Flashed Beaglebone Black with the latest "Stretch LXQT (with graphical desktop)" image and received "No space left on device" immediately after when updating the package index.

I have had a Beaglebone Black for a couple years sitting in a closet and decided to update to the latest image, with the ultimate goal of setting it up for an OpenHab server. As the title says, I successfully flashed the eMMC on the BBB with the latest “Stretch LXQT (with graphical desktop)” Debian image. On initial boot I SSH’ed into the BBB entered the “sudo apt update” command to update the package index, aiming to eventually install Java, and received multiple “No space left on device” messages as the command executed.

I am very new to the BBB and Linux in general, but I find it hard to believe the supplied image with GUI takes up all of the BBB storage such that nothing else can be done with it. Is it possible that there are a large amount logs, temp files, etc. that can be removed to free up space? Any suggestions (detailed steps please) on how to free up space would be appreciated, if that is an option.

Have you run this script?

/opt/scripts/tools/grow_partition.sh

On Tue, 31 Dec 2019 15:04:01 -0800 (PST),
jennysmith295-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org declaimed the
following:

up for an OpenHab server. As the title says, I successfully flashed the
eMMC on the BBB with the latest "Stretch LXQT (with graphical desktop)"
Debian image. On initial boot I SSH'ed into the BBB entered the "sudo apt
update" command to update the package index, aiming to eventually install
Java, and received multiple "No space left on device" messages as the
command executed.

I am very new to the BBB and Linux in general, but I find it hard to
believe the supplied image with GUI takes up all of the BBB storage such

  Welcome to the real world... I suspect whenever Debian Buster makes it
into the standard image it will be even tighter.

  The IoT image tends to consume 3/4 of the eMMC.

debian@beaglebone:~$ df
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
udev 220100 0 220100 0% /dev
tmpfs 49496 5492 44004 12% /run
/dev/mmcblk1p1 3704040 2579108 917060 74% /
tmpfs 247476 0 247476 0% /dev/shm
tmpfs 5120 4 5116 1% /run/lock
tmpfs 247476 0 247476 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
tmpfs 49492 0 49492 0% /run/user/1000
debian@beaglebone:~$

Log files aren't all that large...

debian@beaglebone:~$ ls -lR /var/log
/var/log:
total 3168
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 21459 Sep 20 16:07 alternatives.log
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Dec 21 11:50 apt
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 21425 Jan 1 12:11 auth.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 237689 Aug 3 21:57 bootstrap.log
-rw------- 1 root utmp 0 Aug 3 21:44 btmp
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 415547 Jan 1 12:15 daemon.log
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 8556 Dec 21 11:56 debug
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 452953 Dec 21 11:55 dpkg.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 24024 Dec 6 12:58 faillog
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 413826 Dec 21 11:56 kern.log
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root utmp 292292 Jan 1 12:11 lastlog
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 400543 Dec 21 11:56 messages
drwxr-xr-x 2 root adm 4096 Aug 3 21:54 nginx
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 99 Dec 9 18:18 resize.log
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Aug 3 22:10 robotcontrol
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 838235 Jan 1 12:15 syslog
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 1626 Dec 21 11:55 user.log
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root utmp 58752 Jan 1 12:11 wtmp

/var/log/apt:
total 264
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 20236 Dec 21 11:50 eipp.log.xz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 16830 Dec 21 11:55 history.log
-rw-r----- 1 root adm 226563 Dec 21 11:55 term.log

/var/log/nginx:
total 4
-rw-r----- 1 www-data adm 0 Aug 3 21:54 access.log
-rw-r----- 1 www-data adm 78 Sep 20 16:09 error.log

/var/log/robotcontrol:
total 4
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 23 Dec 21 11:56 startup_log.txt
debian@beaglebone:~$

  I've taken to using the IoT image in eMMC, and reserving LXQT for an
8+GB SD card (though even that one is not installed -- I've been using a
8GB card with IoT for routine playing around).

  One possibility (which I've not attempted myself) is to install LXQT on
an 8GB SD card, expand the partition to use the full card, then run the apt
update/apt upgrade on the SD card. Only then, convert the boot file to make
the card a flasher, and see if you can fit the now up-to-date image onto
the eMMC (I /think/ the flashing mode works file-by-file, so as long as the
SD card contents are under the 4GB [give or take] of the eMMC, it should
fit).

It would sure be nice to see the EMMC increased on future production runs

I was not aware of that script, it seemed to slightly help. Thank you

I might have to try the IoT image then, this seems unusable.

You might want to have a look-see at the following page if you do not already have it.
https://elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBoneBlack_Debian

Are you using the on board eMMC storage directly or are you using an uSD card? I believe the grow_partition is mainly just for growing the file system on a SD card.

Cheers,

Jon