Free up Space on the EeePC

The EeePC has a relatively small amount of storage space when compared to most modern desktop and laptop PCs. My EeePC 701 has just 4GB of space on its SSD. It’s amazing how much can actually be installed on such a small PC. Installing EeeBuntu is a great place to start. However it is important not to waste this valuable storage space.   The ease with which the Untunu based EeeBuntu allows applications to be installed means that it’s likely that most users will install and uninstall various applications as they try them out before settling on their stable collection of essential software.

Installing and uninstalling applications causes space to be used with temporary files and install files that can safely be removed, thereby freeing up valuable storage for yet more applications or important files.

Removing Language Files

Most applications install language files that allow the application to support more than just one language. Assuming you only ever use on language on your PC then you can safely remove all the other language files and free up some space. A great utility for automating this task and allowing you to select which languages you would like to keep is localepurge. To install and run localepurge simply open a new terminal window and type the following:

$ sudo apt-get install localepurge

Removing Unused Kernel Files

Open synaptic and search for installed applications. Then search for “linux”. This will return a list of images, headers and restricted modules that are installed. Any that do not match the current version of the kernel that your EeePC is running can safely be removed, thereby freeing up space on you SSD.If you’re unsure which kernel you EeePC is running then open terminal and use the uname command:

$ uname -r

Remove Unused Applications

Remove unused applications using either Synaptic, Aptitude or the apt-get command. Be sure to use the Completely Remove option to remove all files including any configuration or setting files in order to free up the most space. This can be done from terminal using:

$ sudo apt-get –purge remove <application name>

Clear the Cache

To clear out the apt cache folder after installing and uninstalling applications simply run the following commands from the terminal:

$ sudo apt-get clean

$ sudo apt-get autoclean

Remove Redundant Program and Library Files

Finally to tidy up any remaining redundant libraries or programs left over from previous installs use the autoremove option. However, check the list of programs and libraries that it intends to remove before pressing “Y” to confirm the removal!

$ sudo apt-get autoremove