sorry for creating another Rootfs free space thread, but thought this would be helpfull for a lot of people and easier to find if at the start of a new thread!

It's true, 95.1MB free in Rootfs;
Filesystem Size Used Available Use% Mounted on
rootfs 227.5M 128.3M 95.1M 57% /

However, I have now installed loads of apps, including many from Development and am now down to 92.8MB!

~ $ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Available Use% Mounted on
rootfs 227.5M 130.6M 92.8M 58% /

So how did I get there?
First I was robbed, had my 3 month old N900 stolen! Had to buy a new one urgently, so had a brand new N900 to start with.

Being aware of the Rootfs problems I decided to optimise it before installing any apps.

The brand new N900 had 83.3MB free
~ $ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Available Use% Mounted on
rootfs 227.5M 140.0M 83.3M 63% /


After updating to firmware 51 I was down to 72MB with no apps installed.
~ $ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Available Use% Mounted on
rootfs 227.5M 151.2M 72.1M 68% /


Next I moved var/cache/apt but forgot to copy the df -h results!

Then I decided to use a script to move some foldes and symlink them. The script i used was created by Tom Tanner (thanks Tom)
and is available with instructions here;
http://wiki.maemo.org/User:Tanner#Safely_free_some_space_on_rootfs


Running the script gave me these results;

/home/user/MyDocs # sh Optify.sh
Optify.sh: line 1: #!/bin/sh: not found
5952 usr/share/icons
8932 usr/share/nokia-maps
14720 usr/share/themes
3968 usr/share/fonts
10548 usr/share/locale
16960 usr/lib/locale
3232 var/lib/apt
0 var/cache/apt
64312 total
moving /usr/share/icons
moving /usr/share/nokia-maps
moving /usr/share/themes
moving /usr/share/fonts
moving /usr/share/locale
moving /usr/lib/locale
moving /var/lib/apt


At this point I had achieved my maximum free Rootfs of 95.1MB;

/home/user/MyDocs # df -h
Filesystem Size Used Available Use% Mounted on
rootfs 227.5M 128.3M 95.1M 57% /

Since this I have installed all my preferred apps, including a lot of "Risky Development Apps" and I still have 82.5MB free.
/home/user/MyDocs # df -h
Filesystem Size Used Available Use% Mounted on
rootfs 227.5M 140.8M 82.5M 63% /

At this point I had installed Fennec and something was causing a problem with my internet connection so I restarted the phone which freed up some memory again!

I now have almost every useful app installed today and still have 92.8MB free!
~ $ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Available Use% Mounted on
rootfs 227.5M 130.6M 92.8M 58% /

I have been using the phone for 3 days since running Tom's script and it has been 100% stable.

Thought I'd post this to let people know that There is a safe script to take away the problems around Rootfs without risk as far as I can see!

Thanks again Tom, I will still check Rootfs before and after installing apps, but am not worried about it anymore!

Hope this gives some people confidence to safely free Rootfs space.

Also thought it was about time I posted something to the forum having used info from here so heavily since getting my N900.

Cheers

Steve

I know you already said sorry, but was another thread really necessary? If something's not safe it won't be in the wiki

hmm i think this will break your device in the next update.

Worst case scenario is that he needs to flash the device to update.

No it won't break your device.

Sorry Mohammad, I don't often have time to post on forums and apologise if I should have posted in a different thread.

I should havde stated I did find Tom's script from the Wiki here;
http://wiki.maemo.org/Free_up_rootfs_space

"Alternative script to safely free space on rootfs

This script shows you much space will be freed and automatically detects whether some directories have already been moved."

Maxximus, thanks for the opinion, but I am confident in what I have done and understand how symlinks work. I suspect I may have to run the script again after a firmware upgrade but I am happy with that.

If I had to flash the firmware, I can also cope with that!

Hey stevet68,

do you know what happen if you run the script just after reflashing your N900. Is it gonna keep the original rootfs memory without get it full?

yanness

cant seem to get the script to run, I typed it exactly as u put it in the wiki but doesnt seem to do anything, my rootfs is at 91%. anybody help?

it will absolutely break ur n900 'cause it's not safe and

Hi Yanness,

All this doe is free up space by moving files out of RootFS and setting up links to the folders. It is still technically possible to fill it again if you install lots of unoptified software, However I have now been running another week and still have 88MB free in RootFS even after installing lots of apps.

Steve

Hi Scuddy,

I just followed my links and realised you may be using the wrong script?

In my previous link I mentioned the WIKI, where I found it, but Tom's script is actually on his user page:

Try going here and following Tom's instructions:

http://wiki.maemo.org/User:Tanner#Sa...pace_on_rootfs

Hope this helps for you, working great for me!

Steve