Apt-get will install a package when does not have enough space.

[jhansonxi]

Binary package hint: apt

apt-get install etc. will happily install packages and run root out of space without any error message. In my case, I installed and updated Gutsy on a older system with a 5GB root. I then tested out various apps with it's proprietary video card. I installed a bunch of games including Nexuiz. This left about 350MB free. After getting 0.5fps in Nexuiz, I did a apt-get remove and then apt-get install alien-arena (200MB). No messages from apt-get. The dpkg.log showed that it installed normally. Obviously it didn't - the missing icons proved that and df showed 0 bytes free on root. apt-get clean resulted in 1.2GB free and and an apt-get install --reinstall alien-arena fixed the problem.

This is not just a Gutsy issue as I've had similar problems with Edgy and Feisty on small-drive systems. This may be related to Bug #126774 and Bug #90606

[xteejx (xteejx-deactivatedaccount)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. You reported this bug a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering if this is still an issue for you. Can you try with the latest Ubuntu release, as Feisty is no longer supported? Thanks in advance.

[xteejx (xteejx-deactivatedaccount)]

We are closing this bug report because it lacks the information we need to investigate the problem, as described in the previous comments. Please reopen it if you can give us the missing information, and don't hesitate to submit bug reports in the future. To reopen the bug report you can click on the current status, under the Status column, and change the Status back to "New". Thanks again!

[jhansonxi (jhansonxi)]

Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala):
Attempted to install Flightgear on a system with inadequate space:

Filesystem Type Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1 ext3 9.4G 9.1G 0 100% /
udev tmpfs 375M 204K 375M 1% /dev
none tmpfs 375M 188K 375M 1% /dev/shm
none tmpfs 375M 320K 375M 1% /var/run
none tmpfs 375M 0 375M 0% /var/lock
none tmpfs 375M 0 375M 0% /lib/init/rw
none debugfs 9.4G 9.1G 0 100% /var/lib/ureadahead/debugfs
/dev/sda6 ext3 3.8G 153M 3.5G 5% /home

From Synaptic:
E: /var/cache/apt/archives/fgfs-base_1.9.0-1_all.deb: failed in buffer_write(fd) (10, ret=-1)
(not exactly informative)

Icon in notification area said to run package manager as something didn't fully install except it couldn't run it:
software-properties-gtk
Failed to run /usr/sbin/synaptic as user root.

Unable to copy the user's Xauthorization file.

aptitude (at least it said why):
(Reading database ... 135315 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking fgfs-base (from .../fgfs-base_1.9.0-1_all.deb) ...
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/fgfs-base_1.9.0-1_all.deb (--unpack):
 failed in buffer_write(fd) (10, ret=-1): backend dpkg-deb during `./usr/share/games/FlightGear/Textures/Terrain/forest1a.png': No space left on device
dpkg-deb: subprocess paste killed by signal (Broken pipe)
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/fgfs-base_1.9.0-1_all.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
A package failed to install. Trying to recover:
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of flightgear:
 flightgear depends on fgfs-base (>= 1.9.0); however:
  Package fgfs-base is not installed.
dpkg: error processing flightgear (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
 flightgear
Press return to continue.

apt-get -f install (at least it also said why):
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Correcting dependencies... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  fgfs-base
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  fgfs-base
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0B/250MB of archives.
After this operation, 468MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?
(Reading database ... 135315 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking fgfs-base (from .../fgfs-base_1.9.0-1_all.deb) ...
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/fgfs-base_1.9.0-1_all.deb (--unpack):
 failed in buffer_write(fd) (10, ret=-1): backend dpkg-deb during `./usr/share/games/FlightGear/Textures/Terrain/forest1a.png': No space left on device
dpkg-deb: subprocess paste killed by signal (Broken pipe)
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/fgfs-base_1.9.0-1_all.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

dpkg.log (no space crisis info here):
2010-02-11 20:15:53 startup archives unpack
2010-02-11 20:16:08 install fgfs-base <none> 1.9.0-1
2010-02-11 20:1...

[Anzenketh (anzenketh)]

We just need a bit more information.

Please run apt-get -v and post the results.

[Anzenketh (anzenketh)]

After looking at the bug some more. This particular bug has already been reported and is a duplicate of bug 126774, so it is being marked as such. Please look at the other bug report to see if there is any missing information that you can provide, or to see if there is a workaround for the bug. Additionally, any further discussion regarding the bug should occur in the other report. Please continue to report any other bugs you may find.

[Anzenketh (anzenketh)]

Changed to duplicate of bug 312491.