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**rick001** · Nov 21, 2009, 10:17 AM

Re: What is eating up space on my hard drive?

Greetings,

ADDENDUM:

I do believe my suspicions have been confirmed. I do believe it has something to do with BOINC. I have a data directory that I cannot get into using Dolphin. The icon for the Root directory is red. For any BOINC users out there, the directory I cannot get into is root/var/lib/boinc-client/slots.

I'm going to re-check my BOINC settings to see if something is amiss.

Closer to a solution in the Mid-West, U.S.A.

Rick

**dibl** · Nov 21, 2009, 10:36 AM

Re: What is eating up space on my hard drive?

FAQ #16 on the list in my signature tells how to find your bad boy file(s).

**rick001** · Nov 21, 2009, 12:58 PM

Re: What is eating up space on my hard drive?

Originally posted by dibl

FAQ #16 on the list in my signature tells how to find your bad boy file(s).

Greetings dibl,

Nice FAQ list. I looked at number 16, attempted to us du, and found that for some crazy reason I cannot access many directories, especially the root directory. I have not had this kind of problem before this version of Kubuntu.

I'm seriously considering re-installing v9.0.4. Oh, I also installed agedu and had no better luck with it.

I have found that I have many, many MBs of syslog .gz files. I assume I can delete those with no harm, no foul? Just the Gzip files that is. Speaking of logs, I attempted to us KSystemLog to look at the logs and it virtually halts my system for whatever reason. I cannot do anything while it takes 10, 15 minutes to think about what it's going to do.

I'm starting to wonder if this may be a hardware (hard drive) problem, in which case, help here would be moot. I think what I will do is move some data from my secondary drive on my XP box to the primary drive and install it in my Kubuntu box and install v9.10 on it, just to see what happens. If you have any comments on what I stated above this paragraph, please let me know.

Perplexed in the Mid-West, U.S.A.

Rick

**dibl** · Nov 21, 2009, 01:38 PM

Re: What is eating up space on my hard drive?

Hmmmmmm - I don't have a very good feeling about that system. I don't know BOINC -- I see references to it occasionally, but I've never heard of it sucking up tons of disk space. But other things that you are saying don't sound right, either. You should be able to open Dolphin and cruise through your filesystem, as a user, and look at pretty much everything. I just popped it open and looked at /var/log and see that I have 6 gzipped syslog files, they vary in size but basically all of them are 50KB plus or minus 20KB, so when you're talking "MB" that sounds crazy. And the fact that you can't access directories is also not heart-warming.

One could indeed wonder about the hard drive. There's a FAQ down toward the bottom that tells how to check your hard drive with smartmon.

I hate to suggest re-installing without discovering what is wrong. Did you give your OS enough space -- at least 8GB? Those du routines in the FAQ should tell you all about your utilization -- there should not be any limitation on its ability to see your filesystem and report the usage.

Semi-perplexed, also midwest USA.

**flarson** · Nov 21, 2009, 04:22 PM

Re: What is eating up space on my hard drive?

Did you try running du as root? It sounds like you have an error that is logging over and over, making your logs huge and making it take a long time to open the huge file.

**rick001** · Nov 21, 2009, 06:41 PM

Re: What is eating up space on my hard drive?

Originally posted by dibl

Hmmmmmm - I don't have a very good feeling about that system. I don't know BOINC -- I see references to it occasionally, but I've never heard of it sucking up tons of disk space. But other things that you are saying don't sound right, either. You should be able to open Dolphin and cruise through your filesystem, as a user, and look at pretty much everything. I just popped it open and looked at /var/log and see that I have 6 gzipped syslog files, they vary in size but basically all of them are 50KB plus or minus 20KB, so when you're talking "MB" that sounds crazy. And the fact that you can't access directories is also not heart-warming.

One could indeed wonder about the hard drive. There's a FAQ down toward the bottom that tells how to check your hard drive with smartmon.

I hate to suggest re-installing without discovering what is wrong. Did you give your OS enough space -- at least 8GB? Those du routines in the FAQ should tell you all about your utilization -- there should not be any limitation on its ability to see your filesystem and report the usage.

Semi-perplexed, also midwest USA.

Greetings dibl,

I dug out an old IDE HD and replaced the secondary SATA drive, in my XP box, with it. After copying my data files off the SATA of course. I replaced the SATA drive in my Linux box with the one pulled from my XP. They are identical drives, same make, model, size...

I installed v9.10 on the "new" SATA drive and all seems to be just fine, for now. I'm going to hold off on installing BOINC and watch things for a day or so.

I'll watch my log files to see if they grow to immense sizes. I will check out the FAQs again and check out smartmon. I allowed the installation deal with space allocation, assuming it would allocate the proper amount of space for the OS. I'm not comfortable, yet, with manual partitioning.

When I tried using du, I could not access the root directory to get a full picture. I'll attempt du and maybe agedu again, tomorrow.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Less perplexed in Mid-West, U.S.A.

Rick

**dibl** · Nov 21, 2009, 06:54 PM

Re: What is eating up space on my hard drive?

Originally posted by rick001

I'm going to hold off on installing BOINC and watch things for a day or so.

Very good plan!

I'm not comfortable, yet, with manual partitioning.

Rick, you gotta make a Parted Magic Live CD -- you're missing out on half the fun!

Seriously, it sounds like maybe it is under control there -- I dunno whether it was BOINC or new-user problems, or an aging hard drive on its way to hard drive Heaven.

Good luck with it!

**rick001** · Nov 22, 2009, 08:12 AM

Re: What is eating up space on my hard drive?

Originally posted by dibl

-[ snip ]-
Very good plan!

-[ snip ]-

Rick, you gotta make a Parted Magic Live CD -- you're missing out on half the fun!

Seriously, it sounds like maybe it is under control there -- I dunno whether it was BOINC or new-user problems, or an aging hard drive on its way to hard drive Heaven.

Good luck with it!

Greetings dibl,

Well, I'm not TOO new to Linux. I started dabbling in it back in 05 I believe when I downloaded and installed FreeBSD. I know it's not true Linux and not true Unix either, but I did get it running on 2 different PCs. And, I was running BOINC on both of them too. Took some research and learning!

Last year, I believe, I discovered Ubuntu and was tired of Vista taking forever to boot on my laptop so I installed Ubuntu on it. I decided to try my hand at building a web server on the PC with yesterdays problem. Had real success there, of course it wasn't accessible from the Internet, just my internal network.

I decided to stop with the web server and get that PC running BOINC again and installed 64 bit Ubuntu on it. Somehow, I stumbled onto Kubuntu and I have been with it ever since.

This was the only real major problem I have had while running Kubuntu. I believe it is the HD failing. I checked things this morning and everything looks to be good so far. The syslog file, started on install, ended at 154.4 KiB, the new one created this morning is only 142 B.

I've only installed a few programs so far, Firefox, adept, KDiskFree and a card game to pass the time while keeping an eye on the PC.

I like adept better than KPackageKit, it is much faster at installations than KPackageKit. KPackageKit will only be used for updates.

I'll see how things go throughout the day today and if all is still well, I will install BOINC tomorrow and really put the PC to the test. BOINC is really CPU and HD intensive. Some major science analysis being done.

I love it!

Thanks for your help dibl, I'll keep you posted in this thread.

No longer perplexed in Mid-West, U.S.A.

Rick

P.S. Could you point me in the direction of that "Parted Magic Live CD" thing? Sounds intriguing.

I can burn ISO images if I have to. But then that's got to be pretty obvious since I installed Kubuntu from CD

**dibl** · Nov 22, 2009, 09:54 AM

Re: What is eating up space on my hard drive?

Here you go Rick:

http://partedmagic.com/

Looks like they just released 4.6.

Migrate your way to the download, which is a zipped file, so have to unzip it to get the ISO.

Good luck!

**rick001** · Nov 24, 2009, 10:58 AM

Re: What is eating up space on my hard drive?

Originally posted by dibl

Here you go Rick:

http://partedmagic.com/

Looks like they just released 4.6.

Migrate your way to the download, which is a zipped file, so have to unzip it to get the ISO.

Good luck!

Greetings dibl,

Things seem to be running ok, sort of.

There are a couple annoying anomalies, one in particular, when my system boots, it goes to the highest resolution my monitor handles: 1600x900 I believe. I prefer 1024x768. I just go into settings and reset the resolution. I would prefer it to boot into my preference, but it's no real big issue.

I downloaded PartedMagic and burned it to disk. Cool setup! I like it. I played with it for a while, not doing anything destructive, mind you. It tells me the replacement HD is healthy, that's good.

I found and installed the GUI version of GSmartControl. For whatever reason, it will not execute from the menu. Oh well, there's always the command line...

I also installed System Profiler and Benchmark. I ran some of the benchmarks and all went well until I got to FPU FFT. It started doing the benchmark and BAM! The program just quit and went away. I know that FPU is Floating Point Unit, or something like that, but I don't know FFT. Could that be telling me there may be something wrong with my CPU? BTW, I had the same thing happen in PartedMagic, using a tool similar to the one above.

I installed BOINC this morning and started one of the science analysis projects. After about 5 minutes or so, the PC was lock up tight. I had to hit the reset button to reboot, NOT a good thing.

I looked at my syslog and messages log and could not find anything out of the ordinary, a few warnings, but no errors. Most of what is in those logs is all Greek to me anyway. And, speaking of logs, they are not bloated like they are on the other hard drive.

I am suspecting that I may have other hardware issues. I tried to find some diagnostics tools and cannot. Do you know of any that will test my hardware? Or are those benchmarks the best I'm going to find? My reason for suspecting hardware is that I don't believe that BOINC is at fault, but, because it is so CPU intensive, it may be over taxing that old PC. I built it in '05 or '06, don't remember exactly. Here are some specs:

MB - ASUS P5GPL-X
CPU - Intel P4, 3GHz, EM64T
- LGA775 Socket (Note the "L", not "P". It has pads, not pins.)
- 2048 L2 Cache
- 2800.00 MHz Freq.
Mem - 1GB (2x 512MB)

It may be that time that I need to rebuild that PC. It's done me good over the years. Just a LOT of BOINCing, mainly. The only other real problem I had was the power supply went out. I just pulled a newer one from another old box and replaced it. I'm seriously thinking that there was nothing wrong with the other HD. I got it around the same time as the replacement. Maybe I'll stick it in and check it out.

Well dibl, that's about it for this update.

Bumming about my PC in Mid-West, U.S.A.

Rick

P.S. What part of the Mid-West are you in? I'm in Iowa.

**dibl** · Nov 24, 2009, 11:43 AM

Re: What is eating up space on my hard drive?

Originally posted by rick001

P.S. What part of the Mid-West are you in? I'm in Iowa.

Beautiful state there -- I've got some cousins in scenic Mt. Vernon, where my grandfather was born.

I'm in the Buckeye State, widely known as the Center of the Universe.

or not .....

Yeah, I wonder about your hardware, too. A weak power supply, or a slowly failing memory module, can pretty well drive you nuts. Especially when there is a thermal element to the failure mode -- it only fails when it gets hot, so when it's cold and you're testing, it appears nothing is wrong.

I'm not enough of an electrical engineer to test a modern PSU -- since a good one is $100, if I get suspicious of one, I tend to just buy a better one, and install it, and see if the problem goes away. If not, the old one becomes a spare, while I continue looking the real problem.

memtest-86 is the way to test your RAM. But you have to let it run a long time -- like overnight, to verify no intermittent issues.

I think the "FFT" in that test is a Fast Fourier Transform -- you can google it and raise your math IQ. But the point is, yes, it is exercising your CPU very hard, and if that makes your system crash, it's time to start suspecting a CPU issue. It could be just heat -- maybe the thermal paste and the cooling fans are not getting the job done in your box. Or maybe the CPU itself has overheated one too many times and has a heat-induced failure mode. I don't know whether you have lm-sensors installed and configured to monitor your CPU temp -- it would be interesting to see whether it's getting way hot when it runs that test. The other thing to bear in mind is that when the CPU is worked to the max, it draws max power (thus stressing the PSU).

I have built computers with Asus P-5 boards, but not that particular model. But I have the impression their boards are well-designed. I would not expect that the board is failing, at least not with the symptoms that you have described thus far. I'd start with the CPU thermal question, and maybe the PSU too.

**rick001** · Nov 24, 2009, 02:25 PM

Re: What is eating up space on my hard drive?

Greetings dibl,

Well, I don't suspect the PSU, it's virtually brand new, not that it cannot fail while new that is. lol

It's not top-o'-the-line but it's not really low end either. And, it shows pretty colored lights while running too!

Didn't really care for the lights, didn't realize the PSU had any until after I bought it, just needed the PSU and didn't want to go low end. I like the Ultra PSUs from TigerDirect. You only add what cables you need. You don't have a bunch of wires that you need to tie out of the way to maximize air flow.

I believe I have memtest-86 on one of those, umm, those flat, square, plastic things, usually black. What the heck are they called? Oh yeah! FLOPPIES!!! Yeah, I have it on a floppy, somewhere. I do have some new-ish memory sticks, same as what's in the box right now. Too bad it only has 2 slots, or I'de give it some breathin' room and add a gig. I'll test the memory. Which reminds me, either the memory that's in that box, or my "spare" would not work in a different Windoze PC, at all. But it worked in the box running Linux just fine. Go figure.

I have used nothing but ASUS mother boards. I tried an Intel and it would not work. Got a replacement, same thing, got a third, three strikes and they were out! I stick with what works, every time, my ASUS boards. I have about 2 or 3 really old ones packed away somewhere. I still have my original 486 board that was NOT Y2K compliant. Had to rebuild that computer into a P2. This is my second P-5 board.

I believe it's just time to rebuild that PC. The video card is low end. Don't play games, except card games, so don't need anything high end. But then, BOINC will use the CUDA for analysis, so if I get a high end card and new MB, CPU and memory, I can do much more work unit crunching.

As for the heat problem, When I would stop BOINC, I could hear the fan rev down and when BOINC started crunching, I could hear the fan rev up, so the fan is working properly, I believe. I have a temp gage on the front of the box, let me check it... It's reading 85.1F. I believe, when BOINC was running, it was something like 110F. Maybe I should look into one of those liquid coolers for the CPU.

I have a few friends that live in Ohio. They're online friends, never met them personally. Never been there myself. I've been to 3 of the 4 corners of the U.S. and then some, but not to Ohio, that I know of.

Well, this is turning into a novella, so I better sign off for now. I'll check the memory and let you know what I find out.

Raining cats n' dogs in the Mid-West, U.S.A.

Rick

**skunk** · Nov 24, 2009, 02:53 PM

Re: What is eating up space on my hard drive?

Originally posted by rick001

I believe I have memtest-86 on one of those, umm, those flat, square, plastic things, usually black. What the heck are they called? Oh yeah! FLOPPIES!!! Yeah, I have it on a floppy, somewhere. I do have some new-ish memory sticks, same as what's in the box right now. Too bad it only has 2 slots, or I'de give it some breathin' room and add a gig. I'll test the memory. Which reminds me, either the memory that's in that box, or my "spare" would not work in a different Windoze PC, at all. But it worked in the box running Linux just fine. Go figure.

There is a version of memtest-86 installed on your hard disk -- it is one of the options on the GRUB boot menu

**rick001** · Nov 24, 2009, 05:06 PM

Re: What is eating up space on my hard drive?

Originally posted by skunk

Originally posted by rick001

-[ snip ]-

There is a version of memtest-86 installed on your hard disk -- it is one of the options on the GRUB boot menu

Greetings skunk,

Hmmmm.... Unusual user name you be havin' there.

You know, I had thought about that. It figures it would be with Kubuntu.

I read how to access the grub boot menu but do not remember off-hand. I couldn't find my, uhh, what's that thing called again? Oh yeah, FLOPPY!

I just downloaded the ISO and burned it to CD. It's running as I type. Not on this machine, on my Kubuntu box.

It's not reporting any errors, however, on the first run, before I inadvertently restarted it, it did report errors on one module. It's about to finish its 4th pass now and no errors. I'm going to leave it running for a while to see what may or may not transpire.

Thanks for the tip, skunk.

Trying to stay dry in Mid-West, U.S.A.

Rick

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Hard drive not the issue, now video? [ Resolved? ]

Hard drive not the issue, now video? [ Resolved? ]

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