Big /var/log/journal

Question

I have a problem with my ubuntu 20.04 My /vat/log/journal grows to 195G. When I execute the command $tail -f /var/log/syslog I see a log repeated and I think this is my problem.

Sep 20 19:45:11 fanapsoft vboxdrv.sh[6730]: Invalid password
Sep 20 19:45:11 fanapsoft vboxdrv.sh[6730]: The Secure Boot key you've entered is not 
valid. The password used must be
Sep 20 19:45:11 fanapsoft vboxdrv.sh[6730]: between 8 and 16 characters.
Sep 20 19:45:11 fanapsoft vboxdrv.sh[6730]: Enter a password for Secure Boot. It will 
be asked again after a reboot.
Sep 20 19:45:11 fanapsoft vboxdrv.sh[6730]: Enter the same password again to verify 
you have typed it correctly.
Sep 20 19:45:11 fanapsoft vboxdrv.sh[6730]: Invalid password
Sep 20 19:45:11 fanapsoft vboxdrv.sh[6730]: The Secure Boot key you've entered is not 
valid. The password used must be
Sep 20 19:45:11 fanapsoft vboxdrv.sh[6730]: between 8 and 16 characters.
Sep 20 19:45:11 fanapsoft vboxdrv.sh[6730]: Enter a password for Secure Boot. It will 
be asked again after a reboot.
Sep 20 19:45:11 fanapsoft vboxdrv.sh[6730]: Enter the same password again to verify 
you have typed it correctly.

I don't have any idea why this problem occurred. I remember last time when I upgrade ubuntu It wants to set a password for the next reboot but it doesn't get the password after reboot. Know I can't clear the /var/log/journal and when I run the $ sudo rm -rf /var/log/journal/* nothing happened.

Answer 1

/etc/systemd/journald.conf has a setting to limit the size of /var/log/journal/*

SystemMaxUse={n}M

where {n} is the max size.

$ sudo rm -rf /var/log/journal/* nothing happened.

That is correct. rm only reports if it errors out.

You do need to restart your deamon though for it to take effect (or reboot) with sudo systemctl restart systemd-journald.service