Score:0

Root partition full, don't know what to do

us flag

I have a root and home partition with 20 and something like 200-300GB. My root partition is now almost full, and I'm not sure what to do, what files exactly should even be there etc. Answers that I found online were not helpful, they were too complicated and seemed not to be about this. Why aren't my files on the home partition? Can I move or delete these from the root and get them on home?

It looks like a simple problem, but I don't know much about this stuff. Here are some screenshots that might be helpful.

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ar flag
Does this answer your question? [How to resize partitions?](https://askubuntu.com/questions/126153/how-to-resize-partitions)
luka avatar
us flag
I'm confused because I installed ubuntu a few weeks ago because of some other problem, and now that I made the separate home partition, why isn't everything on it, rather than on root?
ar flag
What do you mean by "why isn't everything on it, rather than on root?" What is "everything"? The home partition is for all the personal files for all the users. Did you copy all your personal staff into Ubuntu? If so, where did you copy them?
ar flag
Also see [Moving items from /home partition to / partition](https://askubuntu.com/questions/1370301/moving-items-from-home-partition-to-partition).
luka avatar
us flag
I didn't have no personal stuff. I was going to install tex and it said I couldn't because I had no more free space. Why isn't it installing on home? Can I modify that?
user535733 avatar
cn flag
Looks to me like classic over-partitioning. You obeyed some random online advice to create a separate /home partition for whatever great reason. Resize your partitions to match your actual usage. Or, better yet, reinstall as a single partition so you needn't muck about with partitioning.
user535733 avatar
cn flag
You cannot install on /home because Ubuntu is not a Windows clone. In a Debian-based system (like Ubuntu), you generally don't get to choose where applications install. Install locations are hard-coded in the deb packages and the snap packages. It's Open Source software: If you have the skill and the desire, you can change the code.
luka avatar
us flag
Not saying that is false, but I'm looking for a simpler solution if it exists, beacuse I can't do that right now.
user535733 avatar
cn flag
Then go back to Disk Usage Analyzer. See what in /var is taking up all that space in your root partition.
luka avatar
us flag
It says cache (3.5GB) and lib (1.6GB).
user535733 avatar
cn flag
Keep going deeper.
oldfred avatar
cn flag
Post this in question above: `lsblk -e 7 -o name,fstype,size,fsused,label,UUID,mountpoint`
AlexOnLinux avatar
ng flag
to free up some space start with `sudo apt autoremove && sudo apt clean` than I would suggest you go with `sudo partitionmanager` or `sudo gparted`. To resize the root partition it needs to be unmounted. You cannot unmount root. You have to boot a live CD or live USB stick to be able to resize root. In case you want to reinstall Ubuntu again, go with the LVM (logical volume manager) installation. That makes resizing partitions easier in future, especially in conjunction with `partitionmanager`
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