Re: No space left on device

From: Kimberly Webb (kimw_at_nospam.pos.org)
Date: 08/26/03 

Date: Tue, 26 Aug 2003 16:55:46 -0400

"Spamless" <Spamless@Nil.nil> wrote in message
news:3f4bbb83$1_2@nntp2.nac.net...
> In article <3f4bb581$0$15122$afc38c87@>, Kimberly Webb wrote:
> > I'm a VERY new linux user trying to administer an existing linux box to
> > allow remote dial-in access on our network. It's Red Hat Linux release
7.3,
> > Kernel 2.4.18-5 on an i686.
> >
> > During boot up I get an error "no space left on device"
> >
> > What exactly should I delete to fix this? I assume there are log files
I
> > can get rid of but how to I navigate to them. Should I delete the files
or
> > just open them in vi and empty them? How do I even get into the
/dev/hda2
> > to do anything? A patient person that could provide step by step
> > directions would be VERY appreciated. Many thanks in advance for your
help.
> >
> > I already used pine to delete all the mail.
> >
> > [root@fluffy root]# df -k
> > Filesystem 1k-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
> > /dev/hda2 1619164 1618780 0 100% /
> > /dev/hda1 148345 5389 135297 4% /boot
>
> I see no other mount points. No /usr, no /tmp.
>
> Everthing (media files, temporary files, source code, etc.)
> seems to be on a 1.6 Gig hard drive (maybe 2 Gig ... you probably
> have a swap partition somewhere and there is the /boot partition).
>
> To get to files, you can use the first disk in the CD distribution,
> boot from that and type what is necessary to go to rescue mode.
> The system will be in mnt/sysimage (I believe) whither you can
> go to find the subdirectories to remove files.

As I mentioned this is an existing linux box. I have no cd-rom or boot
disk. I don't know how I'd get one either.
>
> That is rather a small hard driver on which to run a full
> graphical linux. What GUI (Gnome, KDE?). What applications?
> How much is in your /tmp directory.

I don't run any graphics on this, it just for people to dial in and get an
IP address, it runs mgetty. There are no applications.
>
> You probably have lots of stuff in various "doc/" subdirectories.
> When I had a small system (7 Gig hard drive with two copies of
> Win95 and TurboLinux Workstation 6), I burned all the doc and
> howto stuff to a CD and deleted them. You might then have
> problems erasing them (using rpm) if you have an installed package
> which wants to delete those files in order to remove the package.

But how would I get to this stuff, as I said I'm new to linux so I have no
idea where any of this stuff would be or where I would delete it. I don't
have a cd burner and have no idea how I could get the stuff off anyway.
>
> With so small a disk, I would generally not save documents
> on the hard drive, but burn to a CD-R and access them from there
> (well, small document files you often use would be on the
> hard drive, of course). You probably have lots of programmes
> you don't use. Do you use pine and mutt and elm (mail programmes)?
> Are they all installed?

well I use pine but don't think anything else is installed, how would I
know?

>
> Do you use vi and emacs and pico and joe and jed (plain text
> editors)? Are they all installed?

vi I use, nothing else is installed that I can tell but how would I know?

>
> Do you use lynx and links and wget and curl and w3m to get web
> pages?

no

>
> The distribution comes with many packages which duplicate each
> others features, so you (and other users, *nixes are designed
> as multiple user systems) can pick and choose.

How would I know this though? I would have no idea how to remove this
stuff.

>
> If you are really tight for space, you can remove (rpm -e) the
> "development packages" (whatever-devel-version.rpm). I used to
> do that, and when I wanted to compile a programme, just
> installed the ones I needed to compile, compiled and installed
> the new programme, and then removed the *-devel-* packages again.

what?!
>
> Then again, you could upgrade (or add) a hard drive. But, if your
> current system has a 2Gig drive, the motherboard/bios may be old
> (well, not too old) and only support hard drives up to 8Gig (try
> and find a 7 or 8 gig hard drive - none made any more).

I would have no idea how to add a drive and I doubt it is necessary if
someone could just offer me simple instructions on how to remove log files.

>
> You could use an add in PCI card with a new IDE interface.

I assure you I couldn't.

>
> If you installed the kernel RPM, it comes with tons of modules
> (for everything under the sun) (when you get enough room,
> you could get a kernel source, compile with only the modules
> you want, and install it).

I have no idea what your talking about, sorry.

>
> Then there are the log files in /var/log which might have
> gotten out of hand.

I think that is the issue but how do I delete them, what exactly should I
delete? I assume there are log files I
can get rid of but how to I navigate to them. Should I delete the files or
just open them in vi and empty them? How do I even get into the /dev/hda2
to do anything? A patient person that could provide step by step
directions would be VERY appreciated. Many thanks in advance for your help.

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