SD Card fills, cannot determine why and where are the offending files

[jsalsburg]

I recently upgraded the lens on my camera and had trouble with the monitor to administrate the RPi on my workbench. This caused the External SSD in the operating system to malfunction. The next day several things in the AllSky Software stopped working. I noticed the SD Card was full. I deleted the Journal entries but that only bought me a few hours before the SD Card filled to 100%. I searched for hours and cannot determine why this is happening or where the offending file or files that are suddenly causing this problem after months of operation.

[chvvkumar]

Try these commands to drill down to what's taking up the most space. This is on my Pi5:

# Get the largest five folders
du -hs * | sort -rh | head -5
27G	allsky
1.9G	MLCloudPriv
1.6G	Projects
1.1G	indi-allsky
55M	Bookshelf

# Get the largest five folders
du -Sh | sort -rh | head -5
1.6G	./allsky/images/20241111
1.6G	./allsky/images/20241110
1.5G	./allsky/images/20241109
1.5G	./allsky/images/20241107
1.5G	./allsky/images/20241105

# Get the largest five files in the folder you are in. This is from when I run it from the root (/) directory but can be run in any folder
find -type f -exec du -Sh {} + | sort -rh | head -n 5
637M	./MLCloudPriv/lib/python3.11/site-packages/tensorflow/libtensorflow_cc.so.2
222M	./.cache/pip/http/1/c/1/c/7/1c1c7083aa18c8955c1b92c171d623eaa201a7ad590200a581a2ad66
222M	./.cache/pip/http-v2/1/c/1/c/7/1c1c7083aa18c8955c1b92c171d623eaa201a7ad590200a581a2ad66.body
214M	./.cache/pip/http/2/f/2/f/d/2f2fd1d2b64925ffc8b788d6e497b136af116b93cc8ab5477beda1f4
170M	./MLCloudPriv/mlCloudDetect.keras

[EricClaeys]

Try running cd; du -h -s *
It will tell you how much disk space each item in your home directory is using, including allsky. I suspect you have a lot of days worth of images and may want to decrease DAYS_TO_KEEP.

[jsalsburg]

[EricClaeys]

Glad you figured it out. Too bad the Pi was bad.

[jsalsburg]

I struggled with the RPi4. I do not want to buy another one. I tested every possible thing that may be wrong with the Hardware, discovered a bad cable. I bought a new large SD Card, installed a fresh copy of everything, configured as much as I could before I ran out of stream. Tomorrow I will configure some more.

[jsalsburg]

I regret that the RPi4 will not stay connected, it drops out and changes its IP Address every few minutes. It is time to buy another one.

[EricClaeys]

Does it do that on the LAN or Wi-Fi? Have you tried the other?

[jsalsburg]

Replaced the RPi and the Router it uses as a Bridge. I do not have Ethernet outside. A couple weeks ago, all my WiFi devices started buffering and shuddering. The RPi would frequently disconnect and reset its IP Address. Upon configuring the new router, there were 64 SSIDs on each 2.4GHz and 5GHz. There must be many more than 64 but the SSID scan only went to 64. I am guessing more than 100. I am awash in WiFi networks. This may be the source of the WiFi difficulties. I made sure the Bridge used both 2.4GHz and 5GHz. The Access Point the Bridge uses is only 6 feet away. Time will tell if this configuration will operate reliably. Note: connecting to the RPi with PUTTY tells me if the RPi disconnects when PUTTY disconnects; so far so good.

[EricClaeys]

@jsalsburg, ever consider PoE so you can use the LAN?

[jsalsburg]

Yes, but all this stuff is outside. I use a seperate $38 Bridge Router for the RPi close to my through-wall Access Point router because the RPi is inside a metal Sauce Pan enclosure high on a mast so its WiFi is unusable. PoE requires a PoE Router. PoE on a RPi requires a HAT. I use a discarded 19 VDC Laptop power brick feeding PoE splitter cables {5 sets for $16} to a power adapter for the RPi, and a recycled 12 VDC fan to cool the RPi. To run the RPi and the $8, 5 Volt Heat Pads for DEW control, I adapted a $10 high quality automobile cigarette lighter adapter fed by the laptop supply through PoE Ethernet cables from a separate enclosure for the Bridge Router.

USB-C Car Charger, 3-Port 90W Fast Car Charger, Dual USB-C & USB-A Car Power Adapter
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CZ9D6G26?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1

Passive PoE Injector and PoE Splitter Cable Kit with 2.1x 5.5mm DC Barrel Jack (5-Pack)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07B7NC29G?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1