Obscure Linux disk space bamboozlement

[Bluebottle]

I realise this might be pushing it.

I have a bit of scientific software that works on two machines.

1) An old(ish) Pentium 3 linux box running RHEL 3
2) A new(ish) Dual core dual boot with Windows/CentOS 5

Hunky dory, keine problem.

I wiped a PC identical to #1 above and installed Scientific Linux and found that the programme ceased to function. Hum.
I wiped this then installed CentOS 5.1 and the same thing happened.

The error I get is:

No file to extend for IUnit=1 --Out of disk space
Error termination in NtrErr

Now, a) there is tonnes of free disk space and b) the swap partition is 4GB so I don't buy that as a problem either.

I'm 

[bobajobrob]

Sounds a bit b0rked to me. You're probably best to try that error message with people who know the software. Is there a forum or mailing list for it?

[Bluebottle]

Fat chance The software manufacturers are not reknown for their customer care and most definitely do not have a forum.  They also go as far as operating blacklists for people who also use competitors code.  Nice.

[liam_whippet]

Permissions?

When a PC says it's out of disk space when it isn't, it's cos it's trying to write something only it can't; it reports this as having no space, but actually it's having no permissions.


Also, what's the file it's trying to extend? Is it some output/result file that doesn't exist yet because the program hasn't been run, cos it's only just been installed? Or is it because - like on Windoze - the relevant files have been copied off a different machine (via USB), and so arrive defaulting to ReadOnly; [r-- instead of rw-]?

How did you get your second installation to work?


Good luck..

[Bluebottle]

I'm "pretty sure" it is not permissions.  Pretty sure inasmuch that there is always something I have forgotten to look at.

Both the working and problem installations were done from the same taz file, hence the 

[tiermat]

One thought, have you enough free space in /tmp?

Most installers I have found use /tmp at somepoint to store temporary install files (and most then forget to clean it up afterwards).

[ScumOfTheRoad]

As a bit of a desperate measure: install 'strace' and run:
strace <name of executable>

strace lists the system calls a program makes.
Probably won't tell you anything, but you might be able to catch where it is trying to open this file, and what the name of it is.

[ScumOfTheRoad]

Google is your friend:

http://www.mcsr.olemiss.edu/appssubpage.php?pagename=gaussfaq.inc#span

Is that any help?
If not, I can ask around - my day job is building Linux clusters, and we have lots of customers using them for computational chemistry.

[Greenbank]

<thread hijack>

Is that any help?
If not, I can ask around - my day job is building Linux clusters, and we have lots of customers using them for computational chemistry.

Would you know anyone interested in a couple of RLX 600i chassis each filled with 24 blades (PIII 800MHz, 1GB, 2x40GB HDD) ? All in working order.