Raspberry Pi out of disk space

Question

I'm ridiculously new to rpi and I've been following lots of tutorials in order to try to get face recognition working on my pi. I've run out of disk space and it seems that through following tons of tutorials, I've loaded up on junk.

I saw in another discussion on partitions that I can run a command to see mine. Here is what it shows.

pi@raspberrypi ~ $ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/mmcblk0: 7969 MB, 7969177600 bytes
4 heads, 16 sectors/track, 243200 cylinders, total 15564800 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000c27cb

    Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/mmcblk0p1            8192     1685546      838677+   e  W95 FAT16 (LBA)
/dev/mmcblk0p2         1687552    15499263     6905856   85  Linux extended
/dev/mmcblk0p3        15499264    15564799       32768   83  Linux
/dev/mmcblk0p5         1695744     1818623       61440    c  W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/mmcblk0p6         1826816    15499263     6836224   83  Linux

Did I somehow get 5 partitions? How can I free up space?

EDIT: output of df -h

pi@raspberrypi ~ $ df -h
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/root       6.3G  6.0G   25M 100% /
devtmpfs        428M     0  428M   0% /dev
tmpfs            87M  336K   86M   1% /run
tmpfs           5.0M     0  5.0M   0% /run/lock
tmpfs           173M     0  173M   0% /run/shm
/dev/mmcblk0p5   60M   20M   41M  33% /boot
/dev/mmcblk0p3   27M  397K   25M   2% /media/SETTINGS

Answer 1

Here's what works for me. You can try this set of commands to purge unneeded package files:

sudo apt-get autoremove
sudo apt-get clean

It won't work a miracle, but sometimes gets me a couple hundred MB's freed up.

If you want to run just raspbian, I have had great luck with Jessie Lite and adding packages as I need. Here's an example on an 8GB uSD card:

Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/root       7.8G  1.1G  6.4G  15% /
devtmpfs        224M     0  224M   0% /dev
tmpfs           229M     0  229M   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs           229M  4.6M  224M   2% /run
tmpfs           5.3M  4.1k  5.3M   1% /run/lock
tmpfs           229M     0  229M   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/mmcblk0p1   63M   21M   43M  34% /boot

Answer 2

If you installed Jessie on a 8gb, look at the applications you don't use. I removed Mathematica, and gained more than 600 MB with

sudo apt-get purge wolfram-engine

Answer 3

Another solution would be to use a larger (32G) USB stick or SD Card (with a USB SD Card reader) and transfer your root filesystem to the new device. See Expanding size of the root / using external HDD.

If you want to start over without losing what you have on a larger SD Card, here is a way to install bootable Raspbian OS on a new SD Card. After the install, swap the new SD Card with your boot SD Card and you will have a clean system with access to all your old information.

Install Raspbian on the Raspberry Pi from Linux

1. SETUP -- Requirements are a Linux (type) system able to connect to the internet, write to the micro SD Card (8G or larger), a disk format program (fdisk), wget would be nice with funzip (unzip requires local storage), and a Raspberry Pi. With the SD Card attached to the Linux system in the card reader or in USB card reader, determine the device address with the lsblk or other commands. In my case, I will use /dev/sdb. Check if the device is mounted with the df command and if so, unmount with the umount /dev/sdb? command.

   pi@RPi3:~ $ lsblk
   NAME        MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
   sdb           8:16   1  29.8G  0 disk
   └─sdb1        8:17   1  29.8G  0 part
   sda           8:0    0 931.5G  0 disk
   ├─sda2        8:2    0 931.4G  0 part /
   └─sda1        8:1    0   120M  0 part /media/pi/boot1
   mmcblk0     179:0    0  29.7G  0 disk
   ├─mmcblk0p2 179:2    0  29.7G  0 part
   └─mmcblk0p1 179:1    0    63M  0 part /boot
   

2. FORMAT -- Format the SD Card to one partition, type fat32 [sudo fdisk /dev/sdb, subcmd p, (if not Disklabel type: dos, subcmd o), subcmd d to delete old partitions, subcmd n to create a new partition (take the defaults, primary p, number 1, first, last), subcmd t for type (number 1, code c), and subcmd w to write].

   pi@RPi3:~ $ sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdb
   
   Device     Boot Start      End  Sectors  Size Id Type
   /dev/sdb1        8192 62552063 62543872 29.8G  c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
   

3. DOWNLOAD, UNZIP and WRITE -- It is possible to download the Raspbian image, unzip it, and install it on the SD Card all at once. The unzip command will work if the Raspbian image is first downloaded and then unzipped (unzip will not work with piped input, funzip will). The image is more than 1.5G, unzipped over 4G, it will take sometime to download.

   pi@RPi3:~ $ wget -qO - https://downloads.raspberrypi.org/raspbian_latest | funzip | sudo dd bs=4M of=/dev/sdb
   

4. VERIFY -- The image is now installed with two partition (boot and root). The Linux partition is very small and should be expanded. (It is possible to add more partitions if they are needed, before expanding.) Before expanding the Linux partition, NOTE /dev/sdb2 Start Sector (ie 137216 in my case).

   pi@RPi3:~ $ echo -e "p\nq" | sudo fdisk /dev/sdb | egrep "Dev|^/"
   Device     Boot  Start     End Sectors Size Id Type
   /dev/sdb1         8192  137215  129024  63M  c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
   /dev/sdb2       137216 8581119 8443904   4G 83 Linux
   

5. EXPAND PARTITION -- The fdisk command can be used to expand the Linux partition. First delete the Linux partition subcmd d, default 2, add it back subcmd n, default p, default 2,
   using the Start Sector (as noted in step 3), take the default for the End Sector, and write the changes subcmd w if happy (or quit without writing the changes with subcmd q). If the Start Sector is the same as before, the data will be in tack.

   pi@RPi3:~ $ echo -e "d\n2\nn\np\n2\n137216\n\nw" | sudo fdisk /dev/sdb
   

6. WRITE LABEL, FILESYSTEM CHECK, and EXPAND FILESYSTEM --

   pi@RPi3:~ $ sudo e2label /dev/sdb2 root
   pi@RPi3:~ $ sudo e2fsck -f /dev/sdb2
   pi@RPi3:~ $ sudo resize2fs /dev/sdb2
   

7. OPTIONS -- It is possible to mount the partitions of the SD Card and do file configurations, which is beyond this scope. Make sure the data is sync and unmount if mounted before removing the SD Card from the running system.

8. BOOT and CONFIG -- Mount the SD Card in the Raspberry Pi and plug in the power. The Pi should boot up. Configure the Pi with reference to https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/configuration/.

Answer 4

In my case, I remove all files in ~/.local/share/Trash/file and ~/.local/share/Trash/info, which free up to 8GB disk space :D

Answer 5

Probably you don't want to start all over again. If you are short of space after cleaning your multiple downloads and unused source code, move to a larger memory card.

You need to be able to mount a secondary card on you RPI, either with a 'pen drive' carrier with SD socket or similar.

Your installation is based on NOOBS, so you finished with a few partitions no longer in use, however the amount of wasted space is not that significant, the elimination can be painful. Some open spaces are created for boundary alignment.

Create a clone on a larger SD card (16GB or more).

Using Win32DiskImager create an image backup using the 'read' button on a filename of your preference, then, use 'write' to copy the image to the new SD Card.

Mount the new card and boot. At this point, you must be running a clone with the same original empty space.

Using fdisk, 'p' print the current partition. Copy-and-paste this information to where you can use as a reference. Will look like as follows (yours will be different):

Device         Boot   Start      End  Sectors   Size Id Type
/dev/mmcblk0p1         8192  1675781  1667590 814.3M  e W95 FAT16 (LBA)
/dev/mmcblk0p2      1679360 30703615 29024256  13.9G 85 Linux extended
/dev/mmcblk0p5      1687552  1810431   122880    60M  c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/mmcblk0p6      1818624 30703615 28884992  13.8G 83 Linux

Delete /dev/mmcblk0p2 with 'd' and then enter '2', recreate the partition again. the 'secret' is to use the identical 'start' sector.

Create the Linux extended partition with 'n', select extended, enter the first sector (in my sample 1679360) and let fdisk to select the last sector ('default'), then enter 't' to enter partition 'type' of 'partition' 2, should be type '85' (Linux extended).

Now, create the logical partitions that reside inside the extended partition just created.

Use 'n' for new, enter 'l' for 'logical' and 'fdisk' will assign the next available slot, the first sector must be the same one than before, on my sample, 1687552, the last sector, use the original number, on my sample 122880, enter partition 't' type as 'c' (ms-dos).

Repeat the process for your other partitions but, on the last one (p6), let 'fdisk' select your 'last sector'.

Verify your entries with 'p' and make sure that only the last sector on the last partition changed and nothing else including partition type or 'id'.

Now commit your changes with 'w' to write the new partition table.

Reboot and let Linux know your new disk size with:

resize2fs /dev/mmcblk0p6

enjoy,

Answer 6

Make sure you've expanded your file system to use all available space.

Open a terminal and run sudo raspi-config -> Expand Filesystem

If this is not the issue then you simply need to move to a larger disk. Instead of starting over (these instructions assume a Mac but are very similar otherwise):

Back up the disk:

• Find disk name: put the SD card into your computer and run diskutil list (probably disk2... don't use disk1!!!)
• Backup image: sudo dd bs=1m if=/dev/disk2 of=/path/to/your/backup.img. Note, this will take a long-ish time. To see progress press CTRL-T
• Insert new disk and diskutil list
• Write to new disk: sudo dd bs=1m if=/path/to/your/backup.img of=/dev/disk2
• Expand filesystem: Insert into Pi and boot, sudo raspi-config -> Expand Filesystem

Answer 7

I suggest to remove the /usr/share/doc folder using rm -rf /user/share/doc i've got 193M free space :D

Answer 8

Enter this in Terminal :

dpkg-query -Wf '${Installed-Size}\t${Package}\n' | sort -n .

To delete a package , enter "sudo apt-get purge -y packagename ".

clearing the softwares wolfram,libreoffice and oracle-java can free up 1GB space .

delete wolfram : "sudo apt-get purge -y wolfram-engine".

delete libreoffice : "sudo apt-get purge -y libreoffice*".

delete oracle-java : "sudo apt-get purge -y oracle-java*".

(make sure you don't use them at all )