Full but empty trashcan

[valeriana]

I'm on Debian 6.0
and 4 TB of HDD
Compaq Presario 9000

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my problem is I all of a sudden get a message on deleting files that the trashcan has reached its full capacity and needs to be emptied manually. After emptying the trashcan in Dolphin I still can't delete the files I want and get the same message again and again. I have shut down the computer before, but today that didn't seem to help at all. Also it seems a bit drastic to shut down the machine everytime this happens. Is there perhaps another 'manual' way of emptying the trashcan? I have found a post recommending to rm -in my case- the directory in question in the terminal, which worked, but it doesn't solve the trashcan problem. Anyone know of a solution to this one?

[sossego]

Open a terminal

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$su

Enter password.

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# cd .local/share

It should be in here. If you don't immediately see it:

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#ls -la|grep Trash

And it must be done from the $HOME/.local directory

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#rm -rf path/to/Trash/*/*

That will clean it.

[dasein]

Several options to consider:

1) Delete the files, rather than putting them in "trash." (Dolphin config allows you to add a "delete" option to your context menu. And of course [SHIFT-DELETE] deletes the currently selected file(s), rather than "trashing" them.)

2) Increase your "trash size." (But Dolphin normally reserves a hefty 10% of your hard disk/home partition for trash. See #4.)

3) If it's just the warning that's bugging you, there is once again a Dolphin config option to automatically delete the [oldest|largest] stuff in trash when it gets full.

4) If you're trying to delete more than 10% of your stuff (by size) at any one time, then perhaps your disk/partition is simply too full for its (or your) own good, and it's time to rethink your disk partitioning/space allocation scheme.

Also, for a generic/general problem such as this one, Google will give you better answers than a search of a Debian-specific forum.

[valeriana]

Thanks, guys! I'm gonna try this the next time I'm emptying the trashcan. I have also saved this page on my computer for future reference.

A bit on my computer. When I installed I put 60 GB on the HDD for the OS and 40 GB for /home. I guess it is from these 40 GB that the 10% comes, for the trashcan. If I had let the installation program decide I'd only get 10GB altogether. After installation I partitioned for huge files, medium and small. Then, until yesterday I put all of my data from discs to HDD, which meant throwing really big files (doubles) away. I don't think I'll be doing that as much now that everything is once again digitized, though I will probably throw small doubles away until retirement. Also I have a third disc I haven't opened yet. Is it possible to format a new partition after installation to replace the /home I'm using now? Maybe there's a textfile to edit. If not, I'll probably just up the trashcan to 20 percent. But just as a curiosity, does anyone know why the trashcan doesn't go blank when it's emptied?

Thanks again!

[dasein]

A couple of notes:

1) In all but the most extreme circumstances (like, you're planning on installing every package known to humanity), 60 GB for your OS is massively wasteful. You're going to end up with a lot of unused-and-unusable free space. So long as you load your personal stuff (and/or volatile data in general) on separate partitions, 20 GB should be more than enough for your OS.

2) Remember that any data you put on that currently-60-GB volume will get clobbered when/if you need to reinstall your OS.

These two points lead me to revisit my 4th point in my previous post: you should probably rethink your partitioning scheme.

Is it possible to format a new partition after installation to replace the /home I'm using now? Maybe there's a textfile to edit.

It's not quite that easy, but it's pretty close. But yes, you can move /home to your 3rd disk.