# root (/) size is too small by default



## kenorb (Nov 3, 2010)

Another bug.
When choosing default configuration, FreeBSD installer choosing 500M by default for root (/).
By default kernel has option to compile debug symbols.
After downloading fresh kernel, compile and install it, you are out of space.


```
/: write failed, filesystem is full
install: /boot/kernel/x86bios.ko.symbols: No space left on device
* Error code 71
```


```
Filesystem Type Size Used Avail Capacity Mounted on
/dev/ad0s1a ufs 496M 490M -34M 107% /
devfs devfs 1.0K 1.0K 0B 100% /dev
/dev/ad0s1e ufs 496M 18K 456M 0% /tmp
/dev/ad0s1f ufs 15G 3.1G 10G 23% /usr
/dev/ad0s1d ufs 1.9G 127M 1.6G 7% /var
```

Please fix it.


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## sk8harddiefast (Nov 3, 2010)

Move your root on /usr and make a link on / using [cmd=]ln -s[/cmd]
? Or put more space on / via sysinstall. I gave 5 giga.


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## SirDice (Nov 3, 2010)

File a PR.


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## kenorb (Nov 3, 2010)

sk8harddiefast said:
			
		

> Move your root on "/usr" and make a link on / using "ln -s" ? Or put more space on / via sysinstall. I gave 5 giga.



Solution should be fixed from the top. Not by hacking the system by each user who started to use it.



			
				SirDice said:
			
		

> File a PR.


I seen somewhere some discussion about it, but I had no time to check it. When I start investigating some problem, meanwhile I've got another one.
I'd no time to find duplicate, so I reported one.
Thanks for suggestion.


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## sk8harddiefast (Nov 3, 2010)

> Solution should be fixed from the top. Not by hacking the system by each user who started to use it.


To create manually the partitions via sysinstall is not system's hacking! I don't see any bug here and setup the partitions takes 2 minutes the most!


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## SirDice (Nov 3, 2010)

While I agree, at least to some extent, with sk8harddiefast, I do think the partition size is a bit on the small size in this day and age. It should, at the very least, have enough room to install a new GENERIC kernel without choking.

I personally have no problem with it but that's mainly because I always build custom kernels.

Edit: I just checked on of my machines that does run on GENERIC and root (/) is only 77% full. And that's with kernel, kernel.old and a kernel.orig. So it looks like it has enough room.


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## kenorb (Nov 3, 2010)

http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=151919

```
From-To:	open->closed 
By:	brucec 
When:	Wed Nov 3 16:14:52 UTC 2010 
Why:	Fixed in 7-STABLE, 8-STABLE and HEAD.
```
It's fixed?
Now I'm confused;/
Maybe it's fixed, because it was tested on
FreeBSD fbsd.vbx 8.1-RELEASE-p1 FreeBSD 8.1-RELEASE-p1.


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## vermaden (Nov 3, 2010)

512m is more then enought, just remove *.symbols files:

```
# find /boot -name \*.symbols -exec rm -rf {} ';'
```


```
% df -m /
Filesystem      1M-blocks Used Avail Capacity  Mounted on
/dev/label/root       495  256   234    52%    /
```


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## SirDice (Nov 3, 2010)

Removing stale crap in root's home directory usually does wonders too.


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## phoenix (Nov 3, 2010)

This comes up on a yearly basis on the mailing lists, anytime the size of the GENERIC kernel install grows.  There's been lots of discussion around just nuking the whole "auto" option, or using relative sizes (give / 10%), or using a sliding scale (no separate fs for disks < 10G, / == 512 MB on disks < 100 GB, / == 1 GB etc), and so on.

Personally, I think the whole "auto" option should be removed, and that a minimum size for / should be mandated in the installer, which would be "size of minimal FreeBSD install + 15%".  But, I'm not going to start mucking around in sysinstall's innards.    I've heard horror stories from people in padded rooms who tried to work in there.  

On all my systems, I use 2 GB for /, which gives enough room for 3 or 4 kernels, plus the base OS, including man pages.  With some room to spare.


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## ahavatar (Nov 3, 2010)

My first install had 500MB for root(/) too, and it was small. I manually allocated 1GB the second time I installed FreeBSD. It would be better to allocate more space by default.


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## fronclynne (Nov 3, 2010)

```
> df -h /
Filesystem         Size    Used   Avail Capacity  Mounted on
/dev/ufs/rootfs    1.9G     70M    1.7G     4%    /
```

I'd say 500M is more than enough.  Of course, those /boot/kernel/*.symbols files would take up most of the rest, obviously.


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## aragon (Nov 3, 2010)

I wonder if the symbols need to be in /?  I think they're only needed for debugging - might be nice to keep them out of /...


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## Beastie (Nov 3, 2010)

If your system works perfectly fine and you never debug your kernel why keep ~100M (for a ~40M kernel) of debugging symbols at all?
Remove them from the GENERIC and disable them on a custom kernel.


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## wblock@ (Nov 3, 2010)

kenorb said:
			
		

> http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=151919
> 
> ```
> From-To:	open->closed
> ...



It was fixed three weeks ago: http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/src/usr.sbin/sysinstall/label.c?sortby=date#rev1.158.2.4


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## jalla (Nov 4, 2010)

With the disk sizes common today, shoehorning / into the smallest possible partition doesn't make much sense to me. Good to see the default at least has been raised to 1Gb. Personnally I never use less than 2Gb for root (but usually without a separate /var). In my experience that leaves plenty of room also for keeping a week's worth of snapshots.


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## kenorb (Nov 4, 2010)

> svn rev 211007 on 2010-08-07 12:18:36z by brucec
> 
> increase the default and minimum partition sizes.
> Bump / to 1gb, /var to 4gb and /tmp to 1gb.
> ...



cool!


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