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Where do I begin... I can hardly do anything on Ubuntu 12.04. I am very close to removing and returning to Windows. First I could not load it because the graphics appeared to be running low but somehow that stopped happening and I could log on. Now I can not download anything or I get this message

Cannot write: No space left on device.

I tried trouble shooting this issue but every time I try and fix the problem I am blocked by this message

E: Write error - write (28: No space left on device)
E: Can't mmap an empty file
E: Failed to truncate file - ftruncate (9: Bad file descriptor)
E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.
$ OLD=$(ls -tr /boot/vmlinuz-* | head -n -2 | cut -d- -f2- | awk '{print "linux-image-" $0}')

Ubuntu is also running incredibly slow and I cant get anything done! Please help this is driving me mad!

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  • 1
    Clearly, you are running out of space. Try adding more storage to the Ubuntu partition?
    – jokerdino
    Sep 21, 2012 at 15:09
  • Try booting from a Ubuntu Live CD and deleting unnecessary files from there.
    – SirCharlo
    Sep 21, 2012 at 15:19
  • Please post the relevant part of the output of df. Sep 21, 2012 at 15:28
  • 1
    Can you add the outcome of sudo fdisk -l?
    – Mitch
    Sep 21, 2012 at 15:36

2 Answers 2

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I think, you have downloaded too much software in your Ubuntu. I suggest you to copy all of those packages in other partition of the disk or in a USB drive or DVD. Then use this command

 sudo apt-get clean

to clear the package cache. It will quickly give you some more space

As you are using Wubi to install Ubuntu, You may try these solution posted here:

Or you may try to move the Wubi installation to a larger partition with regular installation

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  • I have plenty of hard drive space Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/loop0 17G 17G 0 100% / udev 1.9G 4.0K 1.9G 1% /dev tmpfs 772M 976K 771M 1% /run none 5.0M 0 5.0M 0% /run/lock none 1.9G 276K 1.9G 1% /run/shm /dev/sda2 445G 103G 342G 24% /host /dev/sdc10 932G 82G 850G 9% /media/My Passport for Mac /dev/sdb1 466G 436G 30G 94% /media/FreeAgent GoFlex Drive So do I need to still tranfer any files to usb etc. And if I need to partition which is the best and safest way
    – jimbobjgr
    Sep 21, 2012 at 15:27
  • @jimbobjgr Are you using Ubuntu from Live CD? Anyway, having enough hard drive space doesn't matter here. Because Ubuntu uses it's own partition, not the entire hard drive
    – Anwar
    Sep 21, 2012 at 15:29
  • I am not using from a cd I used the windows download wizard thingy. I think it must be something to do with the partition, but I am having difficulty getting my head around how it works and how I can fix it.
    – jimbobjgr
    Sep 21, 2012 at 15:34
  • @jimbobjgr Then you are stuck I think. You must extend the file which is holding the Ubuntu partition inside your windows partition. I'll try to update the answer with a solution, if I find one. Most probably, you may need to install Ubuntu again with larger space.
    – Anwar
    Sep 21, 2012 at 15:39
  • ok, how has this happened? Surely when Ubuntu is installed it should automatically install with the right amount of space to function?
    – jimbobjgr
    Sep 21, 2012 at 15:44
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Try to clean the cache using

sudo rm -rf /var/cache/apt/archives/*.deb
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    better yet, sudo apt-get clean
    – January
    Sep 21, 2012 at 16:29
  • Thanks for your help. I have decided to get rid of Ubuntu. It has created far to many hours of work and Ii hadnt any time to do any of my own work... I hope to see it improve and perhaps one day I will use it again as I like the Idea.
    – jimbobjgr
    Sep 22, 2012 at 12:57

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