Having tested the pre-release kubuntu 11.10, I decided to start using it as soon as it was released. I had some issues with KMail which was version 4.7.2 whilst the KDE desktop was version 4.7.1. The main issue was my choice of keeping all data, including the maildir contents on a separate data partition. The new KMail aka KMail2, does not, apparently, keep all emails in a maildir directory. so the back up is quite different. For me that was a problem as I kept all emails since 2004 and would like to continue to keep them.

By the way, on my PC the data partition is usually the third primary partition, mounted on /dat. The current installation of kubuntu 11.10 was on /dev/sda14 - my PC has a single disk and the old fashioned partition table. The partition 14 is of 8.8 G size and the specified requirements for kubuntu 11.10 include 4.1 G free space on hdd, so whilst small by today's standards, the partition was of adequate size, bearing in mind that I use a separate data partition, shared between all the installed linux OSs.

A few days ago, on booting to partition-14, the GUI disappeared and was replaced by a tty1 message that there were some (about 10) update packages available. Rebooting kept on showing the same message and ctrl+alt+F7 transferred me back to the tty1, accessible with ctrl+alt+F1. It seemed reasonable to complete updates and upgrades in command line with some hope that this would help. The commands used for this task were:

sudo su
apt-get update
apt-get upgrades

This failed with a message indicating that I was out of disk space. Just to make sure that the message was not spurious, I checked with GParted. Result - size of partition 8.8 G, used 8.8 G, free few KBs.

At that point I decided to do a fresh install on another partition, namely partition 13 which is 19 G. It had been suggested by a knowledgeable forum member NickElliott that immediately after the re-install of kubuntu 11.10 it is advisable to upgrade KDE from 4.7.1 to 4.7.2.

Ref. viewtopic.php?f=20&t=97333

The updating and upgrading went smoothly thanks to kubuntu-ppa. The commands for the update/upgrade were as follows:

sudo su
apt-add-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/ppa (addition of ppa repository)
apt-get update
apt-get upgrade

The above commands installed KDE 4.7.2 for the kubuntu-ppa. The total space for the installed system is 3.6 G.

Why did a 11.10 kubuntu fail with attempted minor update remains a mystery to me. I guess I could poke around the partition and see if all looks as expected, but there are other more interesting jobs around. If you have some suggestions, please post it here - I am still very interested.

OldAl.

Is your /home on the same partition as your Kubuntu install. If so, I think that might be the cause of your problems because of low space on that partition.

batteronizer wrote:Is your /home on the same partition as your Kubuntu install. If so, I think that might be the cause of your problems because of low space on that partition.

But /home is also on the re-installed kubuntu11.10 on another partition and space used is 3.8 G, so why 8.8 G is deemed to be inadequate? See what I mean?

OldAl.

OldAl, did you update your Kubuntu from former release? If so I would recommend running apt-get clean to remove spare deb files from apt cache directory (/var/apt/cache iirc). Later, you can try apt-get autoremove, but use that with caution and carefully read what it's going to do before confirming. If you'll be in doubt - paste it's ouutput and we'll see

Wizard wrote:OldAl, did you update your Kubuntu from former release? If so I would recommend running apt-get clean to remove spare deb files from apt cache directory (/var/apt/cache iirc). Later, you can try apt-get autoremove, but use that with caution and carefully read what it's going to do before confirming. If you'll be in doubt - paste it's ouutput and we'll see

Hi,

Good thought! No, it was a fresh install... No easy answer.

Thanks for trying,

OldAl