Kernel : Linux 6.8.0-53-generic (x86_64)
Version : #55-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Fri Jan 17 15:37:52 UTC 2025
C Library : GNU C Library / (Ubuntu GLIBC 2.39-0ubuntu8.4) 2.39
Distro : Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS
Desktop Environment: Lubuntu LXQt 1.4.0
Problem Description:
Hello and thank you in advance for any help. I am new to Ubuntu/Lubuntu. Please let me know if you need any additional information.
My hard drive is full. My suspicion is that it is the snapshot backups. I don’t see the app to control/limit those backups. The computer is down to 459mb after a reboot. Cannot print, update, etc. I think it is basically running on RAM.
Relevant System Information:
-Mounted File Systems-
udev /dev 0.00 % (3.8 GiB of 3.8 GiB)
tmpfs /run 10.40 % (705.5 MiB of 787.3 MiB)
/dev/sda5 / 100.00 % (0.0 B of 26.4 GiB)
tmpfs /dev/shm 0.18 % (3.8 GiB of 3.8 GiB)
tmpfs /run/lock 0.39 % (5.0 MiB of 5.0 MiB)
/dev/loop0 /snap/bare/5 100.00 % (0.0 B of 128.0 KiB)
/dev/loop2 /snap/core22/1722 100.00 % (0.0 B of 73.9 MiB)
/dev/loop1 /snap/core22/1748 100.00 % (0.0 B of 74.0 MiB)
/dev/loop3 /snap/core24/716 100.00 % (0.0 B of 66.2 MiB)
/dev/loop4 /snap/core24/739 100.00 % (0.0 B of 66.2 MiB)
/dev/loop5 /snap/cups/1067 100.00 % (0.0 B of 67.9 MiB)
/dev/loop6 /snap/firefox/5751 100.00 % (0.0 B of 258.1 MiB)
/dev/loop7 /snap/firmware-updater/167 100.00 % (0.0 B of 11.2 MiB)
/dev/loop8 /snap/firmware-updater/147 100.00 % (0.0 B of 11.1 MiB)
/dev/loop10 /snap/gnome-42-2204/202 100.00 % (0.0 B of 516.1 MiB)
/dev/loop9 /snap/firefox/5783 100.00 % (0.0 B of 258.0 MiB)
/dev/loop11 /snap/gnome-42-2204/176 100.00 % (0.0 B of 505.1 MiB)
/dev/loop12 /snap/gnome-46-2404/66 100.00 % (0.0 B of 400.1 MiB)
/dev/loop13 /snap/gnome-46-2404/77 100.00 % (0.0 B of 404.1 MiB)
/dev/loop14 /snap/gtk-common-themes/1535 100.00 % (0.0 B of 91.8 MiB)
/dev/loop15 /snap/isoimagewriter/22 100.00 % (0.0 B of 384.0 KiB)
/dev/loop16 /snap/kf5-5-104-qt-5-15-8-core22/9 100.00 % (0.0 B of 448.8 MiB)
/dev/loop17 /snap/isoimagewriter/28 100.00 % (0.0 B of 21.2 MiB)
/dev/loop18 /snap/kf5-5-113-qt-5-15-11-core22/1 100.00 % (0.0 B of 444.0 MiB)
/dev/loop19 /snap/kf6-core22/40 100.00 % (0.0 B of 2.0 GiB)
/dev/loop20 /snap/kf6-core22/41 100.00 % (0.0 B of 2.0 GiB)
/dev/loop21 /snap/master-pdf-editor-5/21 100.00 % (0.0 B of 129.6 MiB)
/dev/loop23 /snap/mesa-2404/495 100.00 % (0.0 B of 207.5 MiB)
/dev/loop22 /snap/mesa-2404/143 100.00 % (0.0 B of 211.5 MiB)
/dev/loop24 /snap/onlyoffice-desktopeditors/215 100.00 % (0.0 B of 776.1 MiB)
/dev/loop25 /snap/onlyoffice-desktopeditors/332 100.00 % (0.0 B of 787.8 MiB)
/dev/loop26 /snap/signal-desktop/759 100.00 % (0.0 B of 179.1 MiB)
/dev/loop27 /snap/signal-desktop/762 100.00 % (0.0 B of 179.2 MiB)
/dev/loop28 /snap/snapd/23545 100.00 % (0.0 B of 44.5 MiB)
tmpfs /tmp 0.00 % (3.8 GiB of 3.8 GiB)
/dev/loop29 /snap/snapd/23258 100.00 % (0.0 B of 44.4 MiB)
/dev/sda1|/LXQT-root|100.00 % (0.0 B of 25.0 GiB)
/dev/sda2|/LXQT-home|44.89 % (13.5 GiB of 24.4 GiB)
/dev/sda6|/home|14.15 % (22.9 GiB of 26.7 GiB)
/dev/sdb1|/data1|59.18 % (120.1 GiB of 294.2 GiB)
/dev/sdb2|/data2|41.59 % (94.3 GiB of 161.4 GiB)
/dev/sdb3|/test760|7.28 % (694.7 MiB of 749.2 MiB)
/dev/sdc1|/backups|13.96 % (1.5 TiB of 1.7 TiB)
/dev/sdc2|/Fat-shared|0.00 % (122.2 GiB of 122.2 GiB)
tmpfs /run/snapd/ns 10.40 % (705.5 MiB of 787.3 MiB)
tmpfs /run/user/1000 0.02 % (787.2 MiB of 787.3 MiB)
Screenshots or Error Messages:
Error from Lubuntu Update:
dpkg: unrecoverable fatal error, aborting:
unable to fill /var/lib/dpkg/updates/tmp.i with padding: No space left on device
What exactly do you mean by “snapshot backups” ? Did you set anything up to create backups ? You need to tell us a bit more details here…
There are several ways to look at your filesystem to find where exactly you have most data used, getting some more details about what directory is the one that is filling the space would be a good idea as a first step to track down the actual issue…
There’s no such thing in Lubuntu by default, so this must be something you added.
Maybe this is what you mean by backups? If so, that’s not your problem:
That’s your root (/) so that’s the issue for sure.
I see you have a separate home partition… and a bunch of other ones. If that root partition is only your root and not your data or home, it really shouldn’t be filling up like that. Maybe explain your whole partitioning scheme?
I would do this to get sorted output of what’s filling it up:
sudo du -hd 1 / 2>/dev/null | sort -hr
You might have enough space that you can make things just work. If not, you’re going to need to get a live system and boot to that. Then you can mount your drive and have at it. At that point, inevitably, the partition will be mounted somewhere else, so change that / in the command above to the correct path.
The backup partition ( /dev/sdc1|/backups) is one I created. I use FreeFileSync as a backup tool. It is manual, and saves out to that other partition and not on to the root or home partitions.
This was a clean, default Lubuntu installation. I am not a fan of automatic system snapshots for this reason. I do not recall installing anything that would do this. I installed Krita, InkScape, a couple of browsers, samba for a local network, and a few other low end programs, but nothing that should be filling the disk.
The issue looks like it might be in /snap/ | dev/loop
What is using and or writing to /snap/ ?
That has filled up to 30.2gig
They are related to Snap packages you have installed. You can see a full list at snap list, but for what it’s worth, you can see it rather clearly in the list, e.g.:
/dev/loop6 /snap/firefox/5751 100.00 % (0.0 B of 258.1 MiB)
Snap packages aren’t unique to Lubuntu. In all actuality, they’re not unique to any Linux distribution. They are a universal package format similar to Flatpak. There are two things that make them unique relative to traditional Debian packages in relation to storage:
They store some earlier revisions in case you need to roll back. This is a feature, but it takes up space.
They are self-contained, so they don’t share dependencies. This can make all of your packageset relatively large. Again, a feature, but it takes up space.
Is there a method to limit that feature? I have been able to run with a 20g-30g root without filling it up in the past. This is an unfriendly “feature”. Flatpaks and Snap-packs are new to me.
Assuming I understand your partitioning scheme correctly, then it means we should only worry about:
There are things you can do to reduce the size of Snaps, in decreasing amount of effect:
You could remove Snap packages you don’t need.
You could reduce the number of revisions you keep.
You could remove the Snap cache, but that’s a temporary fix.
You could try to use the Debian package instead. This will likely mean an older version of the software and may not actually save you space.
Now /var seems a bit big to me. Might want to run the command I gave you but against /var instead of /. We can look at that and decide what might be useful there.
/usr doesn’t seem too big to me, not by much.
I think a quick and easy solution here is to simply grow your root partition.
You could also potentially look into the possibility of putting the Snaps on a different partition but I’m not sure that’s even a reasonable consideration.
…unless you need to roll back. That’s really not easy to do with Debian packages at all. It’s a major feature of Snaps.
Well, they’re taking over the world of Linux for many reasons, so it’s time to come to terms with them. Desktop Linux has increasingly grown in size over the years. Long before universal packages, so they really aren’t to blame. It’s never a good idea to expect things to continue to remain the same. You have to change with the changing times.
A couple of questions.
1 - How do I modify the snap settings?
2 - How did I start using the Snap apps?
3 - I install using System Tools / Discover, should I be using something else?
1 - How do I modify the snap settings?
2 - I install using System Tools / Discover, should I be using something else?
3 - Where did the Snap apps come in?
I am ok with change, but its a bit tough when you are new and don’t know about it. I don’t remember anything about recommended root sizes during the install. What is the recommended size?
This looks a little high to me, but depending on the packages, might not be unreasonable. Most importantly you don’t have a lot of logs and your cache isn’t totally huge, either. Probably just fine as is.
That said, I again say it is probably best to grow your root partition.
There’s a long answer to that question, which depends a lot on what settings and how, but chances are it’s probably with the snap command.
If you did a normal installation (not minimal), you started with Firefox.
Nope, that’s what I’d recommend. It will show you what’s a Snap. Compare these two, for example:
The only recommendation we can give concerns stock Lubuntu. Everything else depends on you and what you’re going to install. Some folks might install nothing at all. Others might install the practical entirety of the packages available in Ubuntu. Those are two very different scenarios.
For future reference, you can just hit the edit button.
By the way, you can surround any code/terminal output with code blocks so make them far more readable here. You can just use a triad of backticks on either side:
Thanks. Where is a backtick on the keyboard? I tried it with periods and found that is not the same.
…
Thank you for pointing out the snap note in Discover. Can I clean some of these up by deleting the snap version, and installing the standard debian version? Then just delete the snap file? It’s probably not that simple, right?
