[EN] [Solved]During du tonight / (root) got filled up - help

[GoinEasy9]

Tonight during du I saw errors about diskspace, and, upon reboot, I could not get into "X"

I found out that /var/cache/apt/archives now contained 17.6GB, which, helped to fill up my root partition, that was 40GB to start off with.  I've never had a root partition fill up before, so, I'd like to know if I can safely empty the archives folder, and, if I have to rebuild anything after emptying the folder.

This is the result of journalctl -b | grep -i err:  (sda4 is the root partition).

Code: [Select]

Oct 17 21:33:44 siduction64kdefx kernel: ACPI: IRQ0 used by override.
Oct 17 21:33:44 siduction64kdefx kernel: ACPI: IRQ9 used by override.
Oct 17 21:33:44 siduction64kdefx kernel: ACPI: Using IOAPIC for interrupt routing
Oct 17 21:33:44 siduction64kdefx kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKA] (IRQs 4 7 10 11 14 15) *0
Oct 17 21:33:44 siduction64kdefx kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKB] (IRQs 4 7 10 11 14 15) *0
Oct 17 21:33:44 siduction64kdefx kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKC] (IRQs 4 7 10 11 14 15) *0
Oct 17 21:33:44 siduction64kdefx kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKD] (IRQs 3 4 10 11 14 15) *0
Oct 17 21:33:44 siduction64kdefx kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKE] (IRQs 4 7 10 11 14 15) *0
Oct 17 21:33:44 siduction64kdefx kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKF] (IRQs 4 7 10 11 14 15) *0
Oct 17 21:33:44 siduction64kdefx kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKG] (IRQs 4 7 10 11 14 15) *0
Oct 17 21:33:44 siduction64kdefx kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKH] (IRQs 4 7 10 11 14 15) *0
                                          Either enable ECC checking or force module loading by setting 'ecc_enable_override'.
                                          (Note that use of the override may cause unknown side effects.)
Oct 17 21:33:47 siduction64kdefx kernel: EXT4-fs (sda4): re-mounted. Opts: errors=remount-ro
Oct 17 21:33:49 siduction64kdefx kernel: EXT4-fs (sda3): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: errors=remount-ro
Oct 17 21:33:52 siduction64kdefx vnstatd[946]: Unexpected error (Value too large for defined data type), exiting. (ifinfo.c:385)
Oct 17 21:33:52 siduction64kdefx vnstatd[946]: Error: Unexpected error (Value too large for defined data type), exiting. (ifinfo.c:385)
Oct 17 21:33:53 siduction64kdefx smartd[943]: Device: /dev/sdb [SAT], no SMART Self-test Log, ignoring -l selftest (override with -T permissive)
Oct 17 21:33:53 siduction64kdefx smartd[943]: Device: /dev/sdb [SAT], no SMART Error Log, ignoring -l error (override with -T permissive)
Oct 17 21:33:54 siduction64kdefx lightdm[993]: ** (lightdm:993): WARNING **: Error getting user list from org.freedesktop.Accounts: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.freedesktop.Accounts was not provided by any .service files
Oct 17 21:33:58 siduction64kdefx lightdm[993]: ** (process:1197): WARNING **: Error getting user list from org.freedesktop.Accounts: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.freedesktop.Accounts was not provided by any .service files
Oct 17 21:33:59 siduction64kdefx lightdm[1334]: ** (lightdm:1334): WARNING **: Error getting user list from org.freedesktop.Accounts: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.freedesktop.Accounts was not provided by any .service files
Oct 17 21:34:00 siduction64kdefx lightdm[1334]: ** (process:2030): WARNING **: Error getting user list from org.freedesktop.Accounts: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.freedesktop.Accounts was not provided by any .service files
Oct 17 21:34:02 siduction64kdefx lightdm[2264]: ** (lightdm:2264): WARNING **: Error getting user list from org.freedesktop.Accounts: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.freedesktop.Accounts was not provided by any .service files
Oct 17 21:34:02 siduction64kdefx lightdm[2264]: ** (process:2383): WARNING **: Error getting user list from org.freedesktop.Accounts: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.freedesktop.Accounts was not provided by any .service files
Oct 17 21:34:04 siduction64kdefx lightdm[2641]: ** (lightdm:2641): WARNING **: Error getting user list from org.freedesktop.Accounts: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.freedesktop.Accounts was not provided by any .service files
Oct 17 21:34:05 siduction64kdefx lightdm[2641]: ** (process:2761): WARNING **: Error getting user list from org.freedesktop.Accounts: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.freedesktop.Accounts was not provided by any .service files
Oct 17 21:34:06 siduction64kdefx lightdm[3052]: ** (lightdm:3052): WARNING **: Error getting user list from org.freedesktop.Accounts: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.freedesktop.Accounts was not provided by any .service files
Oct 17 21:34:07 siduction64kdefx lightdm[3052]: ** (process:3171): WARNING **: Error getting user list from org.freedesktop.Accounts: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.freedesktop.Accounts was not provided by any .service files
Oct 17 21:34:08 siduction64kdefx lightdm[3348]: ** (lightdm:3348): WARNING **: Error getting user list from org.freedesktop.Accounts: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.freedesktop.Accounts was not provided by any .service files
Oct 17 21:34:09 siduction64kdefx lightdm[3348]: ** (process:3378): WARNING **: Error getting user list from org.freedesktop.Accounts: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.freedesktop.Accounts was not provided by any .service files
Oct 17 21:34:09 siduction64kdefx lightdm[3397]: ** (lightdm:3397): WARNING **: Error getting user list from org.freedesktop.Accounts: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.freedesktop.Accounts was not provided by any .service files
Oct 17 21:34:10 siduction64kdefx lightdm[3397]: ** (process:3424): WARNING **: Error getting user list from org.freedesktop.Accounts: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.freedesktop.Accounts was not provided by any .service files
Oct 17 21:34:11 siduction64kdefx lightdm[3443]: ** (lightdm:3443): WARNING **: Error getting user list from org.freedesktop.Accounts: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.freedesktop.Accounts was not provided by any .service files
Oct 17 21:34:12 siduction64kdefx lightdm[3443]: ** (process:3472): WARNING **: Error getting user list from org.freedesktop.Accounts: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.freedesktop.Accounts was not provided by any .service files
I can log into tty, but not "X".  Any help would be appreciated.

[convbsd]

You can safely empty /var/cache/archives.
It's recommended to use apt-get clean
No need to rebuild nothing after this.

[michaa7]

But maybe "apt-get autoclean" is sufficient. That would keep the newest versions. If this doesn't free enough space, then of cours "apt-get clean" is the way to go, but you would lose all packages (which you only would need for re-install).

[GoinEasy9]

@convbsd @michaa7  Thank You.  After reading both responses I decided to try autoclean first, and, that brought the archives down to 4.1GB, and, allowed "X" to start.  I'm sort of surprised that all those deb files are being stored in the first place, but, I guess there is a good reason for it. 

I guess I'm going to have to keep a closer watch on my root partition from now on.  Another lesson learned.

Thanks to you both again.

[michaa7]

.. After reading both responses I decided to try autoremove first, and, that brought the archives down to 4.1GB, and, allowed "X" to start....

I said "autoclean" not "autoremove".

"autoremove" deletes *installed* packages under the assumption they aren't needed anymore. Discouraged because unreliable in unstable/sid.

"autoclean" deletes older versions of packages in the archiv *but* always keeps the newest version so you don't need to d/l again if you need to reeinstall.

"clean" empties the archive. No provisions in the cellar.

[GoinEasy9]

@michaa7 I used autoclean, wrote autoremove.  Geez, I hate getting old.

BTW - Thanks for catching it, I changed it in post.