My Ubuntu install is messed up (Cannot write authorization file and free space)

[mpg198]

So it appears I have two kernels in my Grub
2.6.28-13 (Default)
2.6.28-11

The first time I booted I assume I went into 2.6.28-13 and that's when it said it could not write the file, the secong time I am not sure what I used but it logged in, but when I did it said I had no free space. The third time I logged it it didn't login, it said the same message. The forth time I was using 2.6.28-11 and it logged in again but still said I had no free space.

So I cannot login and when I do it says I have no free space.

[D-cat]

This can sometimes happen with an overgrown log file (which is usually caused by a cyclic error) or the tmp directory hasn't been cleared in a while.

Try booting from the CD, then check out the hard drive for space leeches. The suspect directories are /tmp (incl. /usr/tmp and /var/tmp) and /var/log.

[mpg198]

What do you mean space leeches?

The drive has free space but it isn't being reported.

I was using EXT2FSD to access the drive from Vista (probably the cause of the problem) and it reports ~4 GB free...

[D-cat]

Okay, that's a bit odd, but I'd still go with a live CD boot then run df -h to see if Linux agrees with Windows.

If you're writing to the Linux partition from Windows, you may want to run a fsck on the Linux partition as well. It may turn out to be a discrpency between the inode info and the journal.

If the disk tests clean and verifies 4GB free yet you still have free space errors preventing you from booting...

[mpg198]

I think I already ran a fsck on the partition from Ubuntu's recovery mode.

What does df- h do?

[D-cat]

"Disk Free" "-Human Readable"

It shows you how much free space there is on each mounted partition.

[mpg198]

df -h said there was no space free.

I deleted some files freeing space and now Ubuntu says I have 10.6 GB free, but Windows says I have 17.9 GB free...

The DF Command

If all these inodes become used, a file system cannot store any more files even though there may be free disk space.

I wonder if that's my problem why the free space that Ubuntu sees is less than there is?

Arch Linux Forums / "No Space Left on Device" (df -h shows 45GB free!!)

ext(3|4) by default reserves 5% for root user

That must be why I could still edit my menu.list to make Vista the default in Grub...

[Hal343]

Does Windows actually see ext3 filesystems now? It never did before.

[D-cat]

Not by itself, but there are 3rd party drivers available. He's using a recent open source one:
Ext2fsd / Ext2 File System Driver for Windows | Get Ext2 File System Driver for Windows at SourceForge.net

[mpg198]

Ya, I am using EXT2FSD, did I mention that in another thread, how did you know that's what I used?