Timeshift seemed to be hogging resources (even though I only had one
backup saved, and none scheduled). So I used Timeshift to delete the
one I had saved (it was a year old), and then I tried to create a new
one. That process failed and it used all my storage (vdi) including
storage allocated to root. Now I can't get passed the login screen. I
can't even seem to open a command prompt. At my user login, it asks for
password, then in 5 seconds it asks again.

Clearly, I am in need of help, if anyone might be able to assist me! : )
Thank you for your consideration!

On 3/3/2023 3:02 AM, Bill wrote:
> Timeshift seemed to be hogging resources (even though I only had one backup saved, and none scheduled).  So I used Timeshift to delete the
> one I had saved (it was a year old), and then I tried to create a new one. That process failed and it used all my storage (vdi) including storage allocated to root.  Now I can't get passed the login screen. I can't even seem to open a command prompt.  At my user login, it asks for password, then in 5 seconds it asks again.
>
> Clearly, I am in need of help, if anyone might be able to assist me! : )
> Thank you for your consideration!

There's various mumbling in here about the timeshift structure,
and the tendency to fill a partition. Notice how some interface
does not show all the structure in there, making GUI management
a bit difficult.

https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=370805

*******

In Windows, 7ZIP opens a .vdi, and 7ZIP also opens an EXT4 partition.

This allows you to examine the folder structure and the file sizes,
before using real tools to fix it. 7ZIP is not really intended for making
changes to these kinds of containers. As far as I know. I quite frequently
look inside stuff with that tool.

In your virtual environment, if you install an optical drive and
a hard drive, and place an ISO9660 of Linux Mint as your "optical drive"
in the virtual machine, you can boot the Linux Mint DVD. From there,
you can mount the EXT4 partition which is visible inside the virtual machine.
This means you can make edits, rm something or rm -Rf something, and so on.

VirtualBox does not seem to support booting from USB keys. So you use
ISOs from your ISO collection, to boot up repair media.

*******

The hosting softwares, tend to use the <esc> key to get to the
UEFI popup boot menu. On one of the hosting softwares, you have
to beat unmercifully on the <esc> key, because the timing window
is short and you might miss it. It's almost like they're emulating
a real BIOS.

Whereas when you present the canned set, of an "optical drive"
and your container disk, the boot order is set up well enough that
the environment knows it is to boot from the optical drive first.

Paul

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On 2023-03-03, Bill wrote:
> Timeshift seemed to be hogging resources (even though I only had one
> backup saved, and none scheduled). So I used Timeshift to delete the
> one I had saved (it was a year old), and then I tried to create a new
> one. That process failed and it used all my storage (vdi) including
> storage allocated to root. Now I can't get passed the login screen. I
> can't even seem to open a command prompt. At my user login, it asks for
> password, then in 5 seconds it asks again.

You *should* be able to log in via a tty (CTRL+ALT+F1), and manage to
clean up enough that you can log back into the GUI. I wouldn't mess
with the /timeshift directory unless absolutely necessary.

Easiest thing to clean would be the apt download cache (especially if
you've never done it before) --> sudo apt-get clean

After that, old downloads ($HOME/Downloads) are another good candidate.

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|_|_|O| Github: https://github.com/dpurgert
|O|O|O| PGP: DDAB 23FB 19FA 7D85 1CC1 E067 6D65 70E5 4CE7 2860

On 3/3/2023 4:08 AM, Paul wrote:
> On 3/3/2023 3:02 AM, Bill wrote:
>> Timeshift seemed to be hogging resources (even though I only had one
>> backup saved, and none scheduled).  So I used Timeshift to delete the
>> one I had saved (it was a year old), and then I tried to create a new
>> one. That process failed and it used all my storage (vdi) including
>> storage allocated to root.  Now I can't get passed the login screen. I
>> can't even seem to open a command prompt.  At my user login, it asks
>> for password, then in 5 seconds it asks again.
>>
>> Clearly, I am in need of help, if anyone might be able to assist me! : )
>> Thank you for your consideration!
>
> There's various mumbling in here about the timeshift structure,
> and the tendency to fill a partition. Notice how some interface
> does not show all the structure in there, making GUI management
> a bit difficult.
>
>    https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=370805
>

Your link above reflects my experience exactly! I blame "timeshift".
I did install a second version of Linux, and the 2nd version was
accessing the first file system. But when I tried to use Timeshift
through the command line I got a "segmentation fault" (probably because
what I wanted to delete was corrupted. After sufficient experimenting,
I decided it would be quicker to just reinstall everything, and I have
now completed the main part of that! Thanks everyone who tried to
help!!! I love the supportive environment!

On 3/3/23 03:02, this is what Bill wrote:
> Timeshift seemed to be hogging resources (even though I only had one backup saved, and none scheduled).  So I used
> Timeshift to delete the
> one I had saved (it was a year old), and then I tried to create a new one. That process failed and it used all my
> storage (vdi) including storage allocated to root.  Now I can't get passed the login screen. I can't even seem to open a
> command prompt.  At my user login, it asks for password, then in 5 seconds it asks again.
>
> Clearly, I am in need of help, if anyone might be able to assist me! : )
> Thank you for your consideration!Since I was doing this for my own learning experience, I've decided to quit and delete timeshift. I've learned what I
wanted to see.
What I have works, and I have a simple install script that make a reload simple if needed.
Thanks to all.
--
Al

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Hash: SHA512

On 2023-03-03, Bill wrote:
> Timeshift seemed to be hogging resources (even though I only had one
> backup saved, and none scheduled). So I used Timeshift to delete the

Sounds about right - it eats however much space you need to make a
complete backup of the root filesystem (approx 10-12 GiB on a fresh LM
install).

> one I had saved (it was a year old), and then I tried to create a new
> one. That process failed and it used all my storage (vdi) including
> storage allocated to root. Now I can't get passed the login screen. I
> can't even seem to open a command prompt. At my user login, it asks for
> password, then in 5 seconds it asks again.

Use the terminal and delete some files; such as the local APT caches (or
that failed timeshift backup). Basically just get things down to a
point where you have about 5-10% of your disk space free, and you'll be
able to login graphically again.

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--
|_|O|_|
|_|_|O| Github: https://github.com/dpurgert
|O|O|O| PGP: DDAB 23FB 19FA 7D85 1CC1 E067 6D65 70E5 4CE7 2860