VM Disk Full - 50 GiB in 4 months

[sdetweil]

@JohnGalt in the folder with the core dump files do

sudo file * >>~/somefile.txt

then ~/somefile.txt will have a line for each which should contain the failing code name

from
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/13308922/find-which-program-caused-a-core-dump-file

[JohnGalt]

@sdetweil

Well, there’s this under /var/lib/apport/coredump:

Name:
core._home_al_MagicMirror_node_modules_electron_dist_electron.1000.f1d1264a-f2d2-4a44-8b27-e2f3182e030f.380943.121091464

Size:
40,486,436,864

[sdetweil]

@JohnGalt well then… electron crashed…

which MM version are you on
cd ~/MagicMirror
grep version package.json

and for electron
grep version node_modules/electron/package.json

[JohnGalt]

@sdetweil

JohnGalt@MM-Dev-VM:~/MagicMirror$ grep version package.json
        "version": "2.35.0",
JohnGalt@MM-Dev-VM:~/MagicMirror$ grep version node_modules/electron/package.json
  "version": "41.2.0"

[sdetweil]

@JohnGalt if you hadn’t erased the logs, the pm2 log MIGHT have had a fault listed…

2.37 is the current release, 6 months newer… electron at 42.5.2

supposedly this could help find cause

 Analyze the Crash Dump
Because Electron code is pre-compiled, looking at a raw dump file yields only unreadable memory addresses. 
You need to symbolicate the dump using matching Electron debugging symbols.

The CLI Tool (electron-minidump)
    The easiest open-source way to inspect a .dmp file locally is using the electron-   minidump CLI tool. 
It automatically fetches the matching Electron symbols and outputs a readable stack trace.
Install the utility:
sudo  npm install -g electron-minidump

Analyze your file:
electron-minidump -f /path/to/your/file.dmp

[JohnGalt]

@sdetweil – OK, well… The program DID install (I was surprised , given what has been happening…). This resulted in an error. I specified that large file we identified earlier. Do let me know if I did the wrong thing. See results below.

While you are looking at this, I am going to fire up the other, older VM that also crashed and see if there is similar evidence there that might shed light.

JohnGalt@MM-Dev-VM:~/MagicMirror$ sudo  npm install -g electron-minidump
[sudo] password for JohnGalt:

added 29 packages in 34s

1 package is looking for funding
  run `npm fund` for details
npm notice
npm notice New major version of npm available! 10.9.4 -> 12.0.2
npm notice Changelog: https://github.com/npm/cli/releases/tag/v12.0.2
npm notice To update run: npm install -g npm@12.0.2
npm notice
JohnGalt@MM-Dev-VM:~/MagicMirror$ electron-minidump -f /var/lib/apport/coredump/core._home_al_MagicMirror_node_modules_electron_dist_electron.1000.f1d1264a-f2d2-4a44-8b27-e2f3182e030f.380943.121091464
Error: EACCES: permission denied, open '/var/lib/apport/coredump/core._home_al_MagicMirror_node_modules_electron_dist_electron.1000.f1d1264a-f2d2-4a44-8b27-e2f3182e030f.380943.121091464'
    at async Object.open (node:internal/fs/promises:641:25)
    at async electronMinidump (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/electron-minidump/index.js:11:14) {
  errno: -13,
  code: 'EACCES',
  syscall: 'open',
  path: '/var/lib/apport/coredump/core._home_al_MagicMirror_node_modules_electron_dist_electron.1000.f1d1264a-f2d2-4a44-8b27-e2f3182e030f.380943.121091464'
}
JohnGalt@MM-Dev-VM:~/MagicMirror$ sudo electron-minidump -f /var/lib/apport/coredump/core._home_al_MagicMirror_node_modules_electron_dist_electron.1000.f1d1264a-f2d2-4a44-8b27-e2f3182e030f.380943.121091464
Not a minidump file (MDMP header not found): /var/lib/apport/coredump/core._home_al_MagicMirror_node_modules_electron_dist_electron.1000.f1d1264a-f2d2-4a44-8b27-e2f3182e030f.380943.121091464
JohnGalt@MM-Dev-VM:~/MagicMirror$

[sdetweil]

@JohnGalt you need sudo in front of the mini dump. Line cause the file is in the /var folder

[JohnGalt]

@sdetweil – Yes, I did.

The output I pasted included 2 runs. The first returned an access error as expected. The 2nd run says ‘not a minidump file’.

I guess I confused things by pasting all that. Sorry.

[sdetweil]

@JohnGalt no problem… thx… I have not tried to examine them myself either

[sdetweil]

@JohnGalt there is a new script in my package , cleanup.sh

intended to erase all the electron binary downloads and
any npm cache

[JohnGalt]

@sdetweil – Thanks, Sam.

When I get back from my travels next week I hope to have time to look at this.

IIRC, my primary stumbling block is how full the disk is, meaning I don’t recall if the machine even still boots. I hope it still has room to boot and load the script! That would be great.

[sdetweil]

@JohnGalt if you have a usb carrier for the sd card, you could make and boot another one and mount the old one to erase the files