From Eeebuntuwiki

Lean Mean Eeebuntu Machine....

We all know that space is a precious resource on our eeepc's so we must do our best to save as much space as possible. The are some handy and easy things you can do to get rid of a lot of unneeded cruft from your eeebuntu install.

To do this we are going to need to install a few extra programs to get the functionality needed, but first...

Analyzing your Disk Usage.

First things first. Lets find were all the space is going to. By default is a handy tool called Disk Usage Analyzer.

Applications > Accessories > Disk Usage Analyzer.

Now once its popped up just hit "Scan Filesystem". You will be able to see what exactly is taking ALL your space. So if you find the majority of the files are your own do you really need them on your eee? Couldn't they be kept on a nice pendrive? Or you could save your docs and the like to your Dropbox Account. Don't have one? See the Dropbox Website or have a read of the WIKI article in the How to Section.

Cleanup your package installs

If you tend to install and uninstall packages all the time (like me) there will most likely be alot of dependency files which just are no longer needed. Just run the following commands to clean out those dependencies and any downloaded files left over from the install

sudo apt-get autoclean
sudo apt-get clean
sudo apt-get autoremove

And for good practice use the autoremove option when uninstalling to clean out all the dependancies :)

Get rid of Residual Files

If the idea of Terminal Scares you then you can check these with synaptic. Select "status" and you will see "non-installed residual config".

Go into here and mark all of the files for "complete removal". That way no files are left behind.

Cleanup Duplicate Files.

As you use your system more and more duplicate files will crop up in every corner. While only small in size on their own that can quick eat up some of your space.

To clear these out we need to install FSlint

Sudo apt-get install fslint

Then go to Applications > System Tools > FSlint

In here we just want to add the filesystem paths we want it to scan and then select Duplicate from the menu. You can work down the options and remove any Temp files etc.

Poor little orphans

Sometimes packages can become orphaned after their parent files are removed. These aren't always picked up by synaptic so there is a handy program to find them

Sudo apt-get install gtkorphan

To open just go to System > Administration > Remove Orphaned Files

In here just tick anything in the orphaned tab and hit OK. All Gone! I cleaned up about 70meg of files - I only installed BASE 4 days ago so imagine what can build up over time.

Keep Tabs on your installs

To stop the files being orphaned in the future we can install a handy program called debfoster. Whenever you uninstall an application it will also remove the dependencies which were pulled down with it.

Sudo apt-get install debfoster

To get the logs going

sudo debfoster -q

Now force the system to use debfoster

sudo debfoster -f

Now we all have programs we want on our computer no matter what so we can set debfoster to ignore certain packages - such as codecs, etc. You can set these in

gksu gedit /var/lib/debfoster/keepers

To check if there are any files you can remove

sudo debfoster

The Final Cache!

The final step to go through it to clean the cache and temporary files that like to build up over time. To clean up your disk we will use Bleachbit.

sudo apt-get install bleachbit

You will find Bleachbit in the system tools folder with options to run as Root or user. The user mode will only scan your user directories were Root will scan the system drive.

You can work through the options on the left hand panel and tick any programs cache you wish to remove. Once done just hit Delete and accept if you are sure you want it gone.

DONE!

So we have a nice squeaky clean system. Go ahead and fill it back up again!