Re: [Outreachy Applicant] NEEDS SOME CLARIFICATIONS

[Gilbert Adikankwu <gilbertadikankwu@gmail.com>]

Hello Andi, 

On Wed, Oct 11, 2023 at 09:10:54AM +0200, Andi Shyti wrote:
> Hi Gilbert,
> 
> > > > > > > > > You have too little space in the partition that contains /boot?
> > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > What does "df -h" say?
> > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > Andi
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > This is what df -h returned:
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
> > > > > > > tmpfs           784M  2.0M  782M   1% /run
> > > > > > > /dev/sda9        23G   17G  5.6G  75% /
> > > > > > > tmpfs           3.9G   45M  3.8G   2% /dev/shm
> > > > > > > tmpfs           5.0M  4.0K  5.0M   1% /run/lock
> > > > > > > /dev/sda7       944M  761M  119M  87% /boot
> > > > > >
> > > > > > I wonder why your boot directory is so packed, even though 119M
> > > > > > should be enough.
> > > > > >
> > > >
> > > > > I don't why it is so packed either. I ran du -ah /boot/ and it returned:
> > > > > 272K /boot/config-6.2.0-34-generic
> > > > > 14M /boot/vmlinuz-6.6.0-rc1gilbert+
> > > > > 0 /boot/initrd.img
> > > > > 276K /boot/config-6.6.0-rc1gilbert+
> > > > > 14M /boot/vmlinuz-6.2.0-34-generic
> > > > > 184K /boot/memtest86+_multiboot.bin
> > > > > 7.6M /boot/System.map-6.2.0-26-generic
> > > > > 180K /boot/memtest86+.bin
> > > > > 184K /boot/memtest86+.elf
> > > > > 67M /boot/initrd.img-6.2.0-34-generic
> > > > > 7.7M /boot/System.map-6.2.0-34-generic
> > > > > du: cannot read directory '/boot/efi': Permission denied
> > > > > 1.0K /boot/efi
> > > > > 0 /boot/vmlinuz
> > > > > 7.6M /boot/System.map-6.6.0-rc1gilbert+
> > > > > du: cannot read directory '/boot/lost+found': Permission denied
> > > > > 16K /boot/lost+found
> > > > > 14M /boot/vmlinuz-6.2.0-26-generic
> > > > > 4.0K /boot/grub/x86_64-efi/lsefimmap.mod
> > > > > 4.0K /boot/grub/x86_64-efi/setjmp.mod
> > > > > 12K /boot/grub/x86_64-efi/loadenv.mod
> > > >
> > > > ...
> > > >
> > > > > 4.0K /boot/grub/i386-pc/search_fs_uuid.mod
> > > > > 2.5M /boot/grub/i386-pc
> > > > > 11M /boot/grub
> > > > > 547M /boot/initrd.img-6.6.0-rc1gilbert+
> > > > > 74M /boot/initrd.img-6.2.0-26-generic
> > > > > 272K /boot/config-6.2.0-26-generic
> > > > >
> > > > > I apologize for the overly long list
> > > >
> > > > that's a long list indeed. I don't know what all those files are,
> > > > but I don't think they are an issue.
> > > >
> > > > > > > /dev/sda11       60G   28G   30G  49% /home
> > > > > >
> > > > > > BTW, are you working in your home directory?
> > > > > >
> > > > > No, I'm not working in the home directory
> > > >
> > > > then I think this is the main issue. You have lots of free space
> > > > in your home directory, you should work there. I only work in my
> > > > home directory.
> > > >
> > > > I believe you weren't able to complete the compilation because
> > > > you were working in the root partition where you have less
> > > > space available.
> > > >
> > > > Andi
> > > >
> > > Hello Andi,
> > >
> > > Thank you for your response. So I'm not sure I understand what you mean
> > > by do all you work in the home directory so I will explain how I work
> > > now to see if that is what you mean.
> > >
> > > I have the staging respository in my home directory and I usually
> > > do all my compilation from inside the directory of the staging
> > > repository that is saved in my home directory.
> > >
> > > Is this what you mean by working from the home directory? or is there other setups I should be doing my home directory?
> 
> yes, I mean the directory where you clone and build the kernel.
> If you do that in your home directory, then it's fine.
> 
> > > Also I deleted the offending file in my /boot :
> > >
> > > 547M /boot/initrd.img-6.6.0-rc1gilbert+
> > >
> > > and deleted its module directory in usr/lib/modules
> > >
> > > I realised it was too large compared to the other kernels and assumed
> > > that probably I didn't do its .config file properly which might have enabled
> > > more modules than is needed for it to run on my machine.
> > >
> > > this is the result of df -h after the deletion:
> > > Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
> > > tmpfs           784M  2.0M  782M   1% /run
> > > /dev/sda9        23G   11G   12G  47% /
> > > tmpfs           3.9G  193M  3.7G   5% /dev/shm
> > > tmpfs           5.0M  4.0K  5.0M   1% /run/lock
> > > /dev/sda7       944M  201M  678M  23% /boot
> > > /dev/sda11       60G   28G   30G  49% /home
> > > /dev/sda2        96M   32M   65M  33% /boot/efi
> > > tmpfs           784M  144K  784M   1% /run/user/1000
> > >
> > > I want to generate a new .config file and recompile. I also realised
> > > that the staging repository I have on my machine is 28GB large is this
> > > normal?
> 
> Yes, it's normaly. 28GB is a lot though, I guess you are using a
> big config.
> 
> > When you start compiling the Linux kernel it gets very big.  But maybe you
> > reduced your config at some point, but didn't delete the no longer needed
> > .o files?  You could try make clean and then recompile.
> 
I found the cause of the oversize memory problem. It turns out to be
debugging symbols after all. I found out that originally installed modules are 
stripped (don't know what that means yet). from 
Documentation/kbuild/makefile.txt:
	INSTALL_MOD_STRIP

	If this variable is specified, will cause modules to be stripped
	after they are installed.  If INSTALL_MOD_STRIP is '1', then the
	default option --strip-debug will be used.  Otherwise,
	INSTALL_MOD_STRIP will used as the option(s) to the strip command.

So I recompiled the modules like this:

$ make modules_install INSTALL_MOD_STRIP=1

then ran df -h: 

Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
tmpfs           786M  2.1M  784M   1% /run
/dev/sda9        23G   11G   11G  50% /
tmpfs           3.9G   73M  3.8G   2% /dev/shm
tmpfs           5.0M  4.0K  5.0M   1% /run/lock
efivarfs        128K   88K   36K  71% /sys/firmware/efi/efivars
/dev/sda7       944M  282M  598M  33% /boot
/dev/sda11       60G   27G   31G  48% /home
/dev/sda2        96M   32M   65M  33% /boot/efi
tmpfs           786M  124K  785M   1% /run/user/1000

> You could try with a "make distclean", before doing again
> everything, to cut some bytes down. This way you would start
> afresh.
> 
> Andi
> 
> PS my working machine has 110GB, not far from yours :-)

Hahaha, thank you for sharing... I'm inspired!

Thanks
Gilbert