When I first installed Mandriva 2006 less than 2 months ago, I installed my prorams and set up my repositories by following the guidelines in “Getting The Most From Mandriva”, which was a great help. After getting just about every program I needed things were fine.
Today, I went into Mandriva Linux Control Center and looked through the list of software that is available for me to install, because I thought I would see if there were any other programs in addition to the ones that I have that I might.
Originally - after I had installed all the programs and set up the repositories, the “Software Packages Installation” window told me that I had ‘free disk space’ of in excess of 4400 MBs (presumably, this is the amount of additional free space reserved for programs that I might want to download in addion to the ones I already have).
Today, on checking, I had only 2031 MBs of available ‘free disk space’ for additional programs. I had since installed a few small programs in addition to my original programs, but absolutely nothing like 2369 MBs, as is the discrepancy.
My overall free disk space, according to “KdiskFree” shows that I have 66.3 GBs of free space, which is only marginally, less than I had to begin with, so I thinking, I have not lost any considerable HD space at all.
I’m just a bit confused by this ‘free space’ issue as far as “Software Packages Installation” is concerned. Please see attached screenshots of my “KdiskFree” & “Software Packages Installation” window.
Firstly, I think I may have made a mistake with my original estimate of how much free space I had for additional programs. I said I had in excess of 4400 MBs. thinking about it, it was nearer 3800 MBs.
I have just looked at the total size of all my programs and the associated programs that I would have to remove to satisfy dependencies - it amounts to 1837 MBs. This would explain the shortfall almost to the megabyte!
Wow! Those installed programs & the associated programs to satisfy dependencies sure do add up! I must admit, I did not realise that the relatively small number of programs I have installed could command so much space. Well, you live and learn I suppose. :rolleyes:
the reason for the largly differing amounts of free space is:
different partitions have different amounts of free space on them,
partition list
[ul]
[li]partition for user data (usually hda3 (i think))[/li][li]swap partition (usually hda2 (i think))[/li][li]partition for Mandriva (usually hda1 (i think))[/li][/ul]
hd = harddisk a = harddisk number (a = primary master, b = primary slave, c = secondary master, or d = secondary slave) number = partition number on HDD
although a bootloader is usuall hda1, but dependant on how your system is set up, these values can change
Actually, I have just rechecked the “Software Packages Installation” window, and it now tells me that I have only 780 MBs of ‘disk free space’ left for the installation of additional programs - it was, as I have said, 2031 MBs.
I have not installed any programs since, so, in the space of about 40 minutes, I seem to have lost 1251 MBs of free space! I hope this isn’t truly accurate, because I appear to be left with a relatively small amount of free space, should I want to install further programs.
