Update SaifishOS version - Not enough system memory

Bug Reports
#1

REPRODUCIBILITY (% or how often):
BUILD ID:
HARDWARE (Jolla1, Tablet, XA2,…):
UI LANGUAGE:
REGRESSION: (compared to previous public release: Yes, No, ?):

DESCRIPTION:

Update not possible, not enough memory.

PRECONDITIONS:

Delete Sailfish Apps

STEPS TO REPRODUCE:

  1. Delete
  2. Clean
  3. And so on

EXPECTED RESULT:

Enough system memory

ACTUAL RESULT:

Far from enough system memory. I have only 7 apps left but need 170 MB more memory :sob:
I must reset the XA2 and spend many hours and strain the Jolla server a lot.

WHAT MUST BE DONE:

Jolla needs to make the system memory bigger or do the update in smaller pages og make an App that can clean and show where it is possible to clean.
As it is now, it’s a little amateurish.

10 Likes
Problems plaguing Sailfish OS for too long
#2

I did some cleaning before updating… I made a backup of all WhatsApp files and deleted them on the phone… Deleted Maps data from HereWeGo… Deleted all downloads from Aurora… etc.

#3

For me the issue when i got this issue was that i had installed too many and too big packages from e.g. mer-tools and official repos. (like devel packages and llvm specifically) The disk usage overview was not much help in getting to this conclusion unfortunately :frowning:

I know coderus mentioned something about using a chroot for messing around like that recently, but i wasn’t aware of the at the time, nor do i think i’d be able to act on that advice now.

1 Like
#4

Being aware of the issue, the first thing I did on my XA2 was the procedure described here: https://together.jolla.com/question/156279/installing-system-updates-fails-when-there-is-not-enough-space-in-system-data-partition/

1 Like
#5

IMO every xperia user should read this https://together.jolla.com/question/222126/guide-installing-sailfish-x-on-xperias/ great guide by @olf.

5 Likes
#6

What exactly does “not enough memory” mean? I have about 640MB free (XA2 Dual). Is there a tool that shows the exact memory usage for each app? What could I delete?

Questions, questions, questions…

I don’t know how many free space is normal for an XA2.

#7

Thank’s for sharing this! That guide is great, because instead of the first link it although covers encrypted devices!

#8

Right, I was not aware of this guide since it was first written after the last time I flashed a new device.

#9

Sorry, I didn’ t meant to be rude or to criticize . Just tried to be helpfull and spread usefull info.

#10

Oh, made I think you, that your behavior was rude? Than I’m sorry, I did not want this.
I want to thank you for this useful link, because I just knew the first guide. But that is not covering the encrypted device (of curse it’s great nevertheless).
My phone is encrypted now, so I’m very happy that you pointed out the second link :slight_smile:
Thanks :slight_smile:

#11

I tried to reply to @jameson s post before my previous post. :slightly_smiling_face: I should have used quote too.

#12

I made you think your behaviour was rude? Sorry if I did. I even liked your post.

#13

Sorry, didn’t notice your like. :sweat_smile: Nice to know that. Somehow I interpreted your post that you might feel that way and wanted to make sure what I meant. Now it’s obviously not like that. All is fine then I think.

2 Likes
#14

Depending on SFOS version and device, this may do nothing at all, as these files are NOT stored on the system partition but the home partition.

#15

On Jolla1 I have found enough space to clean up or to move data to sdcard, but for Sony Xperia X the System data is limited to 2.4GB be default.
One can decrease Sony phones built in User data partition and extending the System Data partition with the released space.
jolla.zendesk.com: Xperia devices, Recovery Mode
together.jolla.com: Installing system updates fails when there is not enough space in “system data” partition
Resizing filesystems are risky and I delayed doing this myself. I managed to mess up on my first attempt, but works fine now, having 10.7G of System Data.

1 Like
#16

I have left 836 mb system storage left and 1,6 GB used. I fear there will be not enough space for another update.

#17

After years, I was only able to free up 680mb on the XA2, even though only a dozen native apps were installed! I couldn’t find out where the memory went to. In my first attempt I was able to free up 6gb using the instructions above, but the update with version --dup to 3.4 failed. Aliendalvik would not start, GPS stopped working, and some other strange things occurred. I have decided to re-flash and restart with a fresh system and everything works perfectly again.

In my opinion, it is now the best choice to start from scratch and not change anything in the system. It would be better if Jolla cleaned up the memory better before an update. It is a mystery to me why almost 1GB memory disappears over time. That doesn’t look like proper programming.

2 Likes
#18

I’d just suggest a few things to do before changing the volume sizes. These are all things that have worked for me in the past.

  1. Check the “Settings > Storage > System data” page, since this is the free memory you need to maximise.
  2. If your system log usage is high, you can clear (most of) them out using
    devel-su journalctl --vacuum-size=1
  3. If you have Debug info data, remove any packages ending with “debugsource” or “debuginfo”. You can list them with these:
    zypper search *debugsource | grep "^i"
    zypper search *debuginfo | grep "^i"
  4. Set future debug packages to be stored in your home directory by selecting the “System > Developer tools > Store debug symbols to home partition” option.
  5. If you have core dumps, remove them from /var/cache/core-dumps/

I’m sure these are all well-documented elsewhere, but it just seemed sensible to have them in this thread too.

4 Likes
#19

zypper search *debugsource | grep “^i” only freed up 12 MB, no debug info data and no core dumps found, yet only 544 MB left on System data.

I find it really hard to search for the garbage collected through the years of usage.

#20

I found that “garbage” if there is any doesn’t really make up a great amount of space usage.
It’s mainly larger apps on the one hand (and this of course includes the -debug packages), as they always install in the system partition, and larger media packages such as some Ambiences.

To find out what takes up the most space, I use ncdu on the cli, and Space Inspector app, as these give a better overview of what is taking up the space than the built-in tool.

But no matter, it remains a fact that the default system partition size on SailfishX is too small by design/default.

1 Like