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I recently successfully installed Ubuntu Mate 1.8.2 on a partition on my computer. The size of the partition is approx. 200GiB. After a couple of weeks running well I am now getting messages that disk space is low. And indeed it is. It's got just a few megabytes left. What's using it all and how can I stop it, please?

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  • Ubuntu Mate is still an non-official release of Ubuntu so not supported on AU. Said that: this is NOT typical behaviour of a stock Ubuntu so have a though about what software you added that might require disk space.
    – Rinzwind
    Jan 26, 2015 at 18:55

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The first thing to check is if the Rubbish Bin / Trash folder is full - if so, empty it.

There are a few things you can do to find out what's using your disk space.

Use the Gnome Partition Editor tool GParted check that the size of the partition is what you think it is.

You can install it from Ubuntu Software Centre (search for "gparted") or from a terminal:

sudo apt-get install gparted

You should then be able to find it in the Menu, either as "GParted" or "Partition Editor". You might need to enter your password to run it. This will show you your disk and the size of each partition.

If you have more than one hard disk installed, select the appropirate one at the top right of the screen.

If you decide to make any changes to your partitions with this tool (or any other) then make sure you back up anything you want to keep before you start.

There is also the Disk Usage Analyzer tool, which has the unusual name "baobab". If not installed by default, install via the Software Centre, or from a terminal with

sudo apt-get install baobab 

This program works better if run as root, because there are certain files not visible to normal users. Run this command (ALT + F2)

pkexec env DISPLAY=$DISPLAY XAUTHORITY=$XAUTHORITY baobab

and enter your password.

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    Excellent answer! I would have also suggested using du -ck but I think your answer is more suited. Jan 26, 2015 at 18:33
  • I would have added in something about checking log files in /var/log/. 1 unnoticed error can fill up a log file pretty quickly and it can also give pointers to what is happening.
    – Rinzwind
    Jan 26, 2015 at 18:56

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