suddenly filling of hd and no access to x

[Accessys@smart.net]

On Mon, 21 Sep 2009, Andrew Farris wrote:

> On Mon, 2009-09-21 at 20:43 -0400, Accessys at smart.net wrote:
> > oh yes can boot up from live CD into xwindow but don't have
> > permissions to delete any files or empty trash.  can't get to root
> > either.
>
> Define "can't get root". you mean from the liveCD, you can't get a root
> terminal, or you cant access your root drive from the LiveCD?

won't accept my password.

> Also, you said that ls "doesn't tell you anything". Does this mean that
> ls has no output? (Also, try "ls -al" to see if maybe that gives you
> something)

will try ls -al but while I can read things I don't recognize anything
that appears suspicious.  I know doesn't mean anything but lotta stuff
there and gotta be looking for something.

>      1. When did you first notice this happening?

Fri, noticed hard drive was filling up faster than it should.

>      2. What was the last thing you did with the computer before this

I was scaning some slides, using "Vuescan" which I have used for years
and last updated about 4 months ago.

>         started happening? Was there an update or something else
>         installed that may have broken it?

did a routine Ubuntu update about mon or tue.

>      3. Did/Do you install random software you find on the internet?

never

>      4. Use Any 3rd-party repos?

not that I can think of

>      5. Did/Do you have a firewall up?

yes and have ubuntu set at it's highest setting and clean all cookies
etc everytime I close firefox and do not store passwords on the
computer.

>      6. Have you tried downloading/running chrootkit/rkhunter to see if
>         they find anything? (sudo apt-get install chkrootkit rkhunter)

no but I will.

> are you sure tha rm isn't actually removing anything? have you tried a
> "touch testfile", "ls" then "rm testfile", "ls"? Of course, if ls isn't
> working, then how could you?

did a rm foo.  but ls shows it still there
>
> Also, you might want to make sure that the hard drive itself isnt going
> bad, or try to back up any important stuff, and run "fsck" to see if
> theres filesystem issues.

have used the live CD to backup important data to a external hd.

> Also, what does the /lost+found look like? you'll have to do a "sudo ls"
> to see inside, provided that ls is actually giving output.

didn't see it in ls but will check again I wasn't looking for it.

> Hopefully this will help some. Let me know how it goes.

thanks "to be continued" and I did an interleave reply because I
couldn't remember all the questions when off the screen.


Bob

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