> Posted by: "Robert Citek" [EMAIL PROTECTED] rwcitek > Date: Thu Oct 2, 2008 9:27 am ((PDT)) > > On Thu, Oct 2, 2008 at 8:39 AM, Theresa Kehoe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > If you have already made the new image then never-mind ... if not, there > > was a situation last Saturday, where a student from late last year > > brought in her computer, which wouldn't boot up. > > Have not updated the image, yet. > > > The disk was completely full. Matthew deleted a few things which > > allowed it to boot all the way into the GUI, and then we explained to > > the student that she had to go through and delete some files to avoid > > running out of room. > > > > In her case, the hard disk was 6GB; the OS and all its bits takes about > > 3GB, so all she has for data storage is 3GB (which is pretty standard > > for our students). > > > > Is it feasible to modify the Debian image so that /home/student is a > > separate partition? > > Modifying the image is easy. Modifying the cloning scripts, not so > easy. Therefore, I would say it is possible but not practical. Also, > I suspect we would simply be substituting one issue for another. For > example, if you decide to make two partitions (/ and /home) how big > should each be? What do you do when you run out of space on the first > partition?
Well, right now hopefully the correct answer is "Contact bworks_help or come into the shop, so that volunteers can assist in resolving the problem." If the root (/) partition is large enough to comfortably fit an entire Debian etch "standard" install, then it should be OK for the students for some time. Unlike Ubuntu, Debian does not provide quite as simple a method for installing new software, so odds are, very few of our graduates will be adding much to their standard install. The issue I was trying to address is that, with everything in one partition, the user doesn't seem to get any warning until the entire disk is full, at which point the machine becomes unbootable. Whereas, if the /home partition fills up, a file will fail to save or something, but the OS itself is still functional. > > Does anyone know if there is a way that Debian can warn a user when the > > partition is getting close to 100% full? > > There are all kinds of ways, e.g. crontab. How does Windows do it? Unfortunately I have absolutely *no* clue. Last time I supported any Windows machines was 4-5 years ago. And to be honest, I have never worked on a computer with so little hard drive space that completely running out was an issue. [...] > This might work: > > http://www.kde-apps.org/content/show.php/Free+Disk+Space+Applet?content=23396 Worth looking into? Or do we just file this whole issue under "we need to look at this when we change OS or cloning procedures"? Theresa
