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I am running low on space so trying to free up some in my dual boot pc with ubuntu 18.04 and windows 10. Few months ago while troubleshooting i have installed several packages. Now i can not remember if ntfs-config is one of them or it has been here since the beginning.

  1. How do i know if i have installed it or it is installed while setting up the OS?
  2. Is it safe to remove ntfs-config?
  3. What packages can i remove safely from my ubuntu without causing any anomalies? I think i have to research individually for each package, but is there any better/easier way?
mahfuj asif
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    I would rethink your plans. Unless you are aware of any particularly large software that you don't need, you're not going to free up any meaningful space by deleting software. In fact, the size of this package is less than 1 MB. By deleting software you don't recognize, you're more likely to break your system. If you want to free up space you should delete or relocate user files, like movies, music, photos and documents. If you don't have any of those to delete and you're out of room, your partition is too small. – Nmath May 31 '21 at 06:06
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    You haven't said what system you're using (desktop or server?) but upgrades (packages) always need space so I agree you're likely using the wrong approach. If you're using a desktop then the recommended minimum disk space suggested for a 18.04 Desktop install was 25GB; increasing to a large disk allocation maybe more meaningful (it'll take a lot of packages if you're going to get an extra 1-3MB per package which appears to be your current approach..) If you don't have a separate home partition, then user files as per prior suggestion is faster. – guiverc May 31 '21 at 07:32
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    I would first try to houseclean. Old logs, if you do not have issues can be removed and other data. See: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1263276/list-files-and-folders-of-the-root-partion/1263327#1263327 The ncdu makes it easy to do research on where your have large amounts of data. https://askubuntu.com/questions/657091/whats-the-good-way-to-clean-up-the-system-and-is-bleachbit-safe-on-ubuntu-14 – oldfred May 31 '21 at 13:28
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    Use the Disk Usage Analyzer to determine where your space went. Don't try uninstalling various apps to regain space, thereby butchering your working system. – heynnema May 31 '21 at 13:59

1 Answers1

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  1. Yes you may check using, for chronic order and installation time

    zgrep " installed " /var/log/dpkg.log*

    or precise package:

    zgrep "ntfs-config" /var/log/dpkg.log*

    You could also check if it was manually or automatically as dependency, using apt-mark showmanual (probably there are other tools). apt autoremove would be enough to uninstall all auto installed dependency packages after all their dependents are removed.

  2. Check list of dependents, but it up to your judgement:

    apt-cache rdepends ntfs-config

  3. This is broad. I would recommend going with a different approach as in our friends comments. Myself just using "Disk Analyzer" and only track very big sections of data, and usually I don't need detailed cleanup before next release.

    Partition depend on the use and focus on large app to get an estimation. Below command shows estimated package size (by package developer, as when it is newly installed, doesn't count related user data).

     dpkg-query --show --showformat='${Installed-Size}\t${Package}\n' | sort -rh | head -25 | awk '{print $1/1024, $2}'

If you are the explorer type, that only installing tools to check for short period. I used to have such problem before virtual machine was available and knowing chroot. Try minimizing footprint of new installations, see Installing packages without docs & https://askubuntu.com/a/515331/26246

user.dz
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