I have a 20gig ASUS EEEPC. When I try to install updates to ubutu it tell me that I have insufficient space, which I am sure can not be correct as I have half a dozen pictures, no music and no movies stored. The problem is that I can not locate the file that it tells me is used, '\'. I have searched but have not found it.

Any ideas where this might be or how I can find it?

"/" is your root directory (I.E. there's nothing it sits in, but rather is the 'folder' that everything else sits it like /dev, /home, /tmp, /etc). If you want to see what's there, open a terminal and type in:

cd /

I'm assuming you followed the advice to remove the old *.deb?

I'd also bet that your /tmp is full to bursting. You can safely remove all the files inside there.

Use the command "df" and it will show what percentage of each partition is being used. As mentioned, the /tmp may be the problem. To complete dave_boo's suggestion after typing "cd /" then type "ls -la" without the quotes.

"/" is your root directory (I.E. there's nothing it sits in, but rather is the 'folder' that everything else sits it like /dev, /home, /tmp, /etc). If you want to see what's there, open a terminal and type in:

cd /

I'm assuming you followed the advice to remove the old *.deb?

I'd also bet that your /tmp is full to bursting. You can safely remove all the files inside there.

Only 144.9mb in the tmp file, which I guess should be ok.

I tried typing in cd/ in a terminal and nothing happened.

How do I discover which file is for the updates? Should it not normally say /dev or what ever as you said?

Use the command "df" and it will show what percentage of each partition is being used. As mentioned, the /tmp may be the problem. To complete dave_boo's suggestion after typing "cd /" then type "ls -la" without the quotes.

I didn't want to confuse him....there's a lot of information that's outputted when you do that. However, if he's going to look at it, he may as well have Linux sort it for him.

cd / && ls -laS

When you type in commands make sure that you use the spaces that are provided, along with correct case of letters.

Do not mess around in your /dev. Unless you don't like your machine working......

I can't tell you exactly where the huge amount of space is being wasted; if you had a file analyzer installed I could help better.

I also just remembered 'du'. Copy this command exactly:

cd / && du -csh

This will tell you the size of all the files and folders inside your "/" along with a grand total.

Good hunting.

Use the command "df" and it will show what percentage of each partition is being used. As mentioned, the /tmp may be the problem. To complete dave_boo's suggestion after typing "cd /" then type "ls -la" without the quotes.

I did the df and get the following results. It seems that dev/sda1 is almost full. I can not find this and when doing a search was told that it is not a folder.

Use the command "df" and it will show what percentage of each partition is being used. As mentioned, the /tmp may be the problem. To complete dave_boo's suggestion after typing "cd /" then type "ls -la" without the quotes.

I didn't want to confuse him....there's a lot of information that's outputted when you do that. However, if he's going to look at it, he may as well have Linux sort it for him.

cd / && ls -laS

When you type in commands make sure that you use the spaces that are provided, along with correct case of letters.

Ok. This is what I got this time.

dam_n, forgot about the screen resolution of the netbooks...that's not much to work with. Let's try this a different way. What I'm going to tell you to do will print off the information and pipe it into a text file on your desktop. Open the text file up and copy and paste the results.

cd / && du -csh | /home/richard-laptop/Desktop/file.txt

.

Now a couple of clarifications. sda1 is similar to the first filing cabinet in your office. sda2 would be the one sitting on top of it. sdb1 would be the one to the right of it, with sdb2 being to the top right. The "/" is the name you assigned to the office which contains all the cabinets. Inside the cabinets you have folders which you've named "home" and "dev" and "etc". Inside those folders you may have subfolders such as "richard-laptop" or "dave-boo" (you could add me as a user). And inside those subfolders you have further folders such as "Desktop" and "Music" and "Videos". Now you can have files in any place you want, including folders that have subfolders in them. That's the easiest way I can think of explaining *nix filing system to you.

sda1 is not a folder, but rather a designation for a partition much like Windows would call it C:\. Just as if you opened up Windows Explorer and looked under "My Computer" it would tell you the C:\ drive is x% full, so does Linux. However, if you don't dig down in either OS, you can't see why.

I'm afraid that didn't work. It told me 'no such file exists' and then reeled a lot of info out: see screenshot.

Thanks for the explanation. I tried searching for likely full files but found none.

Here's what I do because of the limitations of the stock install - I have 13 O/S on my large Vaio NB that all work 100%.

I carve up my HDD into bite-sized chunks of say 7G for each partition, leaving 80% for data, 4G swap. No need to format yet.

As I install a new O/S, I simply format, install to new /, add it to existing GRUB and move on.

I learned this after way too many aborted installs, and guerrilla tactics from different distros. which had me editing & breaking GRUB 24/7 - Unfortunately I have never liked the convoluted style of Ubuntu, so wont add my oar to the mix.

I learned to keep all my data separate after my first M$ crash.

Once one gets into the wacky world of choice, there is not telling how many O/S you might end up with.

As all my data is secure, I have absolute freedom to play - I dont fix systems until much later. Simply boot & work

It is also a kick to be able to wipe an entire boot drive of say 6 systems, reformat and setup according to your whims - your data is always safe. Just mt Nickel, aint freedom wonderful?!

BR>Jack

I have recently been using Baobab to help me see where my disk space is going.

It is installed by default with Ubuntu.

You can find it under Applications/Accessories/Disk Usage Analyzer.

Another tool I have been using to recover space is BleachBit (http://bleachbit-project.appspot.com/).

Hope that helps.

I have recently been using Baobab to help me see where my disk space is going.

It is installed by default with Ubuntu.

You can find it under Applications/Accessories/Disk Usage Analyzer.

Another tool I have been using to recover space is BleachBit (http://bleachbit-project.appspot.com/).

Hope that helps.

Thanks for that. It seems that I have plenty of space, but I'm still confused.

If you select Analyze/Scan File System it will tell you where the space is being used. That initial usage figure is for all your attached drives. You need to free space on sda1.

I suspect that doing an apt-get clean will help, also deleting any rotated logs.

If you select Analyze/Scan File System it will tell you where the space is being used. That initial usage figure is for all your attached drives. You need to free space on sda1.

I suspect that doing an apt-get clean will help, also deleting any rotated logs.

That's what the machine itself recommends I do, but when I do it nothing happens.

did you run it as root? 'sudo apt-get clean'

I see this is an old thread.. if you still need help you can pm me your chat id.

did you run it as root? 'sudo apt-get clean'

I see this is an old thread.. if you still need help you can pm me your chat id.

I've since switched to Mint, and have decided not to update anymore.

Thanks.