System updates say not enough disk space

[brucehvn]

I'm running Catalina 10.15.7 on my Hackintosh. I use a 250GB SSD for the main drive. When I installed, I created 2 volumes. One called BruceSys which is the OS volume, and a second volume called DataDrive which is 60 GB. There's an EFI partition there as well that was created during the installation.

When I've been trying to install anything from the system updates like the 10.15.7 security fix, or the XCode command-line tools, it tells me I don't have enough disk space. It says I need like 10 GB, but that's ridiculous because I have very little on here. However, when I go to the Disk Utility, it shows the following:

Container Disk - 239.85 GB
-- "BruceSys" - Capacity: 16.85 GB, Used: 11.07 GB, Avail: 5.03 GB (shared by 6 volumes???)
-- "BruceSys - Data" - Capacity: 183.85 GB, Used: 18.09 GB, Avail: 153.94 (shared by 6 volumes)
-- "DataDrive" - Capacity: 60 GB, Used: 3.4 MB, Avail: 60 GB, (shared by 6 volumes 60 GB Quota)

When the "BruceSys" drive is highlighted, it shows a Mac (OS) icon.
When the "BruceSys - Data" drive is highlighted it shows a home icon.

When I go to "About this Mac" -> Storage, it shows:

From a terminal, if I do a "mount" command, it shows:

/dev/disk1s6 on / (apfs, local, read-only, journaled)
devfs on /dev (devfs, local, nobrowse)
/dev/disk1s1 on /System/Volumes/Data (apfs, local, journaled, nobrowse)
/dev/disk1s5 on /private/var/vm (apfs, local, journaled, nobrowse)
/dev/disk1s2 on /Volumes/DataDrive (apfs, local, journaled)
map auto_home on /System/Volumes/Data/home (autofs, automounted, nobrowse)

What is going on and how can I get this to be correct? It's blocking me from installing any system updates. Can I tell it that the "BruceSys" volume has to be a certain minimum size? The DataDrive seems to have some sort of quota of 60 GB. Can I set something like that on the main volume?

I have no idea what's up with the storage display. That's totally nuts.

 

[UtterDisbelief]

I'm running Catalina 10.15.7 on my Hackintosh. I use a 250GB SSD for the main drive. When I installed, I created 2 volumes. One called BruceSys which is the OS volume, and a second volume called DataDrive which is 60 GB. There's an EFI partition there as well that was created during the installation.

When I've been trying to install anything from the system updates like the 10.15.7 security fix, or the XCode command-line tools, it tells me I don't have enough disk space. It says I need like 10 GB, but that's ridiculous because I have very little on here. However, when I go to the Disk Utility, it shows the following:

Container Disk - 239.85 GB
-- "BruceSys" - Capacity: 16.85 GB, Used: 11.07 GB, Avail: 5.03 GB (shared by 6 volumes???)
-- "BruceSys - Data" - Capacity: 183.85 GB, Used: 18.09 GB, Avail: 153.94 (shared by 6 volumes)
-- "DataDrive" - Capacity: 60 GB, Used: 3.4 MB, Avail: 60 GB, (shared by 6 volumes 60 GB Quota)

When the "BruceSys" drive is highlighted, it shows a Mac (OS) icon.
When the "BruceSys - Data" drive is highlighted it shows a home icon.

When I go to "About this Mac" -> Storage, it shows:
View attachment 501121

From a terminal, if I do a "mount" command, it shows:

/dev/disk1s6 on / (apfs, local, read-only, journaled)
devfs on /dev (devfs, local, nobrowse)
/dev/disk1s1 on /System/Volumes/Data (apfs, local, journaled, nobrowse)
/dev/disk1s5 on /private/var/vm (apfs, local, journaled, nobrowse)
/dev/disk1s2 on /Volumes/DataDrive (apfs, local, journaled)
map auto_home on /System/Volumes/Data/home (autofs, automounted, nobrowse)

What is going on and how can I get this to be correct? It's blocking me from installing any system updates. Can I tell it that the "BruceSys" volume has to be a certain minimum size? The DataDrive seems to have some sort of quota of 60 GB. Can I set something like that on the main volume?

I have no idea what's up with the storage display. That's totally nuts.

Hi there.

What does Disk Utility or diskutil report?

It isn't unusual to see many "containers" because that's how apfs works.

 

[brucehvn]

Hi there.

What does Disk Utility or diskutil report?

It isn't unusual to see many "containers" because that's how apfs works.

diskutil shows the following which explains the six volumes:

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *240.1 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         239.8 GB   disk0s2

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +239.8 GB   disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume BruceSys - Data         167.0 GB   disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume DataDrive               56.0 GB    disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Preboot                 83.7 MB    disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume Recovery                528.9 MB   disk1s4
   5:                APFS Volume VM                      1.1 MB     disk1s5
   6:                APFS Volume BruceSys                11.1 GB    disk1s6

After doing some reading, I see that the root volume (BruceSys) is mounted read-only under Catalina, so the system is probably managing the disk space there. But then where is the system updater trying to download to that it's complaining there's no space?

 

[UtterDisbelief]

diskutil shows the following which explains the six volumes:

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *240.1 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         239.8 GB   disk0s2

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +239.8 GB   disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume BruceSys - Data         167.0 GB   disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume DataDrive               56.0 GB    disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Preboot                 83.7 MB    disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume Recovery                528.9 MB   disk1s4
   5:                APFS Volume VM                      1.1 MB     disk1s5
   6:                APFS Volume BruceSys                11.1 GB    disk1s6

After doing some reading, I see that the root volume (BruceSys) is mounted read-only under Catalina, so the system is probably managing the disk space there. But then where is the system updater trying to download to that it's complaining there's no space?

Okay, that's quite an unusual 'map' and I can't quite tell how it was created.

Read-only is normal for Catalina and Big Sur. There is a Terminal command in the main Installation guide to temporarily disable this.

With just one physical disk of 250gb, it is allocated as disk0. The EFI partition is disk0s1 and the main drive area, disk0s2, apfs mapped as disk1 container. All as it should be.

The rest of the drive containers are out of order on the synthesized drive, which is why Update can't see enough space - disk1s6 where the system lives - looks to have been created in the small amount of space that was left after you'd set aside your data drive. (Recovery and Preboot are obviously also needed). You can see the figures add up to the total available.

As I don't want you to lose data by deleting or repartitioning, perhaps think of adding a second SSD, transferring the booting system to it and putting nothing else on it.

 

[brucehvn]

Okay, that's quite an unusual 'map' and I can't quite tell how it was created.

Read-only is normal for Catalina and Big Sur. There is a Terminal command in the main Installation guide to temporarily disable this.

With just one physical disk of 250gb, it is allocated as disk0. The EFI partition is disk0s1 and the main drive area, disk0s2, apfs mapped as disk1 container. All as it should be.

The rest of the drive containers are out of order on the synthesized drive, which is why Update can't see enough space - disk1s6 where the system lives - looks to have been created in the small amount of space that was left after you'd set aside your data drive. (Recovery and Preboot are obviously also needed). You can see the figures add up to the total available.

As I don't want you to lose data by deleting or repartitioning, perhaps think of adding a second SSD, transferring the booting system to it and putting nothing else on it.

Well, I do remember I struggled a bit with manually creating the volumes during install. I was trying to make sure I got the 60 GB DataDrive volume in there. So, I might have created and deleted a few volumes along the way.

I actually already have a second SSD which I didn't include in that diskutil listing. The machine dual boots Linux and each OS has it's own dedicated 250 GB SSD, with the EFI partition residing on the Mac side.

So, what should I have done differently? Should I have put some minimum reserved space on the BruceSys volume? Since that's read-only, that's not where it's trying to download stuff for updates, is it?

If I have an external USB drive, can I boot into recovery, copy all my files from the various partitions over to the USB, then redo the APFS volumes on the main drive and copy the files back? I have a Clonezilla backup of the drive as it is now in case things go bad. I definitely don't want to have to wipe it and start over again. I just did that when I installed Catalina as I was running High Sierra and hadn't updated it for over a year so I started over. But now I've got it all set up well, with most everything working.

 

[UtterDisbelief]

Well, I do remember I struggled a bit with manually creating the volumes during install. I was trying to make sure I got the 60 GB DataDrive volume in there. So, I might have created and deleted a few volumes along the way.

I actually already have a second SSD which I didn't include in that diskutil listing. The machine dual boots Linux and each OS has it's own dedicated 250 GB SSD, with the EFI partition residing on the Mac side.

So, what should I have done differently? Should I have put some minimum reserved space on the BruceSys volume? Since that's read-only, that's not where it's trying to download stuff for updates, is it?

If I have an external USB drive, can I boot into recovery, copy all my files from the various partitions over to the USB, then redo the APFS volumes on the main drive and copy the files back? I have a Clonezilla backup of the drive as it is now in case things go bad. I definitely don't want to have to wipe it and start over again. I just did that when I installed Catalina as I was running High Sierra and hadn't updated it for over a year so I started over. But now I've got it all set up well, with most everything working.

Okay, that explains it .

It's easy to say you should have done it this way or that way, but I wouldn't dream of it.

Yes, it is natural that the system drive is read-only, but any official Apple update installer will still work. The protection is there to prevent anyone else damaging the set-up.

I agree - different physical drives for each OS. No problem there.

Currently a Big Sur / Catalina installation will consume up to 60GB. My own Big Sur install has a 22GB system capacity and a 29GB Data, but obviously there's more free space for these containers to expand into as Apple requires.

Yes, you can backup everything to a USB drive in whatever way you are comfortable with. Some people swear by the app Carbon Copy Cloner to do the job, but there are others. Most don't copy the hidden EFI partition though, so if you ever decide to re-install make a copy of the EFI folder yourself and back it up somewhere safe. Basic stuff.

So deciding on a size to set is tricky. Perhaps 120GB would be sensible. On your 250GB SSD you then have room for the 500MB Recovery partition, the 200MB EFI partition and something like 120GB for your own data.

The only potential problem I can see with your plan is that the system drive will still be isolated on the SSD, up beyond where the other partitions once were, so you can't actually extend it even after removing things. What you need to do is move the system partition further down the drive to give it more "headroom". That's advanced stuff. Some software apps claim to be able to do this, but it's not straight-forward.

 

[brucehvn]

The only potential problem I can see with your plan is that the system drive will still be isolated on the SSD, up beyond where the other partitions once were, so you can't actually extend it even after removing things. What you need to do is move the system partition further down the drive to give it more "headroom". That's advanced stuff. Some software apps claim to be able to do this, but it's not straight-forward.

So, I guess what I'm not understanding is I thought that the APFS volumes are supposed to dynamically resize as needed. Even though my system drive is the last one, all the others should be dynamic with the one "DataDrive" set with a minimum of 60 GB.

Could someone post a diskutil listing of their machine so I can see what it's supposed to look like?

Is the system volume usually given a minimum required size?

 

[UtterDisbelief]

So, I guess what I'm not understanding is I thought that the APFS volumes are supposed to dynamically resize as needed. Even though my system drive is the last one, all the others should be dynamic with the one "DataDrive" set with a minimum of 60 GB.

Could someone post a diskutil listing of their machine so I can see what it's supposed to look like?

Is the system volume usually given a minimum required size?

Sorry I confused you. If you understand APFS my comments must have seemed comical. Apologies.

I doubt anyone else has the same disk layout as you so a comparison would be difficult. I examined my own when replying to you, but I haven't carved-up my main drive. It showed as I explained above - the system and the data.

I am not aware that any dynamic resizing will move a physical partition down towards the root of a drive in a case like this. Dynamic resizing takes space beyond, not before. Containers are not the same as physical drives.

Happy to learn more...