The jffs partition is full

[austenpowers]

I just recently installed scMerlin to the jffs partition on my ASUS RT-AC86U router and it is working just fine. However, today i tried to setup dnsmasq.conf on the jffs partition and i'm getting an error for no space left on device:

admin@RT-AC86U-7860:/jffs/configs# pwd
/jffs/configs

admin@RT-AC86U-7860:/jffs/configs# touch dnsmasq.conf.add
touch: dnsmasq.conf.add: No space left on device

admin@RT-AC86U-7860:/jffs/configs# df -h .
Filesystem Size Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/mtdblock8 48.0M 47.4M 600.0K 99% /jffs

Is there an option to setup a second jffs folder elsewhere? As mentioned the only thing i've installed on jffs is scMerlin, which really doesn't take up that much space, but the jffs partition is quite small.

Any help is appreciated.

 

[L&LD]

What other features and scripts are you running on that router?

 

[austenpowers]

Only scMerlin. I've only just installed Merlin this week, so my router is quite green.

 

[L&LD]

After installing RMerlin 384.17_0 on your router, did you do a full reset/Initialize all settings and also format the JFFS partition on the next boot too (and rebooted) too?

How did you configure your router? Did you use a saved backup config file?

 

[austenpowers]

I just installed RMerlin 384.17_0 using the manual f/w update procedure and then rebooted. My existing settings were restored, I did not initialize all settings or do a factory reset... i didn't want to have to reconfigure everything (and didn't know I had to). But when I was using the stock f/w, I had no special scripts installed, or anything, so I wasn't using the /jffs partition at all. I mean, it's only 48MB in size, which is quite small.

 

[L&LD]

What stock firmware were you running when you upgraded? I'm fairly certain you should do so now.

 

[austenpowers]

I was running the latest stock f/w at the time, v3.0.0.4.384_81369... i just happened to write it down in case i wanted to restore the stock f/w.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Even with the stock Asus firmware the /jffs partition is heavily used so it's very easy for it to get filled up with only minor additions.

 

[L&LD]

I don't believe restoring the stock firmware will fix anything, but it is worth a try.

When you flash RMerlinf firmware from stock though, a full/thorough reset and JFFS format are necessary to have the router function optimally.

 

[laajr]

I ran into the same issue (see "device full" thread). I had to reformat the JFSS partition. Traffic analyzer and journal were using most of the space. I've noticed a few others seeing the same issue. Since reformatting on 4-12 the partition has grown from 2.81/48 mb to 5.78/48 mb as of today.

 

[cmkelley]

Run

cd /jffs
du -h

You'll almost certainly find the traffic analyzer directory (./.sys/TrafficAnalyzer) is very large. The database that lives there is supposed to automatically stop at 30Mb, but sometimes grows until all of jffs is eaten up. Merlin has suggested

TrafficAnalyzer -d 30720
TrafficAnalyzer -e

but I don't know if that works once jffs is completely full. I hadn't seen that when it happened to me so I ended up backing up my jffs to usb, reformatting the jffs, then restoring my scripts and such to jffs.

 

[RMerlin]

There is no need to change firmware or reformat the partition. Make sure Traffic Analyzer is disabled, then go to the /jffs/.sys/ folder - there should be another folder there for Traffic Analyzer. Go inside, and deleted either the journal file (if present) or the main database itself.

Is there an option to setup a second jffs folder elsewhere?

It's not a folder, it's a partition within the flash memory, with a fixed size.

 

[cmkelley]

There is no need to change firmware or reformat the partition. Make sure Traffic Analyzer is disabled, then go to the /jffs/.sys/ folder - there should be another folder there for Traffic Analyzer. Go inside, and deleted either the journal file (if present) or the main database itself.

Anecdote, when I tried that it wouldn't let me delete anything from the jffs partition. I got the same "no space left on device" error. Dunno what I did wrong.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Anecdote, when I tried that it wouldn't let me delete anything from the jffs partition. I got the same "no space left on device" error. Dunno what I did wrong.

Maybe the Traffic Analyzer wasn't fully disabled, or some other process still had those files open.

 

[RMerlin]

Anecdote, when I tried that it wouldn't let me delete anything from the jffs partition. I got the same "no space left on device" error. Dunno what I did wrong.

There's a possibility that the system is unable to do any write at all, even to remove an entry from whatever file table jffs uses. However this isn't the norm, and formatting should be done as a last resort, not as the first go-to solution.

 

[L&LD]

There's a possibility that the system is unable to do any write at all, even to remove an entry from whatever file table jffs uses. However this isn't the norm, and formatting should be done as a last resort, not as the first go-to solution.

What should be tried before formatting then?

 

[thelonelycoder]

What should be tried before formatting then?

Find the reason why it is full or what fills the /jffs partition up, for starters.
It usually is the Traffic Analyzer that failed to auto-trim the size of its files.

 

[miazza]

What should be tried before formatting then?

I have deleted the TrafficAnalyzer data base and rebooted.
Now:

miazza@RT-AC86U-3150:/jffs# du -h
23.5K   ./scripts
0       ./.le/miazza.no-ip.biz/backup
18.0K   ./.le/miazza.no-ip.biz
20.5K   ./.le
1.5K    ./addons/diversion
25.0K   ./addons/amtm/a_fw
90.5K   ./addons/amtm
67.5K   ./addons/spdmerlin.d/csv
106.0K  ./addons/spdmerlin.d
1.0K    ./addons/shared-whitelists
199.5K  ./addons
1010.0K ./signature
512     ./configs
312.0K  ./usericon
15.5K   ./nvram
288.0K  ./.sys/AiProtectionMonitor
0       ./.sys/cfg_mnt
4.5M    ./.sys/WebHistory
24.0K   ./.sys/TrafficAnalyzer
11.6M   ./.sys/nc
0       ./.sys/WBL/blist_m
0       ./.sys/WBL/wlist_m
512     ./.sys/WBL
16.4M   ./.sys
8.5K    ./.cert
0       ./.tordb/keys
7.0M    ./.tordb
16.0K   ./openvpn
25.3M   .

I see that also nc database and tordb are quite high and I do not know why....

 

[glugglug]

Did you manage to solve this? I now have a similar warning "Your router is running low on free JFFS storage which could affect its stability.".

I formatted the JFFS partition and the warning persists. In fact it stayed with this message after updating to the latest Merlin, and rebooting to try to wipe it again, which has an entry in the release notes saying they fixed something where erasing the JFFS wouldn't work if it hit a bad block. This was particularly painful as the factory defaults on my router are in Chinese (that's why an AC86U was $100), and you have to go through a few pages of settings before you can change it to English.

 

[glugglug]

deleted TrafficAnalyzer db which was 38MB. No longer have the warning. For some reason formatting the JFFS partition on reboot isn't working even with the latest firmware.