Available space is strange for Filesystem root

[Darc Sceptor]

I have been getting messages that I am low on storage in Filesystem root. Now I am supposing that this references the partition that was assigned to /root. Yes?
So the message at the moment says I have 6 MB free. Okey Dokey but when I go into Disks and investigate that partition it shows that I have 1.2 GB free. (see the two below)

Question: Why the discrepancy between the two.

 

[MikeRocor]

I have been getting messages that I am low on storage in Filesystem root. Now I am supposing that this references the partition that was assigned to /root. Yes?
So the message at the moment says I have 6 MB free. Okey Dokey but when I go into Disks and investigate that partition it shows that I have 1.2 GB free. (see the two below)

Question: Why the discrepancy between the two.

/root is simply the root user's home directory ( which is a top level directory, not under /home )

The filesystem root is simply /

Check free space on /

If you need more help, let us know what distro and version, and what architecture (x86, x86_64, arm7, etc etc) and your machine specs.

 

[MikeWalsh]

@Darc Sceptor :-

Hm. You really should have more space than that. Even Linux has a 'partition full' point beyond which it starts misbehaving.

Recommendations I often see for Windows say minimum 30% free space. I don't know what the corresponding figure is for Linux; I have so much storage space here I've never got anywhere remotely near those "limits".

My guess is that /boot (inside /root, I believe?) is chock-full of old kernels....

I could be wrong. I frequently am...


Mike.

 

[Darc Sceptor]

Looking at the definitions that I finally found the root / seems to be the partition that is where linux AND applications go. The
/home partition is where only user data goes. So if that is correct then I need to reverse my partitions with a large partition for root and a small partition for /home. Seems they could have made it simpler with having just a single large partition for binaries and user data. (and I did try it but the partitioning for Linux required partitions only not two logicals)

And, by the way, I was getting space available by looking at the / and the /home partitions! Not by looking a some folder.

 

[Darc Sceptor]

@Darc Sceptor :-

Hm. You really should have more space than that. Even Linux has a 'partition full' point beyond which it starts misbehaving.

Recommendations I often see for Windows say minimum 30% free space. I don't know what the corresponding figure is for Linux; I have so much storage space here I've never got anywhere remotely near those "limits".

My guess is that /boot (inside /root, I believe?) is chock-full of old kernels....

I could be wrong. I frequently am...


Mike.

Well if it was chock-full of old kernels (which it isn't) those are still files I can see. Those are still physical things I can account for.
My only possible guess is that Linux is requiring some applied formula whereby
total space * x% = total allowable space.
Then they put out a message saying the drive is full when in reality it isn't. If I remember correctly it seems that if linux reaches a certain amount of disk space used it begins to create what they called panic mode(?) and when Linux panics it isn't a pretty sight.

Seems I have some repartitioning to do.

 

[GatorsFan]

how many kernels do you have installed - if you have more then 2 remove all the old kernels, this will free up space

 

[osprey]

I have been getting messages that I am low on storage in Filesystem root. Now I am supposing that this references the partition that was assigned to /root. Yes?
So the message at the moment says I have 6 MB free. Okey Dokey but when I go into Disks and investigate that partition it shows that I have 1.2 GB free. (see the two below)

Question: Why the discrepancy between the two.

It might be helpful if readers had some more precise details of usage. Perhaps open a terminal and run the following command and paste the output back here in code tags:

df -Th -x tmpfs -x devtmpfs

The output will show space used and space available.

For example a machine here shows the following:

$ df -Th -x tmpfs -x devtmpfs
Filesystem     Type      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/nvme0n1p3 ext4      443G   30G  390G   8% /
efivarfs       efivarfs  192K   99K   89K  53% /sys/firmware/efi/efivars
/dev/nvme0n1p1 vfat      476M  4.4M  471M   1% /boot/efi

One can run the df command without any options, but it will output info that's not necessary to see the fundamentals of the space allocations, hence the options above. For details, see the man page.

 

[wizardfromoz]

@Darc Sceptor if you are still using Linux Mint, check the Timeshift settings.

Let me know if you have questions in that regard.

Cheers

Wizard

 

[Darc Sceptor]

Okay this is very strange. I went back to Windows. Used Disk Manger and purged the two Linux partitions. I then reinstalled Linux and chose to let Linux manage everything. It is now up and running in only 1 partition. But if you chose Something Else during the install process Linux Mint forces you to create both a /root partition and a /home partition and you cannot set both to one partition.

BTW - the reason in the past I was manually telling it where to install was because it kept wanting my 2G drive instead of the 255 G partition I wanted it in.

 

[osprey]

Okay this is very strange. I went back to Windows. Used Disk Manger and purged the two Linux partitions. I then reinstalled Linux and chose to let Linux manage everything. It is now up and running in only 1 partition. But if you chose Something Else during the install process Linux Mint forces you to create both a /root partition and a /home partition and you cannot set both to one partition.

BTW - the reason in the past I was manually telling it where to install was because it kept wanting my 2G drive instead of the 255 G partition I wanted it in.

The statement here: "Linux Mint forces you to create both a /root partition and a /home partition and you cannot set both to one partition." is not correct.

Checking the linux mint installation guide here shows that the user can arrange the partitions according to his or her preference:

Install Linux Mint — Linux Mint Installation Guide documentation

linuxmint-installation-guide.readthedocs.io

The installation only requires a single / partition. It mentions to choose "Something Else" for the user who doesn't wish to accept the defaults.

Perhaps the docs aren't sufficiently detailed to guide you, but if you show the steps you have taken and describe what you wish to implement in detail, readers will be able to help you get to where you'd like to be

 

[Darc Sceptor]

Actually I'm now where I want to be. Just letting things rip with the install worked. It went into the second partition with a larger partition size for both /root and /home. When you do " Something else " it demands /root and /home be in different partitions. It never gave an option to use one partition for both root and /home. Trust me I tried many ways to Sunday to do that.

 

[osprey]

Actually I'm now where I want to be. Just letting things rip with the install worked. It went into the second partition with a larger partition size for both /root and /home. When you do " Something else " it demands /root and /home be in different partitions. It never gave an option to use one partition for both root and /home. Trust me I tried many ways to Sunday to do that.

Unfortunately, it seems, that you have been unable to arrange the partitions with just the /root partition containing the /home filesystem.

On a computer here I can report that there was no trouble with such an arrangement installing Linux Mint. That is, arranging a single partition for /root which included the /home filesystem within it.

On the page headed "Installation Type", I selected "Something Else". The text in the installer states:

You can create or resize partitions yourself or choose multiple partitions for Linux Mint"

The schematic of the available drives appears, showing the disks, and then it's a matter of using the partitioner to arrange the partitions. One selects the mount points for the partitions one is configuring with the sizes and then proceeds with the installation.

If you are not selecting a /home partition, then none should be configured in the partitioner. One only needs to create a partition for /root, and when the installation is complete and the machine is booted up, the user will find by default that a /home directory exists and is ready for the user to use and configure if necessary.

Trust me

Sorry, no .

 

[tinfoil-hat]

you can install

ncdu

to see what eats your storage, its an ncurses program

 

[Darc Sceptor]

Unfortunately, it seems, that you have been unable to arrange the partitions with just the /root partition containing the /home filesystem.

On a computer here I can report that there was no trouble with such an arrangement installing Linux Mint. That is, arranging a single partition for /root which included the /home filesystem within it.

On the page headed "Installation Type", I selected "Something Else". The text in the installer states:


The schematic of the available drives appears, showing the disks, and then it's a matter of using the partitioner to arrange the partitions. One selects the mount points for the partitions one is configuring with the sizes and then proceeds with the installation.

If you are not selecting a /home partition, then none should be configured in the partitioner. One only needs to create a partition for /root, and when the installation is complete and the machine is booted up, the user will find by default that a /home directory exists and is ready for the user to use and configure if necessary.


Sorry, no .

Well here are the things I did:

set the partition for boot
set the partition for /
I told Linux 'Install here'
It returned an error: Need /home partition
I selected the root partition but found no way to say this is root and /home\

I'd love if you would share just how I do this. I'm sure this won't be the only time I want to define partitions.

 

[osprey]

Well here are the things I did:

set the partition for boot
set the partition for /
I told Linux 'Install here'
It returned an error: Need /home partition
I selected the root partition but found no way to say this is root and /home\

I'd love if you would share just how I do this. I'm sure this won't be the only time I want to define partitions.

It's worth noting in the installation guide linked to above in post #10, there is the statement:

Linux Mint requires one partition to be mounted on the root / directory.

Linux Mint is saying here it needs a /root partition for installation. It doesn't say that /home is needed, and that is how I found it to be.

These are the steps taken here in brief:
Select "Something Else"
Select "New Partition Table"
Select the drive.
Select among the +, - and "change" options.
Write in the size of the partitions and mount points.
In this case, /root, /boot/efi and swap.
Select filesystem types for each.
Write to disk.

I'm not proposing that you do anything more than you have already done at present. That seems unnecessary since you've mentioned in post #11: "I'm now where I want to be". I think that's a good place to be.

The way in which I deal with these matters is to have a separate computer, apart from the main one, on which to experiment.