Comment 3 for bug 131020

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 20:16:08 status half-installed fgfs-base 1.9.0-1
2010-02-11 20:17:19 status not-installed fgfs-base <none>
2010-02-11 20:17:20 startup packages configure
2010-02-11 20:18:46 startup archives unpack
2010-02-11 20:19:02 install fgfs-base <none> 1.9.0-1
2010-02-11 20:19:02 status half-installed fgfs-base 1.9.0-1
2010-02-11 20:20:19 status not-installed fgfs-base <none>

The package manager should have never attempted to install anything in the first place with inadequate space.