the goss

Disk Full? - Check Your Trash Bin(s)

In a Rush? Go Directly to #6 ...



1. Error Messages - Why You Are Here?

"There is not enough room on the disk to save ..." Perhaps you received an error message. Maybe you have tried but cannot delete the contents of the Trash bin. Perhaps you looked at your system files and realized that you were running out of disk space. Emptying the trash has been a tradition throughout the world since long before computers were invented. Over time we sometimes forget to do perform this important task.



With computer trash, you have to not only remember to delete, you must know how to do it. If you cannot explain why you are running out of hard drive space, it may be because you haven't emptied the trash - properly, often enough, or perhaps both! Read on.



2. Checking Your Partition

Here are some of the many ways to check your free space. Each has its advantages. Use the one or combination you like the best.

• df - Th | sort (Terminal)
  
  
  
  

  Code:

  
  

  ---

  /dev/sda1    ext3    23G  9.6G  12G  46% /

/dev/sda2    ext3    34G  2.1G  30G  7% /home

/dev/sdg2  fuseblk    965M  5.4M  960M  1% /media/test

Filesystem    Type    Size  Used  Avail  Use%  Mounted on

  ---

  
  
  Note: "sort" will order the partitions alphabetically. The "T" switch shows the file type - you can omit it if desired. If used, ntfs partitions will show type: "fuseblk".
  
  
  


• Gnome-Device-Manager (GUI)
  
  System, Administration, System Monitor (gnome-system-manager)
  
  
  
  

  Code:

  
  

  ---

  Device      Dir    Type  Total    Free      Available  Used    %

/dev/sda2  /home  ext3  33.1GiB  31.1GiB  29.4GiB    2.0GiB  6%

  ---

  
  


• Disk Usage Analyzer (GUI)
  
  Applications, Accessories, Disk Usage Analyzer.
  
  This is a graphical app that displays hard drives and partitions.
  
  While DUA is a valid tool, it often brings up questions about its use. Here are a couple of things to keep in mind:
  • One common question is why DUA seems to show twice as much space as the partition contains. By default DUA It displays the .gvfs (gnome virtual file system) folder contents. To get an accurate picture of the actual/physical contents, uncheck ".gvfs" via Edit, Preferences.
  
  
  • The top directory will always show 100% full. The percentages of all the folders adds up to 100%. It does not mean there is no space left on the drive/partition.
  
  

3. Free Space - Where Did It Go?

• Has it been a while since you deleted your Trash bins?


• Do you regulary install and then uninstall apps without using dpkg/apt/synaptic/Add-Remove?


• Do you have a particularly small partition, such as /boot?


• Are you sure you understand what the computer is telling you?


• Have you wondered why your disk size seems under-reported? (See # 8 ).

4. Trash Characteristics

Under normal circumstances, only files/folders deleted with the terminal "rm" command or via the Shift-Del key combination in file browsers such as nautilus or thunar are immediately erased - freeing up disk space. The rest go to a trash bin, where deleted materials remain until the bin(s) are emptied.



The Trash folders are hidden. If using the "ls" command in the command line, you must include the "-a" switch (ls -a). In nautilus or other file browsers, you must have "view hidden files" enabled (nautilus = Ctrl-H).



There are two folders within the Trash bin - "info" and "files".

• info: The "info" folder contains information regarding the files contained in the "files" folder. Each deleted file has an entry in the "info" folder, containing the deletion date and path.


• files: This folder contains the actual deleted files.

5. Why Must I Delete Trash?

Until the trash bins are emptied, deleted items continue to take up disk space just as a normal files do. The space containing these deleted items cannot be used as long as the deleted files reside in Trash bin(s).



If you want proof, find a suitably large file and make a copy of it. Using any of the methods above, review the free and used disk space and then delete the file via a file browser or right click/remove in a file browser. Reheck the results. You will notice the used and free space have not changed. The reason is because the deleted files in a Trash bin are still intact - they have only been moved to a different folder.



6. Okay, Where Are the Trash Files?

Here is where these files normally reside.

• /home/username/.share/local/Trash User's Trash (hardy and later)


• /home/username/.Trash User's Trash (pre-hardy)


• /root/.local/share/Trash Root Trash (hardy and later)


• /root/.local/share/Trash Root Trash (pre-hardy):


• /.local/share/.Trash-1000 NTFS/FAT32/etc: Trash deleted in these partitions is placed in a Trash bin named in accordance with the user deleting the file, e.g. -1000, 1002, -0, etc

All trash on your system, regardless of where it resides, by default contains the name "Trash". Here is a command that will greatly simplify your task. It seeks out all folders on your system that contain either "trash" or "Trash" while eliminating other files such as "trashapplet". It must be run with root privileges since it will be searching the system files. It does not require root privileges to be run on your home partition. It searches your entire system, so it may take a few minutes and may initially produce

• Here is an example run on my computer:
  
  
  
  

  Code:

  
  

  ---

  ~/Desktop: sudo find / -type d -iname *Trash* | grep Trash

/media/data/.Trash-1000

/home/username/.local/share/Trash

/home/.Trash-0

/root/.local/share/Trash

  ---

  
  

7. How Do I Delete Trash and Free Up Space?

• The Safe Way: File Browser with Administrative Powers
  • gksudo nautilus (Terminal)
    • Do not use "sudo". Sudo is meant to be used for terminal commands and processes. This command, even though run in terminal, will open a gui application. "gksudo" is the appropriate command.
    
    
    • You can start nautilus with the folder path ( gksudo nautilus ~/.local/share/Trash ) It is necessary to navigate to each Trash folder to delete it's contents.
    
    
    • Use Shft-Delete to delete individual folders/files. Confirm the "permanent delete" message. If you just hit the Delete key, the folders/files will be deleted and moved to the .... Trash/files folder! If you delete the parent Trash folder, this is not necessary. A simple press of the Delete key will remove the Trash folder and subfolders.
    
    
    • You may delete the entire Trash folder. It will be created the next time an item is deleted.
    
    
  
  
  
  


• The Efficient Way: Command Line (with "chown" when required)
  • Using the Terminal. By using commands in terminal you can quickly delete all user-owned Trash folders. Using the command line combines ease of use with a bit of risk.
    
    
    
    You must ensure you have correctly input the command. Files deleted with the "rm" command are generally NOT recoverable!
    
    
    
  
  
  • To delete your Trash contents in your home folder:
    
    
    
    

    Code:

    
    

    ---

    rm -rf ~/.local/share/Trash/*

    ---

    
    
  
  
  • To delete root's Trash contents in your home folder:
    
    Sometimes root trash ends up in your local Trash bin. You cannot delete this without administrative powers. To accomplish the task, use "sudo" to change ownership of the Trash folder contents to the user, then delete the folder as above:
    
    
    
    

    Code:

    
    

    ---

    

sudo chown -R yourusername /home/yourusernameA/.local/share/Trash

rm -rf ~/.local/share/Trash/*

    ---

    
    
  
  
  • To delete root's Trash contents in root's Trash bin:
    
    I recommend using nautilus or another file browser, opened with root privileges, to accomplish this task. Using the command line to delete system Trash is safe only if the command is entered properly. A mistake could possibly erase system files and render the system unusable.
    
    
    
    There are commands which will directly delete root trash using "sudo rm -rf" but I will not reproduce them here. A safer method is again to change the ownership to yourself and then delete the Trash. Of course, if you enter the wrong commands twice you can still destroy your system...
    
    
    
    We will again use "sudo" to change ownership of the Trash folder contents to the user and then delete the folder as previously:
    
    
    
    
    
    

    Code:

    
    

    ---

    

sudo chown -R yourusername /root/.local/share/Trash/*

rm -rf ~/.local/share/Trash

    ---

    
    
  
  

8. Other Ways to Regain Space

Briefly, here are some other methods to reclaim space on your partitions. These commands are run from the terminal.

• sudo apt-get clean
  
  Empties all the packages from /var/cache/apt/archives. The archives folder in general contains the .deb packages of installed apps. It can grow quite large. Current packages can be downloaded via synaptic if they need reinstallation. There is program called APTonCD that can save these packages to a cd/dvd if desired.
  


• sudo apt-get autoclean
  
  Empties all expired packages from /var/cache/apt/archives that are no longer available for download.
  


• sudo apt-get autoremove
  
  Removes packages that were installed to satisfy dependencies for other apps but which are no longer needed.


• localepurge
  
  By default a number of language packages are installed on the system. On a full disk the space can be noticeable. localepurge can be installed and run to remove and prevent future installation of extra language packages that you do not use. Install it using the command "sudo apt-get install localepurge". Read the man page for warnings about it's use.


• deborphan
  
  This app locates unused libraries and is installed with "sudo apt-get install deborphan". It can also be set up in synaptic.


• tune2fs
  
  If you really need to free up space, tune2fs can free up some space by reducing the 'reserved blocks' used for journalling and other system use. By default, 5% of the disk space is reserved for system use. There is a reason for having this space, but if you feel you must reduce the percentage you can run "sudo tune2fs -m X /dev/partition" where m is the desired percentage. (Example: sudo tune2fs -m 3 /dev/sda1)
  
  Note: This reserved space accounts for the disparity between a disk's actual capacity and that reported by disk management commands and apps. The reserved space is often not reported and thus the drive/partition appears to have 'lost' some of its capacity.
  
  

9. A Few Tips About Trash

• If your user Trash icon is not displayed on the Desktop, try this. Change the value to "false" to hide it.
  
  gconftool-2 --type bool --set /apps/nautilus/desktop/trash_icon_visible "true"[/b]
  
  [/code]

Other Useful Trash-Related Links:

HOWTO: Cleaning up all those unnecessary junk files

HOWTO: Automatically regulate the size and age of your Trash folder

A send-to-trash command for the shell.

Hi everyone



I upgraded from Ubuntu 8.04 to 8.10 just a few days ago. Everything is working mostly OK but I'm having a couple of problems with the sound and video. Both issues then relate to a problem with Skype. I must say that I had no such issues with 8.04.



Sound: whenever the sound server turns on at boot, I get a very loud white noise through my speakers. This is extremely annoying but I finally figured out that turning on TVTime Television Viewer turns off that background noise. However, turning on Cheese starts that noise again.

2nd point about the sound, and it relates to Skype: I was also affected by the sound out issue, but solved it by choosing Pulse as the Sound Out device. Funny thing is: Making a test sound doesn't work but the test call works fine (as well as the rest of Skype audio functions)



Video: I have a Logitech Communicate STX that was working in Skype under 8.04. Ever since upgrading to 8.10, everytime I turn on the video, be it during a call or as a test in the options, it instantly crashes skype.



I run Skype 2.0.0.68. I tried the latest version but had the same problem so just reverted.



My sound card is built into my motherboard, which is a ... blank: How do I find out in the system what my motherboard is?



Could anyone please provide some assistance to get rid of that white noise for good as well as solving my Skype video issue?



TIA

Buffer I/O error on device sr0 sector 1431616

end request: I/O error, dev sr0, logical block 357904



This is what I get repeated when I try to install Ibex from disc or try to run without changes. What to do?



Additional information:

I run Vista 64 Home Premium for games and have been running it for about 6 months and I miss Ubuntu terribly so I waited for the latest installation. Yesterday I was updating vista things, DX10, Video Card driver [GTX 280] and latest BIOS update for the EVGA 790i ultra SLI, going from the P05 version to the latest P07. Well after the bios update it gave me a C1 error, to do with the memory, I removed all but 1 stick and booted successfully. Then continued to add 1 stick on each successful boot till I got to the 4th stick, switched it around to test the stick itself. I took it out, loaded defaults in the BIOS and put it back in and everything booted. Well now vista lasts about 5 minutes without freezing. So I got the P06 version of the bios and put it on, same thing, back to P07, then down to P05 [because it had worked in the past] and now the problem isnt going away. Now I can not install Ibex. I can boot my old partition [on an another HDD] of Kubuntu just fine... :'( Whats going on!

After trying in vain for a few hours to get my bluetooth mouse running in Kubuntu 8.10 RC1 I've come to the conclusion that there simply is no support for bluetooth at all in Kubuntu 8.10. Is this correct?

Hello, While using Skype on 8.04 Ubuntu, Skype was working just fine. But I've just done a fresh clean install of Ubuntu 8.10 and Skype (from Skype repository) says: "Problem with Audio Playback" Could you please help me diagnose the problem? Please do NOT just tell me to try this or try that. I want to know first the _Cause_ of the problem before installing this or modifying that. Thank you.

good day



after my computer crashed through the update from hardy to intrepid, i had to install a fresh ubuntu 8.10. this means that i don't have my programs anymore including the one im going to ask about which is XBMC. now i searched google for the repositories and i got these two:

i added them to my etc/apt/sources.list but when i go into synaptic i does not show XBMC and when i go into the terminal and type sudo apt-get install xbmc it says this:

only thing is synaptic says theres no broken packages. please help.



-joshua

New user here, can't get wicd to find my wpa wireless net on an xubuntu hardy install on a fujitsu lifebook. I can connect if and only if I go into network settings, clear the wpa password, re-enter it, and apply. Would appreciate advice...



Hopefully useful info follows:



~$ sudo iwlist scan

lo Interface doesn't support scanning.



wmaster0 Interface doesn't support scanning.



wlan0 Scan completed :

Cell 01 - Address: 00:14:6C:3B:66:DE

ESSID:"HOMENET"

Mode:Master

Channel:9

Frequency:2.452 GHz (Channel 9)

Signal level=76/127

Encryption key:on

IE: WPA Version 1

Group Cipher : TKIP

Pairwise Ciphers (1) : TKIP

Authentication Suites (1) : PSK

Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s

24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s

12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s

Extra:tsf=000001fcb8df2a41



:~$ sudo lshw -C network

*-network

description: Wireless interface

product: ISL3890 [Prism GT/Prism Duette]/ISL3886 [Prism Javelin/Prism Xbow]

vendor: Intersil Corporation

physical id: 1

bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0

logical name: wmaster0

version: 01

serial: 00:09:5b:e8:cc:f2

width: 32 bits

clock: 33MHz

capabilities: pm bus_master cap_list logical ethernet physical wireless

configuration: broadcast=yes driver=prism54pci ip=192.168.1.5 latency=64 maxlatency=28 mingnt=10 module=p54pci multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11g



:~$ sudo cat /etc/network/interfaces

# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system

# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).



# The loopback network interface

auto lo

iface lo inet loopback





iface wlan0 inet dhcp

wpa-psk xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx

wpa-driver wext

wpa-key-mgmt WPA-PSK

wpa-proto WPA

wpa-ssid HOMENET



auto wlan0





:~$ sudo iwconfig

lo no wireless extensions.



wmaster0 no wireless extensions.



wlan0 IEEE 802.11g Mode:Managed Frequency:2.452 GHz

Access Point: 00:3B:6C:0F:66:ED Bit Rate=54 Mb/s Tx-Power=27 dBm

Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr=2346 B

Encryption key:xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx [2]

Link Signal level=79/127

Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0

Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0



:~$ route

Kernel IP routing table

Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface

192.168.1.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 wlan0

link-local * 255.255.0.0 U 1000 0 0 wlan0

default 192.168.1.1 0.0.0.0 UG 100 0 0 wlan0



Thanks in advance!

8.04 had problems on my laptop, so I wanted to upgrade 7.10 -> 8.10.



As normal, I did s/gutsy/intrepid/g on /etc/apt/sources.



The packages downloaded, but then:

So, I ran:

Running on a 64-bit system.



Suggestions?



Thanks,

Jacob

Hi,



After a couple of days having left the dual booting and installing just ubuntu, I started to notice that my screen was pretty "gray" or dark, and what used to be white (as this background color) looks much darker than before. I remember that in windows the colors were very intense, but now I can't check.



I have a Sony Vaio VGN SR 129 E/B, and a Radeon HD 3470 graphic card.



I have tried:

a) Use fn keys, but they are not working (just volume keys work)

b) Run Ubuntu through Live CD. The brightness is the same, and the brightness fn keys don't work either.

c) Check BIOS. I have just 4 menus (main, security, boot and exit) and no option to control brightness or screen or anything close to that.

d) I installed xbacklight. When I tried it, I got: "No outputs have backlight property"

e) Then I tried xrandr:

But I got:

f) Finally, I tried to set acpi=off: In terminal I wrote:



sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst



Then I add the "acpi=off" option to the end of the "kernel" line as below:



But I got no change. And the fn brightness keys still don't work.



Any suggestion would be appreciated.



Thanks

I find the floppy drive doesn't work in 8.10, I have added this line to fstab /dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0 but still doesn't mount the drive! maybe I have to install some application, do you know anything about this?

thanks