Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Ubuntu 15.04 - apt-get update fills up disk space during download

If during execution of apt-get update after Ubuntu 15.04 64 bit installation, you get a file download that just grows infinitely until it fills up your disk like this...


root@ts036953:/home/pssuser# apt-get update

.
.
.
Get:26 http://za.archive.ubuntu.com vivid/restricted Translation-en [4,228 B]
Get:27 http://za.archive.ubuntu.com vivid/universe Translation-en [4,456 kB]
Get:28 http://za.archive.ubuntu.com vivid-updates/main Sources [598 B]
100% [28 Sources 2,644 MB/2,644 MB 100%] [7 Packages 2,911 MB/2,911 MB 100%]^C


Break the command and then Execute the following command to see the offending file that keeps growing when downloaded during apt-get update, then delete the file or all the file in the /var/lib/apt/lists directory.

root@ts036953:/home/pssuser# ls -latr /var/lib/apt/lists/

To delete of the files in the location where the offending file is execute the following command. Obviously your path might be different to mine so make sure you use the right path for the location of the offending infinitely growing file.


root@ts036953:/home/pssuser# rm /var/lib/apt/lists/partial/*


apt-get update should now run fine.


 root@ts036953:/home/pssuser# apt-get update
.
.
.
Get:39 http://za.archive.ubuntu.com vivid-backports/universe i386 Packages [2,243 B]
Get:40 http://za.archive.ubuntu.com vivid-backports/multiverse i386 Packages [28 B]
Hit http://za.archive.ubuntu.com vivid-backports/main Translation-en
Hit http://za.archive.ubuntu.com vivid-backports/multiverse Translation-en
Hit http://za.archive.ubuntu.com vivid-backports/restricted Translation-en
Hit http://za.archive.ubuntu.com vivid-backports/universe Translation-en
Fetched 792 kB in 22s (34.7 kB/s)
Reading package lists... Done