15

I'm using Ubuntu 13.10. When I boot Ubuntu it does not start and just shows a blank screen. I tried cntrl+alt+f1 and using df -h I saw that my /dev/sda7 is completely full. I can't even remove old kernels due to low space. I cannot start Ubuntu, please help.

jmq
  • 419
  • 3
  • 7
  • 15
Prakhar
  • 153

2 Answers2

14

Ubuntu has started if you are able to do commands, it is just the gui you are missing. Now you just need to delete things with the rm command.

Please be careful, and make sure you understand what you are doing.

Perhaps you can delete some old logs? In the /var/log folder there are lots of logs.

Anything ending in a number such as .1, or a number with a gz suffix - .2.gz is an old log file. It is fairly safe to delete these.

However, you can use the du -shx /* command to see which of the root directories is using the most space. It is likely to be the /home/ directory, and your own home directory. Probably email or dropbox is taking up the most room.

Paul
  • 60,031
  • 19
  • 150
  • 170
  • ok thank you. I will try it out. Can i delete files from /dev/sda7 ?..My Partition is of 41g and all of the 41g is full so i cant even delete the old kernels. – Prakhar May 07 '14 at 13:10
  • rm doesn't normally need any additional space. What happens when you try? – Paul May 07 '14 at 13:11
  • i tried using rm and deleted files from Downloads and some old kernels. Still when i use df -h it shows that my drive is full . – Prakhar May 07 '14 at 13:13
  • 1
    @user3209750 Depending on the filesystem, it may take a while to show as freed. If you have deleted enough stuff, say around 100Mb, reboot and it should work. Then you can set about really tidying up. – Paul May 07 '14 at 13:25
  • 4
    @user3209750: Are you sure you are really deleting files from the filesystem that is full, and not a different one? df will show you which filesystem is mounted where. Another possibility is that something is filling the disk as quickly as you are deleting files; du may be helpful in finding what that is. – Nate Eldredge May 07 '14 at 15:19
  • Kernels are usually on a separate /boot partition in Ubuntu so cleaning out old ones typically won't free up much if any space on /. – nobody May 07 '14 at 21:51
  • Linux filesystems often reserve part of the disk's space for the superuser's exclusive use. Until you've deleted enough stuff for this reserved space to be completely empty, "df -h" will still show the disk as being completely full. – Mark May 08 '14 at 03:41
  • You only have 41 GB? That's your problem right there. Windows 7 is in itself 15 to 20 gigabytes. Trollface.jpg Looks like Ubuntu is only 5 GB, though. Damn you, Microsoft. – asteri May 08 '14 at 04:02
10

I would personally try to boot from a live CD and try mounting /dev/sda7 that way. Once you can get it mounted, you should then go through and see what large files you can delete to free up space.

I hope this helps!

byachna
  • 616