[ubuntu-uk] "Space" error

[Alan Pope]

On Mon, Apr 23, 2007 at 09:02:44AM +0100, Sean Miller wrote:
> Is the solution, then, to simply say that we'll use the command line?

No. Not in my opinion, not yet anyway.

> So the tool has an issue and the Ubuntu community have no way of sorting  
> it? That is not the way I normally work...
 
Define "the ubuntu community". Your question, posted mid-thread on a uk-only 
mailing list with less than 20 active participants doesn't constitute the 
whole Ubuntu community IMO. 

There are numerous ways to get support for your problem. Posting to this 
list is one - although personally I don't think support questions should be 
on this list - hey ho.

Other options to gain a higher number of brain cells looking at your problem 
include using the support tracker:- http://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu , 
irc - #ubuntu on freenode IRC, the ubuntu-users mailing list, reporting a 
bug, the forums.. and so on.

> I shall then, presumably, be sorted... but the thousands of folks who 
> get the same error who are not on this list will be no further forward 
> and will simply switch to a different distro.
> 
> Hardly good for Ubuntu, is it?
> 

Not so fast cowboy.

We haven't even figured out what the problem is yet, so before diving into 
the command line and typing random commands, lets figure out what the issue 
actually is :)

I suspect that the problem is mostly likely that it wants 200 odd Meg *more* 
than you currently have, not 200M. 200M for an upgrade from release to 
release is an unrealistically small number. It's more likely to be much 
higher than that. The number gets higher the more software packages you have 
installed that need upgrading.

Have you cleaned out your apt cache recently?

On the command line type this:-

df -h   # see how much free space there is
du -hs /var/cache/apt    # see how much used by the apt cache
sudo apt-get clean      # clear the apt cache
df -h                  # see how much free space there is now

Does the amount of space change?

Cheers,
Al.