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2-Cent Tip: Making space while installing

Chris Bannister [mockingbird at earthlight.co.nz]


Mon, 6 Dec 2010 02:11:52 +1300

On Tue, Nov 30, 2010 at 06:30:23PM -0500, Ben Okopnik wrote:

> Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2010 11:22:04 +0100
> From: Jacopo Sadoleto <jacopo.sadoleto at gmail.com>
> To: ben at linuxgazette.net
> Subject: 2-Cent Tips
> 
> Sometimes upgrading an Linux distro to a recent version, yields an "No space
> left on device" (usually /var);
> For those not willing to use a tool to create, resize, grow a partition, a
> simple artifice will do the trick:
> 
> CTRL-ALT-F2

Upgrading from within X should be discouraged.

> # mv /var /home/user/? <== or wherever space suffice
> # cd /
> # ls -s /home/user/var .
> CTRL-ALT-F7

I believe that would just be ALT-F7

-- 
"Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet."
   -- Napoleon Bonaparte


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Ben Okopnik [ben at linuxgazette.net]


Sun, 5 Dec 2010 08:38:46 -0500

On Mon, Dec 06, 2010 at 02:11:52AM +1300, Chris Bannister wrote:

> On Sun, 28 Nov 2010 11:22:04 +0100, Jacopo Sadoleto wrote:
> > 
> > CTRL-ALT-F2
> 
> Upgrading from within X should be discouraged.

I feel that you're right on general principles (the less complexity involved, the better), but do you have a specific reason for saying that?

> > # mv /var /home/user/? <== or wherever space suffice
> > # cd /
> > # ls -s /home/user/var .
> > CTRL-ALT-F7
> 
> I believe that would just be ALT-F7

Actually, both work.

-- 
* Ben Okopnik * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette * http://LinuxGazette.NET *


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René Pfeiffer [lynx at luchs.at]


Sun, 5 Dec 2010 14:51:28 +0100

On Dec 05, 2010 at 0838 -0500, Ben Okopnik appeared and said:

> On Mon, Dec 06, 2010 at 02:11:52AM +1300, Chris Bannister wrote:
> > On Sun, 28 Nov 2010 11:22:04 +0100, Jacopo Sadoleto wrote:
> > > 
> > > CTRL-ALT-F2
> > 
> > Upgrading from within X should be discouraged.
> 
> I feel that you're right on general principles (the less complexity
> involved, the better), but do you have a specific reason for saying
> that?

Maybe I do, I just upgrade my laptop from Debian 5.06 to Debian 6.0. It worked like a charm, and I did it in maintenace mode (booting with the 'single' kernel boot option). The main reason for doing this is that almost no applications run, few files are used/locked and few libraries are used. The post-install scripts (re)start some processes anyway.

Best, Ren?.

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Chris Bannister [mockingbird at earthlight.co.nz]


Tue, 7 Dec 2010 01:25:25 +1300

On Sun, Dec 05, 2010 at 08:38:46AM -0500, Ben Okopnik wrote:

> On Mon, Dec 06, 2010 at 02:11:52AM +1300, Chris Bannister wrote:
> > Upgrading from within X should be discouraged.
> 
> I feel that you're right on general principles (the less complexity
> involved, the better), but do you have a specific reason for saying
> that?

If the upgrade breaks X you could be in real trouble, where the only way out appears to be a reboot, which could be nasty depending on how far into the upgrade you are.

This is fine if you know what you are doing and don't mind (or even enjoy) the troubleshooting required to fix it, but if you rely on mailing lists or forums etc, to get it fixed then it won't be so easy.

IOW, it is the people who will be required to help and need error/log output who should be discouraging upgrading from X.

> > I believe that would just be ALT-F7
> 
> Actually, both work.

OOps! so they do. Recent change?

-- 
"Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet."
   -- Napoleon Bonaparte


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Ben Okopnik [ben at linuxgazette.net]


Mon, 6 Dec 2010 18:48:05 -0800

On Tue, Dec 07, 2010 at 01:25:25AM +1300, Chris Bannister wrote:

> On Sun, Dec 05, 2010 at 08:38:46AM -0500, Ben Okopnik wrote:
> > On Mon, Dec 06, 2010 at 02:11:52AM +1300, Chris Bannister wrote:
> > > Upgrading from within X should be discouraged.
> > 
> > I feel that you're right on general principles (the less complexity
> > involved, the better), but do you have a specific reason for saying
> > that?
> 
> If the upgrade breaks X you could be in real trouble, where the only way
> out appears to be a reboot, which could be nasty depending on how
> far into the upgrade you are.
> 
> This is fine if you know what you are doing and don't mind (or even
> enjoy) the troubleshooting required to fix it, but if you rely on
> mailing lists or forums etc, to get it fixed then it won't be so easy.

I suppose that all of that folds back into the "minimize complexity" principle - especially since, as you say, things can indeed get rather crunchy if X breaks during the installation (an install that breaks part-way through can definitely give you lots of cause for unhappiness.)

> > > I believe that would just be ALT-F7
> > 
> > Actually, both work.
> 
> OOps! so they do. Recent change?

It's been that way for quite a long time now; I recall discovering it by accident around 1999 or so.

-- 
* Ben Okopnik * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette * http://LinuxGazette.NET *


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Karl-Heinz Herrmann [kh1 at khherrmann.de]


Wed, 8 Dec 2010 00:22:40 +0100

On Mon, 6 Dec 2010 18:48:05 -0800 Ben Okopnik <ben at linuxgazette.net> wrote:

> > > Actually, both work.  
> > 
> > OOps! so they do. Recent change?  
> 
> It's been that way for quite a long time now; I recall discovering it
> by accident around 1999 or so.

I'm still under the impression that you need Ctrl-Alt-Fn to get OUT of a console running X, but it is sufficient to press Alt-Fn to switch between text-consoles or back TO X.

As a side note: "chvt n" on any console will do the same.

K.-H.


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Ben Okopnik [ben at linuxgazette.net]


Tue, 7 Dec 2010 16:52:05 -0800

On Wed, Dec 08, 2010 at 12:22:40AM +0100, Karl-Heinz Herrmann wrote:

> On Mon, 6 Dec 2010 18:48:05 -0800
> Ben Okopnik <ben at linuxgazette.net> wrote:
> 
> > > > Actually, both work.  
> > > 
> > > OOps! so they do. Recent change?  
> > 
> > It's been that way for quite a long time now; I recall discovering it
> > by accident around 1999 or so.
> 
> I'm still under the impression that you need Ctrl-Alt-Fn to get OUT of
> a console running X, but it is sufficient to press Alt-Fn to switch
> between text-consoles or back TO X. 

Yep; that's my experience, too.

> As a side note: "chvt n" on any console will do the same. 

Almost. :) I remember 'chvt 7' "reliably" switching away from a console and into some graphical limbo, with no way to get out of it, so I always ended up rebooting... but that was years and years ago (Debian, as I recall.) Probably doesn't apply any longer.

-- 
* Ben Okopnik * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette * http://LinuxGazette.NET *


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Deividson Okopnik [deivid.okop at gmail.com]


Tue, 7 Dec 2010 23:19:50 -0200

2010/12/7 Ben Okopnik <ben at linuxgazette.net>:

>> As a side note: "chvt n" on any console will do the same.
>
> Almost. :) I remember 'chvt 7' "reliably" switching away from a console
> and into some graphical limbo, with no way to get out of it, so I always
> ended up rebooting... but that was years and years ago (Debian, as I
> recall.) Probably doesn't apply any longer.
>

Just for those of us that never heard of chvt before (you got me wondering there what key was chvt - mac maybe? :P) http://linuxandfriends.com/2009/07/22/ch[...]between-virtual-terminals-linux-command/

>
> --
> * Ben Okopnik * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette * http://LinuxGazette.NET *
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