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After running Disk Usage Analyzer on the file system, I am looking for ways to remove unneeded files on my Live USB.

  1. Firstly, is there anything I can do about the files in the casper archive? For example, I noticed that there exists a directory /rofs, which I'm sure stands for read-only file system, the one stored in the read-only casper file, so I can't removing anything in it. Specifically, I removed LibreOffice yet /rofs/usr/lib/libreoffice takes up 222 MB of precious storage, as does Thunderbird and a bunch of other things.

  2. What can I clear regarding the apt program files. /var/lib/apt/lists takes up 115 MB, and /var/cache/apt (not the archives directory) is 139 MB. The /var/cache/apt folder is made up of several ~35 MB files, and I don't know if they are all necessary:

    ubuntu@ubuntu:/var/cache/apt$ du -ah
4.0K    ./archives/partial
0       ./archives/lock
28K     ./archives
4.0K    ./typescript
34M     ./srcpkgcache.bin
31M     ./srcpkgcache.bin.ifDvIA
34M     ./pkgcache.bin.3IHVIK
32K     ./pkgcache.bin.h2Zwz7
36M     ./pkgcache.bin
133M    .

  3. I already clear browsing data regularly when I use chrome, so I don't think I have to deal with that much. However, I see that there are cache folders for other programs, and I wish to know if there is a safe way to remove the cache.

Generally, my question revolves around why I have only less than 300 MB on my 4.0 GB USB thumb drive when I only use it for browsing and simple development in python.

Your help is appreciated.

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3
  • I face the same problem: had a 1Gb flash drive and was suffering from lack of disk space (but Ubuntu was booting, at least). Now, using a 4Gb flash drive (capped to ~2Gb, as discussion) I'm facing the same problems, although I managed to install Java beyond booting. Something is definitely eating out disk.
    – Tiago Cardoso
    Dec 26, 2015 at 18:55
  • If it helps, using df -Th I can see /cow using 100% of available disk space. Question then should be... is it something that could be re-dimentioned?
    – Tiago Cardoso
    Dec 26, 2015 at 21:37
  • for the point '2.', simply call apt clean functionality, his goal is to clean /var/cache/apt content : sudo apt-get clean
    – adrenochrome
    Feb 19, 2016 at 9:31

2 Answers 2

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A quick fix is to reduce the archived journals. On my LiveCD those files occupied 300M. Handy when down to 0.

sudo journalctl --vacuum-size=50M

how to clear journal

Then edit journald.conf

sudo nano /etc/systemd/journald.conf

set to desired value:

#SystemMaxUse=50M

After reboot this setting has no effect on Mint.

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0

You would need to make a custom .iso to modify those files.

See : Can I build a Ubuntu ISO from a manifest?

The root file system is compressed to fit on the iso, but casper mounts the file system ro (rofs).

You can use persistence , but persistence takes up even more space (cow).

How did you make your usb ? The iso should take up only 700 Mb or so, do you have other data stored on the usb ? Persistence ?

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  • 1
    I have persistent storage (casper-rw) and I really just installed chromium, vlc, (I left Firefox on,) I removed big apps like Thunderbird and LibreOffice. I'm thinking that there are unused packages (like libraries) left behind from some of those uninstalls.
    – ladaghini
    Mar 18, 2012 at 14:57
  • 2.5GB is the maximum capacity, and like I said, I have like 300MB remaining.
    – ladaghini
    Mar 18, 2012 at 15:29
  • 1
    2.5 GB is the maximum capacity, which, as I said earlier, I was reaching. What I would like to know is what is filling up that 2.5 GB (which used to be 2.0, but I added another 512 MB) As far as I am concerned, I have fewer programs installed (space usage wise) than a fresh live USB. And yet, even after adding another 512 MB, I have a measly 300 MB left. There must be some useless files just lurking around.
    – ladaghini
    Mar 19, 2012 at 14:59
  • The files on the iso are read only, you can not delete them. A cow file system makes a copy of the files and tracks the changes, so it takes a lot of space. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copy-on-write Again, you need to either remaster the iso or perform a standard installation, but persistence does not work they way you think it does, thus it is not behaving as you expect.
    – Panther
    Mar 19, 2012 at 15:39

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