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niran90 avatar Ubuntu

Low disk space on "Filesystem root" even after creating a separate mount point for the \home directory

in flag
niran90

I recently installed Ubuntu 20.04 on a new laptop with Windows 10 pre-installed (which I then upgraded to Windows 11). When setting the partition table during the Ubuntu installation, I forgot to allocate separate space for the \home directory and it was therefore taking up space within the \ (root) directory - or at least this is what I assume was happening because it was just a matter of days before I started getting the "Low disk space on filesystem root" warning.

I had allocated 15GB to \ when installing, but I then resized it to 30GB using GParted. The remaining 15GB also filled up within a day - I'd installed texlive-full, which was the biggest package. But the package sizes certainly did not add up to 30GB. I then followed the advice on this article and created a separate mount point for \home (which now has ~550GB). The only part that did not go according to the instructions in the aforementioned link was when I booted from a live USB to backup the old \home directory and create a new one associated to the newly created mount point for \home via

cd / && sudo mv /home /old_home && sudo mkdir /home

Upon rebooting into Ubuntu (no longer through live USB), I could no longer find the /old_home directory in order to delete it after transferring all the old files into \home. Can anyone explain what I may have done wrong here or why my \ partition is filling up so quickly? The images below all give conflicting information as to how much space is left in \. Additionally, the "Low disk space on filesystem root" warning tells me that I have 352MB remaining on root. So I am not sure what to make of this. Any help/advice would be much appreciated!

$ sudo du -hsx /* | sort -rh | head -n 40
[sudo] password for niran90: 
du: cannot read directory '/proc/2150/task/2150/net': Invalid argument
du: cannot read directory '/proc/2150/net': Invalid argument
du: cannot read directory '/proc/2167/task/2167/net': Invalid argument
du: cannot read directory '/proc/2167/net': Invalid argument
du: cannot read directory '/proc/2194/task/2194/net': Invalid argument
du: cannot read directory '/proc/2194/net': Invalid argument
du: cannot access '/proc/5802/task/5802/fd/4': No such file or directory
du: cannot access '/proc/5802/task/5802/fdinfo/4': No such file or directory
du: cannot access '/proc/5802/fd/3': No such file or directory
du: cannot access '/proc/5802/fdinfo/3': No such file or directory
12G /usr
6.8G    /var
5.1G    /home
317M    /opt
193M    /boot
12M /etc
2.4M    /run
156K    /tmp
128K    /root
48K /snap
16K /lost+found
12K /media
4.0K    /srv
4.0K    /mnt
4.0K    /cdrom
0   /sys
0   /sbin
0   /proc
0   /libx32
0   /lib64
0   /lib32
0   /lib
0   /dev
0   /bin

enter image description here enter image description here enter image description here

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guiverc avatar
cn flag
guiverc
The recommended minimum for Ubuntu Desktop is 25GB for / (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/SystemRequirements), however depending on what software you intended using, that minimum may need to be more (my own usage requires more than 25GB too) . Also when using a *live* system, the `/home` in that session does not mean the installed system's /home directory (that will be a different directory; the /home is on a ram disk created & only usable whilst the *live* is operating).
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Will avatar
id flag
Will
This doesn’t directly address what’s happening, but as it’s a recent install, I think I’d start again - reinstall (after backing everything up on the windows partition too), planning your partitions before you do do, using all the space including the 550gb partition to ensure you won’t run out. I think it’s become messy by allocating inadequate space then moving /home from the root partition.
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guiverc avatar
cn flag
guiverc
Re-read what you wrote... your not finding `/old_home` should be expected if you did what you describe as per my prior comment. The directories you see in a *live* system are **not** the same as an installed system (`/home` on a *live* system refers to a directory on ramdisk created by the *live* session on boot - not a directory on a disk - that will have a different location dependent on where you `mount` it)
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pasman pasmański avatar
mx flag
pasman pasmański
I prefer to allocate 128GB space for root - this allows to freely install any software.
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niran90 avatar
in flag
niran90
Okay thank you both for the advice. Clearly I followed faulty instructions on the linked article. @Will if I am to do a fresh install, do I need to go over to Windows and delete all the existing Ubuntu partitions first? Or can I boot straight from the Live USB and install like normal?
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Will avatar
id flag
Will
@niran90 - thanks. I can’t remember if you can do it at installation (I think you can, but it’s been a while!), but you can certainly delete the partitions from a live session using gparted.
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niran90 avatar
in flag
niran90
@Will Okay, great. Thanks again! :)
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Will avatar
id flag
Will
Not sure I agree with the community bot there - I think you were pretty clear!
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