error: out of disk. Press any key to continue...

[cdclive]

Hello. I Loaded Linux Mint 11 a few days ago onto an old laptop and have been using it to hold some files off my desktop. Worked fine until today. When I turned to computer on I get the following message:

error: out of disk. Press any key to continue...


Whether I press a key or not, the screen will soon disappear leaving only illegible blocks (not characters or letters, etc). From there it is not responsive at all.

I don't want to lose all my files and hope someone can explain how to respond to this error.

Goes without saying, but I am a total Newbie and need as much patient help as possible.

Thanks!

[xenopeek]

You can probably access your files by booting from the Live CD/DVD.

Please try the following, to see if this helps:
- Hold shift during boot, so as to get the GRUB menu to show
- Highlighted will be the default boot option, now press 'e' to edit this
- Look for a line starting with "search" and delete this entire line
- Press Ctrl+X to boot

If you are able to boot now:
- Open Terminal application, and run following command. Reboot, and let us know if this fixed the problem.

Code: Select all

sudo update-grub2

If you are not able to boot now, boot from the Live CD/DVD:
- Open Terminal application, and run following commands (assuming you have ONLY Linux Mint on this laptop, else get us more information first). Reboot, and let us know if this fixed the problem.

Code: Select all

sudo mkdir /mnt/sda1
sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt /dev/sda
sudo grub-install --recheck --root-directory=/mnt /dev/sda

[lmintnewb]

Tis a pleasure to watch Vincent go about helping folks with solutions here. Seems to have more than a lil bit of competency when it comes to tech and nixish things.

Just adding a couple other really broad vague suggestions that could be of benefit here. Parted Magic http://partedmagic.com/doku.php?id=start and systemrescuecd http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page . Always more than one way to skin a problem etc. Though you'd have to do your own reading/research when it comes to using such opensource utils.

When all this is over if you've confirmed it's not hardware failure that caused this. Also assuming it wasn't self induced. Would be thinking about installing Mint 9 LTS instead of 11.

[xenopeek]

Tis a pleasure to watch Vincent go about helping folks with solutions here. Seems to have more than a lil bit of competency when it comes to tech and nixish things.

Thanks

[Tony.B]

... Seems to have more than a lil bit of competency ....

And patience.

[lmintnewb]

Yeah ... just noticed the guy ( Vincent ) seems to know his stuff. Further along than I am, though that isn't saying much, lol. Nothing wrong with giving credit and encouragement. Somebody needs a lil boost when spending mucho time in these forums. Other than the challenge of trying to figure something out and pinpoint a solution ( which can be addictive ) and the satisfaction of helping other nixers. Have a more nixish, nixtastic computing experience.

[cdclive]

Hello. I tried your first suggestion, entered GRUB menu and deleted the "search" line. Tried to reboot and was given the following message:

booting a command list
error: out of disk
error: no such disk
error: you need to load the kernel first
press any key to continue...

Accordingly, I tried your second suggestion, booted from Live DVD and entered commands in terminal window. After both third and fourth commands, was given the following message(s):

grub probe: error: cannot stat 'aufs'.

installation finished. no error reported.


Given these results, do you have any other thoughts or suggestions? The expertise and advice is much appreciated!

You can probably access your files by booting from the Live CD/DVD.

Please try the following, to see if this helps:
- Hold shift during boot, so as to get the GRUB menu to show
- Highlighted will be the default boot option, now press 'e' to edit this
- Look for a line starting with "search" and delete this entire line
- Press Ctrl+X to boot

If you are able to boot now:
- Open Terminal application, and run following command. Reboot, and let us know if this fixed the problem.

Code: Select all

sudo update-grub2

If you are not able to boot now, boot from the Live CD/DVD:
- Open Terminal application, and run following commands (assuming you have ONLY Linux Mint on this laptop, else get us more information first). Reboot, and let us know if this fixed the problem.

Code: Select all

sudo mkdir /mnt/sda1
sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt /dev/sda
sudo grub-install --recheck --root-directory=/mnt /dev/sda

[xenopeek]

Okay, we need a look at your partitions to continue. From Live CD/DVD could you kindly run the following command in Terminal, and post the output here? (In a code block please, for readability.)

Code: Select all

sudo parted -l

(Note that is the letter l at the end, not the number 1.)

you may also want to consider the graphical tool Boot-Repair to reinstall GRUB: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair

[cdclive]

Hello. Unfortunately, I didn't know how to post as code block so I cut and pasted results below (everything between the asterisks):

****************************************************************************************************

mint@mint ~ $ sudo parted -l
Model: ATA ST9160821A (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 160GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 1049kB 160GB 160GB primary ext4 boot
2 160GB 160GB 535MB extended
5 160GB 160GB 535MB logical linux-swap(v1)


Warning: Unable to open /dev/sr0 read-write (Read-only file system). /dev/sr0
has been opened read-only.
Error: /dev/sr0: unrecognised disk label

****************************************************************************************************

Hopefully this offers some information that will help. I will also try the grub re-install tool you suggested and see how that goes.

Thanks again for all your help!

Okay, we need a look at your partitions to continue. From Live CD/DVD could you kindly run the following command in Terminal, and post the output [img][img]

Code: Select all

[/img][/img]here? (In a code block please, for readability.)

Code: Select all

sudo parted -l

(Note that is the letter l at the end, not the number 1.)

you may also want to consider the graphical tool Boot-Repair to reinstall GRUB: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair

[SimonTS]

Just to jump in here - don't want to tread on Vincent's toes - but what exactly is the laptop that you have installed Mint on? Just wondering if the BIOS actually supports LBA mode for hard-drives bigger than 128GB?

[xenopeek]

Hello. Unfortunately, I didn't know how to post as code block ...
Hopefully this offers some information that will help. I will also try the grub re-install tool you suggested and see how that goes.

The "Code" button is right above the text field when you post a new comment. Just press it, and inbetween [ code ] and [ /code ] put whatever text from the Terminal on which you want to retain formatting.

As for the output, I was worried you might have some other partitions, but you only have Linux partitions.

I'm sure as to the error you are getting. Please do try the graphical tool and let us know if that work.

[cdclive]

Just to jump in here - don't want to tread on Vincent's toes - but what exactly is the laptop that you have installed Mint on? Just wondering if the BIOS actually supports LBA mode for hard-drives bigger than 128GB?

No worries, I appreciate any input those more knowledgeable are willing to offer.

The computer is an older Dell Inspirion 5150. It has previously had older versions of Ubuntu and Mint on it without problems so I think it can support the system... unless I screwed something up during install. That said, it was running fine for several days and now refuses to boot.

Let me know if you have any thoughts. Meanwhile, when I get back to the machine I plan to try Vincent's recommended Grub re-install tool and will post the results this evening.

Cheers!

[SimonTS]

It might be worth trying

Code: Select all

sudo mkdir /mnt/sda1
sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
sudo grub-install --disk-module=ata --root-directory=/mnt /dev/sda

The change in the final line might make a difference to the installer if the graphical method suggested by Vincent doesn't work.

EDIT:-
I had been wondering if this could be a heat-related issue. Just doing some research and found this...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lundell_Settlement
I wonder if this could be related to your problem in some way? Had you previously had an OS on this machine or did you acquire it second-hand from somewhere else?

Also, found this old post on a Dell support board - http://en.community.dell.com/support-fo ... 92656.aspx
What BIOS version have you got on that laptop?

[cdclive]

Hello. Unfortunately, I didn't know how to post as code block ...
Hopefully this offers some information that will help. I will also try the grub re-install tool you suggested and see how that goes.

The "Code" button is right above the text field when you post a new comment. Just press it, and inbetween [ code ] and [ /code ] put whatever text from the Terminal on which you want to retain formatting.

As for the output, I was worried you might have some other partitions, but you only have Linux partitions.

I'm sure as to the error you are getting. Please do try the graphical tool and let us know if that work.

Well... no luck with the Grub Reinstall.

The tool ran its course and re-install Grub automatically but returned the same "error: out of disk:".

Do you have any other suggestions? Would installing a second copy of Linux Mint 11 alongside allow access to current that won't boot?

Thanks again for all the help.

[Roken]

I'd be looking at recovery options for the data now, before continuing, because you may be heading towards a reinstall. The easiest to recover your data is using a LiveCD. Once booted you can mount your HD and copy files off it, burn them to CD/DVD or backup however else you see fit. Once done you may want to see if the disk is really full. In the menu there is an application "Disk Usage Analyser". This will allow you to scanm the drive and will detail all the folders and how much space they are occupying. In particular, look for anything that seems to consume an unreasonable amount of disk space (as an example, my largest folder is my .wine folder in /home @ 19Gb. Anything bigger than this should certainly be investigated further.

Folders outside of /home should be nowhere need this size, so if any of those are consuming large amounts of disk space come back to us with details.

If you manage to identify something in /home that is hogging your disk space, and assuming you have backed it up, you can delete it and try a normal boot again. If the normal boot now works then the culprit is not hardware or settings related, but is simply down to the volume of stuff that you are storing (although filling 160Gb in a short space of time would represent quite some feat, IMO).

[Roken]

Addition: Just found this:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour ... comments/6

Maybe give that a try (the specific post I've linked to gives pretty good step by step instructions).

NB. Any changes that you make in grub itself while booting are non-destructive, so it's safe to try these.

[cdclive]

I'd be looking at recovery options for the data now, before continuing, because you may be heading towards a reinstall. The easiest to recover your data is using a LiveCD. Once booted you can mount your HD and copy files off it, burn them to CD/DVD or backup however else you see fit. Once done you may want to see if the disk is really full. In the menu there is an application "Disk Usage Analyser". This will allow you to scanm the drive and will detail all the folders and how much space they are occupying. In particular, look for anything that seems to consume an unreasonable amount of disk space (as an example, my largest folder is my .wine folder in /home @ 19Gb. Anything bigger than this should certainly be investigated further.

Folders outside of /home should be nowhere need this size, so if any of those are consuming large amounts of disk space come back to us with details.

If you manage to identify something in /home that is hogging your disk space, and assuming you have backed it up, you can delete it and try a normal boot again. If the normal boot now works then the culprit is not hardware or settings related, but is simply down to the volume of stuff that you are storing (although filling 160Gb in a short space of time would represent quite some feat, IMO).

Thanks Roken. This is exactly what I did last night...several hours of moving data and media via usb drives. So, my posted problem remains, but my main concern of losing all my files is taken care of.

I will follow your other suggestions to see where they go, but if not I can now just reinstall.

As a relatively new user of Linux, the support provided on this forum makes all the difference. You guys are the best!