: 14.46 GiB 
           serial: <filter> 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 27.33 GiB used: 21.85 GiB (80.0%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda6 
           ID-2: /home size: 22.75 GiB used: 9.58 GiB (42.1%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda7 
           ID-3: swap-1 size: 9.31 GiB used: 56.2 MiB (0.6%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda8 
USB:       Hub: 1-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 5 rev: 2.0 chip ID: 1d6b:0002 
           Device-1: 1-1:2 info: SanDisk Cruzer Glide type: Mass Storage driver: usb-storage 
           rev: 2.0 chip ID: 0781:5575 
           Hub: 2-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 5 rev: 2.0 chip ID: 1d6b:0002 
           Device-2: 2-4:2 info: Logitech Webcam C270 type: Video,Audio 
           driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo rev: 2.0 chip ID: 046d:0825 
           Hub: 3-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 4 rev: 2.0 chip ID: 1d6b:0002 
           Hub: 4-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 5 rev: 1.1 chip ID: 1d6b:0001 
           Hub: 5-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 5 rev: 1.1 chip ID: 1d6b:0001 
           Device-3: 5-5:2 info: Logitech Unifying Receiver type: Mouse,HID 
           driver: logitech-djreceiver,usbhid rev: 2.0 chip ID: 046d:c52f 
           Hub: 6-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 2 rev: 1.1 chip ID: 1d6b:0001 
           Hub: 7-0:1 info: Full speed (or root) Hub ports: 4 rev: 1.1 chip ID: 1d6b:0001 
           Device-4: 7-4:2 info: Logitech iTouch Composite type: Keyboard,HID 
           driver: logitech,usbhid rev: 1.1 chip ID: 046d:c30a 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 21.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: radeon temp: 12 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/audio-recorder-ppa-focal.list 
           1: deb http: //ppa.launchpad.net/audio-recorder/ppa/ubuntu focal main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/brave-browser-release.list 
           1: deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/brave-browser-archive-keyring.gpg arch=amd64] https: //brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com/ stable main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth-pro.list 
           1: deb [arch=amd64] http: //dl.google.com/linux/earth/deb/ stable main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/obsproject-obs-studio-focal.list 
           1: deb http: //ppa.launchpad.net/obsproject/obs-studio/ubuntu focal main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list 
           1: deb https: //mirror.cs.jmu.edu/pub/linuxmint/packages una main upstream import backport
           2: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal main restricted universe multiverse
           3: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates main restricted universe multiverse
           4: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports main restricted universe multiverse
           5: deb http: //security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-security main restricted universe multiverse
           6: deb http: //archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ focal partner
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/skype-stable.list 
           1: deb [arch=amd64] https: //repo.skype.com/deb stable main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vscode.list 
           1: deb [arch=amd64,arm64,armhf] http: //packages.microsoft.com/repos/code stable main
Info:      Processes: 201 Uptime: 35m Memory: 3.33 GiB used: 1.60 GiB (47.9%) Init: systemd v: 245 
           runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 9.4.0 alt: 9 Client: Unknown python3.8 client inxi: 3.0.38 

[LMint]

In the medium run you will perhaps have to resize your partitions.
Claimed minimum storage requirement for Mint (20 GB) is becoming increasingly unrealistic.
For now at least clean apt cache: sudo apt clean.
Do y use flatpaks? Flatpak runtimes can occupy a bit too much of space.

I ran apt clean and I don't think I use flatpaks.

[Moem]

B. Ensure timeshift automatic snapshots creation is disabled and target a separate drive for it.

I'd say either one of these is enough. After all, if the snapshots are stored on a separate drive, why would you not have them made automatically?

I also think that if you leave automatic snapshot creation enabled, which I would personally prefer, it's worth limiting the number of snapshots kept, as the default is rather generous.
... Say, haven't we had this conversation before?

[motoryzen]

why would you not have them made automatically

So I can actually keep up with when I've tried a new update to something vs no clue in an ocean of snapshots

I always make it a point to create a Timeshift snapshot before installing or updating anything I'm unsure. Otherwise, been there, done that..got the t shirt, it didn't fit and it ripped when I was trying to use it to ..( nevermind shut up George Carlin side of my brain!! )

[linux-rox]

Please report the output of sudo du -xhd1 / | sort -hr. This will tell us how much space is being used by each of the main directories.

[Moem]

why would you not have them made automatically

So I can actually keep up with when I've tried a new update to something vs no clue in an ocean of snapshots

My ocean consists of three. But then I only make the automatic ones, because I'm far too lazy for any other solution!

[bendipa]

Your internal drive has ample space (only 4.6% used). The problem is the size of your partitions are inadequate, eg your root partition is about 30GB, which is too small. You can easily increase the size of it by using gparted or Disks, although it might take a long while, eg (i hour plus) if you left no unallocated space between partitions.

If you could post a screenshot of your sda partitions using Disks, that would be helpful.

[motoryzen]

adding to bendipa's point..

You can also achieve similar info with the terminal command of df -Th

[LMint]

Here is the screenshot of the commands you wanted.

[linux-rox]

Simple solution: Move Timeshift to its own partition. The default, placing snapshots on the root partition, assumes a default installation, for which the Installation Guide recommends a 100 GB root partition. If you do a non-default installation, you're expected to know what else needs modification. As mentioned, you seem to have plenty of room on the internal drive. Or you could save snapshots to USB drive, though this usually makes scheduled snapshots impractical. You designate where to save snapshots with the Location tab in Timeshift settings.

If your system is running fine except for the low space warning, don't bother trying to move or copy the current snapshot archive. Can be done, but takes longer than creating a new archive from scratch. Then simply delete the old archive.