Doctor, It Hurts When I Boot My Linux

[nemorathwald]

The hard drive on my Linux computer is 2.7 gigabytes. And yet when I upgraded from Kubuntu Breezy Badger Beta to the official release of Breezy Badger, it reported that it couldn't finish the process because the hard drive is full. I checked the properties panel for the hard drive and indeed, it was full.

My problem today is that when I type in my password (which I know is correct) to log into the computer, the monitor clicks as if changing resolution, the screen goes black, then grey with a grainy clock mouse cursor, and then back to the log in screen again.

Comments

[zifferent.livejournal.com]

Hit and login at the prompt with your login name and password.

type:

df

and copy and paste the results here.

To conserve some space you might want to clear your apt-get cache by typing:

apt-get clean

Try df again and see if you've cleared out some space.

[matt-arnold.livejournal.com]

If only I could copy the results from the Linux command line output and paste them into Livejournal... But I will type it. The output is:

Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda1 2949028 2914060 0 100% /
tmpfs 63500 0 63500 0% /dev/shm
tmpfs 63500 12572 50928 20% /lib/modules/2.6.12-8-6/volatile

I tried apt-get clean and it told me I didn't have permission. Then I heard a voice in my head, either yours or stormgren's or Aaron's or that of paranthropus, saying "Use the sudo, Luke. Cease all thought. Search out with your feelings. May the sudo be with you, always." So I typed sudo apt-get clean and it worked! See, I'm getting the hang of this.

Now the new output is:

Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda1 2949028 2377632 421592 85% /
tmpfs 63500 0 63500 0% /dev/shm
tmpfs 63500 12572 50928 20% /lib/modules/2.6.12-8-6/volatile

What should I do now?

[mjwise.livejournal.com]

Hm, Random Guess: The new install got to install perhaps a new version of X and some new startup scripts that call a particular new or update window manager or desktop environment, but the install ran out of space before it got to install said new or updated window managers. As a result, attempting to login tries to start a window manager that isn't there to be started, and thus the startup fails back to the login screen.

I haven't used linux regularly for about 5 years now though, so I wouldn't be sure how to fix it, especially on today's new-fangled distributions. (Back in my day, we had RedHat Linux 4.0 and we liked it! ;) )

[zifferent.livejournal.com]

that should say ctrl + alt + f1. I used greater than and less than symbols and, lj thinks it's html.

[matt-arnold.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the help. I used sudo apt-get update and sudo apt-get dist-upgrade like you said. I restarted it and it's getting past the login screen now, but all it runs is Konsole.

[zifferent.livejournal.com]

Goody! Do the update. And then dist-upgrade till it reports 0 updates/installs, and then reboot.

If you're getting errors upon dist-upgrading, you may need hands-on technician type help.