Have installed Unbuntu but need help

[Byrner]

Hi Guys & Gals,

I have just installed Unbuntu on a system, its dual booting with windows XP. I created two partitions for the linux distro, main one is 68gb and a swap partition of 2.5gb. My problem is that when I try to use update manager to update packages it says I dont have enough free space on disk / , Any help would be gratefully appreaciated.

Cheers
Byrner

[D-cat]

Please open a terminal window and post the outputs of:

mount

sudo fdisk -l
(that's FDISK -L in lower case).

df -h

Thank you.

[Byrner]

Hi D -cat,

First thank you for replying to my call for help. I opened a terminal window as requested and have posted the output below. I am a total n00bie to linux so be gentle with me .

byrner@Terminator2:~$ mount
/dev/sda7 on / type ext3 (rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro)
tmpfs on /lib/init/rw type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
varrun on /var/run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
varlock on /var/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=1777)
udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=620)
fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
lrm on /lib/modules/2.6.28-11-generic/volatile type tmpfs (rw,mode=755)
securityfs on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)
binfmt_misc on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
gvfs-fuse-daemon on /home/byrner/.gvfs type fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=byrner)
/dev/sdc1 on /media/FreeAgent Drive type fuseblk (rw,nosuid,nodev,allow_other,blksize=4096)
byrner@Terminator2:~$ sudo fdisk -l
[sudo] password for byrner:

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00730072

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 6296 50572588+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 15299 60801 365502847+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda3 6297 14965 69633742+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 14966 15298 2674822+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda5 15299 37607 179197011 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6 37608 60475 183687178+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda7 60476 60779 2441848+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda8 60780 60801 176683+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xb87cee5d

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 2 60801 488376000 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdb5 2 19123 153597433+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb6 19124 39520 163838871 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb7 39521 60801 170939601 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdc: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xb5fcce95

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 1 19457 156288321 7 HPFS/NTFS

byrner@Terminator2:~$ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda7 2.3G 2.2G 69M 97% /
tmpfs 2.0G 0 2.0G 0% /lib/init/rw
varrun 2.0G 92K 2.0G 1% /var/run
varlock 2.0G 0 2.0G 0% /var/lock
udev 2.0G 188K 2.0G 1% /dev
tmpfs 2.0G 720K 2.0G 1% /dev/shm
lrm 2.0G 2.7M 2.0G 1% /lib/modules/2.6.28-11-generic/volatile
/dev/sdc1 150G 138G 12G 93% /media/FreeAgent Drive
byrner@Terminator2:~$

Cheers
Byrner

[Kieren]

It looks like you haven't set up your partitions correctly. Let me run you through your output.

byrner@Terminator2:~$ mount
/dev/sda7 on / type ext3 (rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro)

This shows that your root directory (/) is located at /dev/sda7. /dev/sda is the hard drive and this is split into multiple partitions such as Windows, Ubuntu and Swap

byrner@Terminator2:~$ sudo fdisk -l
[sudo] password for byrner:

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00730072

We can see that the whole hard drive is 500GB. Lots of space

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 6296 50572588+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 15299 60801 365502847+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda3 6297 14965 69633742+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 14966 15298 2674822+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda5 15299 37607 179197011 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6 37608 60475 183687178+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda7 60476 60779 2441848+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda8 60780 60801 176683+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

This shows you all the partitions that you have. NTFS is Windows

byrner@Terminator2:~$ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda7 2.3G 2.2G 69M 97% /
tmpfs 2.0G 0 2.0G 0% /lib/init/rw
varrun 2.0G 92K 2.0G 1% /var/run
varlock 2.0G 0 2.0G 0% /var/lock
udev 2.0G 188K 2.0G 1% /dev
tmpfs 2.0G 720K 2.0G 1% /dev/shm
lrm 2.0G 2.7M 2.0G 1% /lib/modules/2.6.28-11-generic/volatile
/dev/sdc1 150G 138G 12G 93% /media/FreeAgent Drive

The important thing to notice here is that /dev/sda7 (You're Ubuntu installation) is only 2.3GB, not 68GB like you expected

[Byrner]

Hi Kieren,

Thanks for the speedy reply and for taking the time to explain to me what I did wrong. Does this mean that I have to reinstall Linux again or can I use partition magic or some other partition manager in windoze to fix this ? and if so how exactly ?.

Cheers
Byrner

[Kieren]

There may be another way but I've never used any myself. It seems you have an understanding of how you want to partition your hard drive so it may be a good idea to just try again for practice.

On the Ubuntu installation, at the partition screen try using manual partition. It should be clear but if you need any clarification, give us a shout

[Byrner]

I have a lot of knowledge when it come to windoze and partitioning in general, but when it comes to Linux I am a total n00bie.

Which I hope to rectify shortly with the help of this great forum, thats if ye dont get fed up with me asking questions

I am going to try reinstalling Linux manually and see what happens. Ohh one more question, I create a ext3 partition for Unbuntu but what size do I need to creat the swap partition ? and do I need to create any more partitions for Linux ?

Thanks again for all your help

Cheers
Byrner

[Kieren]

The general rules of thumb for swap space is to have twice as much as the amount of RAM you have. So if you have 512MB of RAM, use 1GB for swap. However, people with 2GB or more of RAM are starting to have no swap space as there is usually no need for it. Some people have reported a speed difference without swap but most people say it's nothing noticeable

You can create as many partitions as you like. Forgetting about swap, Newbies tend to create one partition for / and store everything there. Later on people quite often have a separate partition for /home so their files and settings can be shared over different distributions as well as keeping their settings on a reinstall.

Feel free to ask as many questions as you like, it's why we have these forums

[Byrner]

Thanks Kieren,
I am going to go now and reinstall Linux and do it right this time I think I have 4GB of ram in this HP Proliant ML 115 so wont use swap space or should I ?

I will creat a separate partition for /home do you recommend a size I should use for it ?

I would like to thank you for helping me with my problem and also D -cat.

I will talk to you again soon when I have successfully installed Linux

Cheers
Byrner

[Kieren]

Until you have used Linux a bit I would say go for some swap space. 4-8GB will be more than enough. If in the future you decide that you would like to get rid of swap then at least you will have something to compare it to.

I would put a lot of space on /home as it’s where most things are downloaded to but do leave ample room for / to install programs and to allow applications to use /tmp