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I recently used deluge to download a torrent but forgot to set the location as a USB drive so my hard drive had 0bytes remaining, I deleted the file and used force quit to kill deluge as it was hanging. Unfortunately I pressed the mouse too soon and killed unity which caused the system to crash. Now I can't boot, I get a "couldn't get size" error on a black screen. In recovery the hard drive is showing as "103gb - 98% used, 0% free". I don't think I removed the file from deluge and normally if you delete a file from a hard drive but don't delete it from your torrent client, the free space does not show up, it only shows up when you remove it from the torrent client. So I figured this could be the problem. I removed deluge from root shell prompt, hoping it would free up the missing 5gb but it didn't. I've used clean and fcsk but I can't free up any more space, I did free up 167mb of space by removing un-needed packages but I still don't have any free space. I tried running Nautilus to remove any remaining files from deluge, but it won't run, can't remember what the exact error was but it couldn't run a display server or something, I guess cos of the lack of space ? I've been trying to fix this for days, can anyone help ? Thanks

Typos1
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  • Welcome to Ask Ubuntu. To login via gui space for working files is need in $HOME (the user directory of the user logging in), so that's where you need to create space. Removing packages will free space in / but it's common to have /home on a different partition so will achieve nothing helpful for gui login. I would suggest logging in via terminal and rm (or deleting) files using terminal. You mentioned remove your torrent client which leaves config files in place (which would be on your home directory), so purge may have been more helpful, but too late now. rm files in your $HOME – guiverc Aug 05 '18 at 13:48
  • Thanks for the response. I realise I need to make space by deleting files, but I don't know how to do it via the command line. When you say "login via terminal" do you mean go to recovery and drop to root shell prompt, then type "$HOME" ? Even so I would need to browse files to look for any files starting with "deluge" as I've no idea what they'd be called. Not overly sure how to use "rm" but I've read in the past that you have to be very carefully using it. – Typos1 Aug 05 '18 at 14:01
  • By going to terminal, I meant ctrl+alt+f4 (or a like fn key) and logging in via terminal (a text terminal or tty). You can then use bash/shell commands such as ls (list files), or rm (remove files). Commands follow the pattern "command -options parameters", eg ls -la to list files with options long & all, or rm filename to remove a file with name filename. You may also need cd to change directory, etc. The following may be helpful - https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UsingTheTerminal – guiverc Aug 05 '18 at 14:12
  • Thanks but the only thing I can do is get to recovery, I've tried pressing ctrl+alt+f4 at boot but I just get the usual "couldn't get size" screen. – Typos1 Aug 05 '18 at 14:21
  • My mistake sorry - I thought you couldn't login (you would use the keystrokes then, or at login prompt or any time after system has booted) and couldn't boot. This will likely be more help for recovery mode - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/RecoveryMode (though you'll get a terminal there.. which may make prior link helpful anyway) – guiverc Aug 05 '18 at 14:28
  • I can use command line and recovery, what I've done so far has all been from the command line in recovery. But I'm not an expert and there are many commands I don't know. I guess I need to find out how to search for any files with "deluge" in them and then delete them from a terminal. – Typos1 Aug 05 '18 at 14:40
  • It's not a duplicate of "Root Drive Is Running rout Of Disc Space" because the root drive is not full. – Typos1 Aug 05 '18 at 16:04

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you can try to flash ubuntu os in a pen drive and then use live ubuntu option at the boot time , after that go to the partition where u have placed the files and delete them. now try to boot from your normal os.

Shailesh Rathod
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  • Thanks for the reply, not sure what you mean by "pan" drive, I don't have the facility to make an ubuntu USB drive to boot from cos can't boot the pc. And I don't know where the files are, I'd have to look for them, I'd be looking for any remaining deluge files left in Home and deleting any. Is there any way to purge any folders created by an app via command line ? – Typos1 Aug 05 '18 at 13:47
  • its actually "pen" drive and i think its "Typo s1" mistake . anyway back to your question , i don't know whether you can purge any folders directly form command line or not (without booting up system) , you should use someone else pc and try to flash the os (ubuntu). – Shailesh Rathod Aug 05 '18 at 16:28
  • @Typos1 You needed a bootable Live USB or boot Live CD/DVD in the first place to install Ubuntu. Boot with that and from there open your hard drive to clean up space. You can post more information/comments/questions into your question after you've booted. – WinEunuuchs2Unix Aug 06 '18 at 04:15
  • Yes I know but that's long been written over, plus I don't have a means to write another one due to not being able to boot. I need to find and delete files via the command line. – Typos1 Aug 06 '18 at 09:06