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KDE 3.5 won't start


paulrstu
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I have been running Mandriva for about a year now and it has been pretty good. Last week some problems occurred and I turned it off and went to reboot. When it attempts to boot it fails and gives me a message that "temp directory (/temp) is out of disk space kde is unable to start". I am more than a bit green but have browsed around and discovered that hda6 is 100 per cent full. This is not the home directory. I think that something has filled that partition but do not know where to start. Net research tells me to run failsafe and I did that but instead of help just got a terminal window inviting me to pretend I know linuc a bit like DOS! Any clues how to fix much appreciated.

 

 

[moved from Software by spinynorman - welcome aboard :)]

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When you get to the terminal window type su

You will then be asked to type the root password

 

type cd /tmp to go to the directory /tmp

 

type ls to see what is in this directory

 

type rm _______ where the file name is placed after rm to remove that particular file

 

repeat as necessary to clean that directory

 

type exit when you are done and then restart your computer

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Many thanks. I have tried that and am left with about seventy files which it refuses to delete saying they are directories. Three of the files include references to my name and my children and I am guessing they are passwor related. gcofd-paul is one such name. The other files either begin jpsock or are just odd names such as fileOb08yE and it sees these as directories. Guidance still appreciated as it gives me the same answer when trying to boot.

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use rmdir to remove a directory

 

Tried that. It won't allow it and says sometimes that file name is not found and on another occasion that directories are not empty. I have never encountered a more unhelpful system to address problems. At least in XP you can get into Safe mode and try to do something. I am back to square one. The Mandriva background is up proudly displaying the message The following installation problem was detected while trying to start KDE. Temp directory (temp) is out of disk space. KDE is unable to start. Now if that was Windows one would start in safe mode and delete the files. Here in Mandriva land I cannot even navigate to the files to delete them. I don't want to be using this or any windows machine. Any other help appreciated.,

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When you have booted up into failsafe you do not need to cd into /tmp.

A quicker way would be to type the following

rm -Rf /tmp

this will remove the folder and all its contents.

You will then need to create the folder again by typing

mkdir tmp

and you should then be able to login as normal after a restart.

Ideally you need to find out why the folder is getting full, but that's another story. Let's see if we can get you logged in first.

Edited by SilverSurfer60
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Thanks for your time and help. I started Failsafe again Input as you suggested and it came up with four lines of text. The first was refusing to delete tmp file snd stating something like ICE Unix Operation not permitted. The next three lines were skmilar refusing to delete DDELOG file and operation not permitted. I noticed two things firstly that I seem to have a temporary file in my own user area and secondly that the system also has a temporary file. out of curiosity I then tried the MKDIR command and it stated that, of course, it could not comply as there was an existing directory by that name. It is perplexing for me and I am not that far off a silver surfer! Late on a Sunday night and still trying hard!

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When you have booted up into failsafe you do not need to cd into /tmp.

A quicker way would be to type the following

rm -Rf /tmp

this will remove the folder and all its contents.

You will then need to create the folder again by typing

mkdir tmp

and you should then be able to login as normal after a restart.

Ideally you need to find out why the folder is getting full, but that's another story. Let's see if we can get you logged in first.

 

I wouldn't do that as /tmp needs to be recreated with special permissions.

 

just do:

 

cd /tmp
rm -f *
rm -rf name-of-subdirectory

 

where name-of-subdirectory is the name of each subdirectory that 'rm -f' will have told you it can't delete as it's a directory.

 

After that do a 'ls -la' to list the remaining content of the directory.

 

If there still files or directories left (likely files or directories that start with a dot) delete them too.

 

Then you can use the command 'df' to check what the file system space is now.

 

You can also use 'mc' (midnight commander) which is a filemanager similar to the old MS-DOS norton commander to browse the filesystem and delte files or directories.

Edited by tux99
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Sorry I didn't read your first post correctly. Yes you do have a tmp directory in your home directory. Ignore that one though.

 

Tux made the reply whilst I was still typing. As he says DO NOT DELETE the first tmp folder but follow the instructions that Tux has given you. It's getting late for me as well.

Edited by SilverSurfer60
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You can also use 'mc' (midnight commander) which is a filemanager similar to the old MS-DOS norton commander to browse the filesystem and delte files or directories.

MC is superbly familiar. The only problem is I haven't a clue which tmp file I am looking at and none of them have any obvious signs of a problem. I will keep messing around with MC. I have only been using the box for a year and have a years work on it. The amount of time being wasted on it over the last few days is having a tendency to drive me back to Mr Gates but I will try again and if I lose everything so be it. Lesson will be learned. Thanks again for the MC tip. I will try deleting anything that looks like it ought to be deleted in any tmp directory I find and then throw it out the f****** window if it does not work.

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Just continuing to bang my head against a brick wall. I have visited the temporary directories and cannot find their alleged huge group of files. When I run df it tells me that the disc on hda6 is 39 gigs and all 39 gigs are full. The other two partitions have 2% usage and 4% usage. I am assuming that one of their wonderful upgrades means that downloads have flooded hda6 to the point it cannot function. Is there no way of browsing to partition hd6 and just deleting the rubbish or is it designed to spend countless hours deleting individual files which make no difference at all to the problem? It cannot be as hard as I am making it out too be. On the other hand maybe it is and maybe that is why Windows is so successful. I did nothing wrong other than go away for a day and turn my machine off. I did notice that last week the screensaver had ceased to work and it was having a problem printing which I now put down to the inability of hda6 to cope. If anyone has not lost the will to live and can suggest any alternate way of spending my Sunday it would be appreciated. I paid for my copy of Mandriva. Mug I must be.

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Oh Dear, take a step back and a deep breath. The /tmp folder you need is in what is called the root directory. You access it by simply entering /tmp, which you need to do as root not as a user. I hope that is clearer than mud. Once you have gained access you will find a bunch of other folders. Find the one that has the biggest content, at a guess I would say 'kde-root'. If I am correct enter that folder and delete as much as you are allowed by the system. Once done there issue the command

df

this will give a list of drives and the available space on them. Best of luck. Don't give in, even windows can throw this sort of thing at you. I know from experience.

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dev/hda6 remains filled to 39 gigabyte capacity with whatever. Went into failsafe. Navigated to root tmp having logged in as root. Got the file name you suggested and not much in it apart from a couple of files I could not delete ./ and .//. Found another file with something called "secret cookie" sitting there. Deleted that too. I think the step back and take a deep breath is good advice. They say Linux is logical. It isn't. This is just crazy. It seems a partition on my hard disc has 39 gigs of rubbish which Mandriva let happen without any consent. It ought to be simply to navigate to that partition and delete the crap. It is far from simple. I appreciate the help. Luckily I backed up some of the important documents on a caddy that I can poke into this Windows machine. Well done to Mandriva. Thanks for your help again and if there is any way of dealing with the 39 gig partition much appreciated. I had many problems with Windows over the years. All of them you could work through. This is just total nonsense. The Mandriva box has three partitions and two of them are at 2 and 4 per cent. The sda6 partition is 100 per cent full. I just cannot accept that after a year of telling people how good it is and Openoffice.org you suddenly realise it is probably just a complicated bodge not thought out. Really appreciate your prompt and helpful replies but I feel best left now till the morning and then I can throw water over it and see what happens!!

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You keep mentioning /dev/hda6. You need to determine what the mountpoint of /dev/hda6 is.

 

When you run 'df' it tells you in the last column where the hda6 partition is mounted on.

 

Then you have to navigate with 'mc' to that directory and delete not needed stuff under there.

 

BTW, there is another tmp directory used also by kde, /var/tmp.

 

Have a look there too and delete the kdecache directories and anything else not needed there.

 

Linux is very logical, but like everything technical you need to know it to understand it, that's the difference with Windows, you have no way of completely knowing Windows no matter how much you are willing to study it, as you don't have access to the source code and to lots of undocumented stuff.

Edited by tux99
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