Disk Usage

[RamboTribble]

It appears that Jaunty is shipping without any means to check disk utilization. While the kdf package can be installed, one has to know of it. Disk usage stats are to a computer what a gas gauge is to a car; sooner or later everything will stop if you don't pay attention. Have I overlooked something or have we set the user up for failure?

[KeithZG]

Re: Disk Usage

Well of course there's always df itself

But more seriously (well, or less so, depends on what you think of GUIs heh), if you right-click on any whitespace while you're filebrowsing in KDE (for example you opened your Documents folder with Dolphin, or you just went "~" and pressed enter in Konqueror then cursed the annoying lack of a "home" link on the new default Konqueror page and vowed to look up how to re-add one dammit) then go "properties" you'll get all the info about whatever folder you're in but you'll also get a bar at the bottom of the dialogue showing the disk usage.

That behaviour is pretty consistent with how KDE3 worked (and actually a bit nicer in this case) and how Windows works IIRC, although it would be nice if say there was a special Konqueror page/view that worked like the old Windows "My Computer in Detailed List mode" view, which is actually the only thing I've sometimes missed about Windows in all these years (although then I just hit "df" and breathe a sigh of relief, heh, but for those new or adverse to the terminal it'd be nice to have a GUI default and something integrated with Konqueror/Dolphin).

Actually come to think of it, even better would be if Filelight was installed by default in Kubuntu; I guess the KDE4 version is still beta for now, but I'd motion strongly towards it being included by default in the future, you open up that program (or switch Konqueror's view to it) and you instantly go "oh, I remember now, KDE is awesome." And definitely if you're thinking even briefly about keeping track of disk usage in KDE you owe it to yourself to try it out.

[flarson]

Re: Disk Usage

That does look like an interesting idea. At the moment though, it piles text on top of itself for me.

[russlar]

Re: Disk Usage

It appears that Jaunty is shipping without any means to check disk utilization. While the kdf package can be installed, one has to know of it. Disk usage stats are to a computer what a gas gauge is to a car; sooner or later everything will stop if you don't pay attention. Have I overlooked something or have we set the user up for failure?

Install teh sysstat package, and you'll get good, old-fashioned sar

[KeithZG]

Re: Disk Usage

That does look like an interesting idea. At the moment though, it piles text on top of itself for me.

That's unfortunate; guess it's definitely still beta for KDE4, then. I was about to lament another thing working fine in KDE3 but being still unported to KDE4 but on my Jaunty laptop here it seems to work perfectly (both Filelight as a standalone program and the RadialMap View that it provides in Konqueror).

The version in the Jaunty repos (1.9~rc2) seems to be the most recent version, so you might actually want to mention the bug you're running into over at http://kde-apps.org/content/show.php...?content=99561 so that the author knows. Part of the power of open source is the eyes of the community in bug-spotting, after all!

Regardless, hopefully Filelight-KDE4 stabilizes sometime soon.

[RamboTribble]

Re: Disk Usage

Thanks for the tip, Keith. Filelight looks like a nice option, though the logical place for disk usage information is the "Computer" section of the main menu. I would posit that when it lists the mounted volumes there it should include usage stats. As for the file properties approach, it really doesn't allow one anything like a decent overview of the system, just data on the one partition the particular file happens to reside on.

Unfortunately, all of this means that the distribution is shipping without basic functionality needed for a working system. Having to add packages to get that functionality is not a reasonable option, any more than having to go to a second dealer to get a gas gauge for your car.

[KeithZG]

Re: Disk Usage

Unfortunately, all of this means that the distribution is shipping without basic functionality needed for a working system. Having to add packages to get that functionality is not a reasonable option, any more than having to go to a second dealer to get a gas gauge for your car.

Well to be fair, in this case the dealer and the second dealer are the same (all the packages are in the official ubuntu repositories, after all), so it's more like you go around the block once after leaving the lot and then go back and say "dudes, wtf with the missing gas gauge?" To continue the tortured car analogy, it does have a low-gas warning light at least methinks (admittedly I've never ran a KDE4 installation low enough on space to notice if that feature remains).

As an aside, I would have hoped that Dolphin would do what PCManFM (the default file manager of LXDE) does, where it automatically shows the disk usage of whatever partition you're currently in. It's always nice to have information available at a glance.

I think though really that the trick might be that most devs are liable to be longtime Linux users; in that case, without being prompted they might not think twice about this since after all a program to show disk usage is installed by default (just use "df -h" for the user-friendly output). I know that's what I do, but obviously not everyone off the street is a terminal snob, so your point is valid.

Honestly though just in general Kickoff is pretty barren of information, partly because of the entire approach they've taken to the issue of usability (very akin to the Gnome "less stuff equals less confusion" tactic)...I think it's only recently that the devs decided to add the option to list applications by name instead of description! It's why I've gone over to using Lancelot as my KDE4 menu....and the dev behind that is pretty amazing so actually it might be worth it to mention to him that people would like the ability to see disk usage in the Computer section of the menu.

[dibl]

Re: Disk Usage

Have I overlooked something or have we set the user up for failure?

I'm going to say it's the former. df and du remain embedded in the Linux OS, and immediately available to the Kubuntu user, either in the tty console or in a Konsole window in the GUI.

Although, in a world of hard disk drive space that costs 12 cents per Gigabyte, I have no clue why a person would need to have free space as a concern after installing Kubuntu. I guess that's a mystery for another thread ...

[Drixoman]

Re: Disk Usage

Wait..so does this mean that Kubuntu 9.04 does not ship with all the packages listed under KDE's website? I thought when you use KDE you're suppose to incorporate all of its packages? So now I have to download the KDE-Util packages myself? What if I installed it from the DVD version..does that make a difference?

[dibl]

Re: Disk Usage

Here's the manifest for the 64-bit system -- probably very close to the same as 32-bit:

http://cesium.di.uminho.pt/pub/ubunt...amd64.manifest

[RamboTribble]

Re: Disk Usage

dibl,

Wonder no more, disk space concerns affect even the terabitten when movies are retained. (Though, amazingly, even in this day and age, not everyone gets to eat cake.)

So you're saying not providing GUI disk administration tools is a feature, not an omission? Now where have I heard that brand of logic before?

[dibl]

Re: Disk Usage

Heh -- no sir, I don't claim it's logical, or a feature. Were I King of KDE, I think I'd devote some staff time to a respectable disk & partition administration utility.

But, you said the user was set up for failure -- that's untrue, or at best a great exaggeration. I guess I could agree if you said "We've set up the novice Linux user who is so bold as to think he'll manage hard drive space to be forced to learn two CLI commands".


It's very true that for the new user who instantly launches a movie-downloading or ripping task, he had better be prepared with a substantial amount of free disk space. But I don't fault KDE for failure to include that as a basic assumption in their DE design -- such a user should have done a modicum of homework and preparation, like buying terabytes of hard drive space, regardless of the OS or DE that he intends to use.

[RamboTribble]

Re: Disk Usage

I have to question the argument that a Linux desktop user should, by the nature of his OS choice, be both obliged and willing to work harder to get his system to function than the users of other OSes. This smacks of the insidious elitism which has estranged many a software project, both Open Source and proprietary. from those who would use its fruits.

[flarson]

Re: Disk Usage

I don't think anyone says a user should be required .... People I know use Linux because it will do things Windows will not, and we can avoid much of the frustration of dealing with a system in which we can only do what some GUI developer allows us to do. You are welcome to use it too. So is anyone else. Is it reasonable that you demand that the people who created the system to their liking, and use it everyday, should modify it so that it does not work anymore, just so you can like it?

[mchuskie]

Re: Disk Usage

The "System Monitor - Hard Disk" plasma widget displays percentage of free disk space. That may be of some help?