Query about parasitic firefox file

[Bret Busby]

On 08/03/2018, Bret Busby <bret at busby.net> wrote:
> On Wed, 7 Mar 2018, Liam Proven wrote:
>
>> Date: Wed, 7 Mar 2018 21:42:54
>> From: Liam Proven <lproven at gmail.com>
>> Reply-To: "Ubuntu user technical support, not for general discussions"
>>     <ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com>
>> To: "Ubuntu user technical support, not for general discussions"
>>     <ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com>
>> Subject: Re: Query about parasitic firefox file
>>
>> On 7 March 2018 at 13:00, Bret Busby <bret.busby at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> I had removed an earlier OS - Debian 6, including reformatting the
>>> partition, but, now, can not write to it, so, apart from a HDD
>>> restructure, I do not have much free space left - about (now) 1.7GB.
>>
>> That's not enough for a safe, usable system these days.
>>
>> Boot off a live medium, run GParted, remove the old Debian partition,
>> and extend your /home partition (or / if you don't have a separate
>> /home) into the free space.
>>
>> For more detailed guidance, post the output of
>>
>> sudo sfdisk -l
>>
>> here.
>>
>
> Whilst it was not requested, here is this;
>
> "
> :~$ df -h
> Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
> udev            7.8G     0  7.8G   0% /dev
> tmpfs           1.6G  9.5M  1.6G   1% /run
> /dev/sda5        24G   11G   12G  48% /
> tmpfs           7.8G   97M  7.7G   2% /dev/shm
> tmpfs           5.0M  4.0K  5.0M   1% /run/lock
> tmpfs           7.8G     0  7.8G   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
> /dev/sda13       55G   51G  1.2G  98% /home
> cgmfs           100K     0  100K   0% /run/cgmanager/fs
> tmpfs           1.6G   56K  1.6G   1% /run/user/1000
> /dev/sr1        884K  884K     0 100% /media/bret/HP Launcher
> /dev/sdb1       466G   14G  452G   3% /media/bret/hp hard drive1
> /dev/sda9        77G   73G  884K 100% /media/bret/Data01
> /dev/sda10       77G   73G  4.5M 100% /media/bret/Data02
> /dev/sda12       37G   35G  7.2M 100% /media/bret/Data03
> /dev/sda14       68G   64G  6.1M 100% /media/bret/Data04
> /dev/sda6       9.5G   23M  9.0G   1% /media/bret/Data05-10GB
> /dev/sda8        77G   73G  348K 100%
> /media/bret/a3074725-349d-4647-8b07-3a5526f7ee55
> /dev/sda11       40G   40G  8.6M 100% /media/bret/41B78C85772DD3E4
> "
>
> Note, that is after the particular file was deleted, which freed up
> about 1.7GB of the home partition, and, after subsequent downloads.
>


And, in the time that has passed since I posted that message, firefox
has struck again and again expanded the parasite file, to take up all
of the available free space.

Free space - 0 bytes

places.sqlite-wal  - 1.4GB

It seems to be like a hydatids cyst.

Whilst, on Monday night, at about 1815 UTC+0800, we had a weekly brief
(less than a minute) electricity grid supply failure, that destroyed a
USB drive connected to a device other than one of the computers (the
computers run on a UPS), we have not yet had an electricity grid
supply failure tonight.

So, I am assuming that this problem is due to firefox v58 being
infested with parasites (can firefoxes catch and transmit hydatids?).

Is it possible to upgrade from firefox v58 to firefox v56?

Is firefox v56 still available in the Ubuntu packages repository for
Ubuntu 16.04?

Does Ubuntu have a facility where we can select replacing a current
package version, with an earlier, more stable, version of the package,
such as firefox v56?

-- 
Bret Busby
Armadale
West Australia
..............

"So once you do know what the question actually is,
 you'll know what the answer means."
- Deep Thought,
 Chapter 28 of Book 1 of
 "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
 A Trilogy In Four Parts",
 written by Douglas Adams,
 published by Pan Books, 1992

....................................................