gvfs reports root partition 100% full

[quixote]

Binary package hint: gvfs-fuse

This is a major problem since it prevents any operation that wants to store to the filesystem, including /tmp. gvfs seems to have decided that one of my network drives is in my root partition. That makes it think the root partition is full. (it isn't, really.)

A backup, made with Simple Backup, is in /mnt/mediavault/backup/computer-backup-filename.ful . That dir and backup now show up no matter what. I can't umount the partition, even using -f. I moved the backup out of that dir, and it still lists as being in that location, although it no longer is. In desperation, I tried to remove ~/.gvfs, hoping that would straighten gvfs out, but it won't let me since the resource is busy.

I'm running, 8.04. gvfs-fuse 0.2.3-0ubuntu5

This is similar to, but not the same as these bugs: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/217389 "root partition usage reaches 100% without reason." In that case extra backup files weren't noticed and could be removed once they were.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-utils/+bug/211789 "disk usage analyzer shows twice disk capacity" Deselecting gvfs-fuse-daemon and rebooting did not solve the problem for me. Also, this bug is said to be "fixed upstream" but whatever is causing my problem is not fixed :(

How can I wake gvfs up to the fact that 2.2GB are NOT on my root partition, but somewhere else entirely?!

[quixote (commer-greenglim)]

This is what finally worked to get my hard drive back:

All done as root:

umount gvfs-fuse-daemon

Change ownership of backup file generated by SimpleBackup on network drive, and move to another location.

Change group of that network directory from "1000" to root.

remove that directory and all its subdirectories (#rm -r /mnt/network-drive/backup) It had no visible or hidden subdirs, but an ordinary rmdir command kept saying it was not empty.

On my computer (not the network drive), remove .gvfs both in my user home dir, and in root's home directory.

exit root. reboot.

The gnome devs really need to get to work on this issue. A filesystem that can make your computer next to nonfunctional is not a minor bug.

[Léo Studer (leo-studer)]

I have an issue somewhat related: gvfs-fuse eats all the space and then I can't find no way to free it. See the system monitor snapshot

[raphael (raphoun)]

I have the same problem, it's awfull.
I have a smb mount on my root partition and ubuntu says that my root partition is full.

df:

/dev/sda5 6000592 5799864 0 100% /
varrun 1557260 232 1557028 1% /var/run
varlock 1557260 0 1557260 0% /var/lock
udev 1557260 80 1557180 1% /dev
devshm 1557260 0 1557260 0% /dev/shm
/dev/sda6 102100724 76913448 20041660 80% /home
/dev/sda3 83208660 49632476 33576184 60% /media/vista
overflow 1024 48 976 5% /tmp
/dev/sdb1 972480 668544 303936 69% /media/disk-1
//192.168.1.20/Videos 464535688 304134728 146242724 68% /media/smb_videos

But it's not true, it's not full

[Jean-Michel Cattiez (jmcattiez)]

this bug is important..
i've, at time, no solution to get back to stable system

[bassmannate (nathanield-reynolds)]

I ran some updates today and I'm also having this problem. Here is the output of df:

/dev/sda1 3872856 3711616 0 100% /
varrun 127840 120 127720 1% /var/run
varlock 127840 0 127840 0% /var/lock
udev 127840 44 127796 1% /dev
devshm 127840 12 127828 1% /dev/shm
lrm 127840 39776 88064 32% /lib/modules/2.6.24-20-generic/volatile
/dev/sda3 14535616 13536784 266268 99% /home
overflow 1024 32 992 4% /tmp
gvfs-fuse-daemon 3872856 3711616 0 100% /home/bassmannate/.gvfs

I'm not sure what's going on with this. I'm not even sure what I'm using gvfs for. This is particularly troubling as I'm using an older computer with a small hard drive.

I tried the above suggestion of umount gvfs-fuse-daemon and then removing the .gvfs directories but it doesn't do anything. When I reboot, it's come back.

[bassmannate (nathanield-reynolds)]

Update:

Just out of curiosity, I removed gvfs-fuse since I'm not using it for anything that I know of. Rebooted and this is what I get from df -h

Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1 3.7G 3.6G 0 100% /
varrun 125M 120K 125M 1% /var/run
varlock 125M 0 125M 0% /var/lock
udev 125M 44K 125M 1% /dev
devshm 125M 12K 125M 1% /dev/shm
lrm 125M 39M 86M 32% /lib/modules/2.6.24-20-generic/volatile
/dev/sda3 14G 13G 258M 99% /home
overflow 1.0M 32K 992K 4% /tmp

the gvfs-fuse-daemon entry is not there but my root is still showing as full. I'm pretty much dead in the water right now if I want to do anything that uses the root.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

could somebody describe why that would be a gvfs issue? the df logs show that the partition has no empty space and df is not using a GNOME library

[bassmannate (nathanield-reynolds)]

I'm not really sure. I must admit that I'm not a programmer. However, before I removed gvfs-fuse, I was removing programs (about 20 MB total) to try to free up some space. I would recheck and both Nautilus and df would still report that the root was full. After I removed gvfs-fuse, I never regained that space but I removed a few more things and gained 25 MB.

I'm not entirely sure what's going on. I noticed this was happening and found this bug with several people reporting the same problem.

If I can find my install cd, I'm going to rebuild this machine to see what I can accomplish and try to reproduce the problem on a clean system.

[Patrick Brueckner (madmuffin)]

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? Thanks in advance.

[quixote (commer-greenglim)]

Patrick- Thanks for asking! I've moved to a new laptop and 64-bit Intrepid. In normal usage, I have not had this problem with gvfs. But after the problems it caused with SimpleBackup, I've never dared to try to use that program again.

I'd be willing to risk it if it would help :-) Would it serve any purpose to try?

[frankO (frank-grant56)]

I have the same problem. If I update to 8.10 then the problem is fixed. But then I have a problem with Mythtv volume control. So at the moment I am stuck on 8.04.

To fix my problem I start with a new install.
Then
sudo umount /home/yourhome/.gvfs
sudo rmdir /home/yourhome/.gvfs
sudo apt-get remove gvfs-fuse

Restart and then update your system and add your other applications

[JohnL (jwillar)]

I had the same problem and found my solution here at http://www.blog.arun-prabha.com/2008/07/22/deleting-files-from-roots-trash-folder-in-ubuntu/. I did not have to re-install the OS.

Apparently when the network share drive fails to mount due to the fstab problem (network not up, drive will not mount), sBackup creates the backup in your root folder. The procedure at this site outline the steps to clear the hidden backup folder/file then describes how to delete them from the root Trash folder. I just cleared up 22 Gib of reported space. Kudos to Arun Subramanian’s Blog (Deleting files from root’s trash folder in Ubuntu)!

I hope this helps

[Dimitrios Symeonidis (azimout)]

reassigning to the simplebackup package!

[Thomas Hotz (thotz-deactivatedaccount)]

This bug is currently not testable because of bug #845946.