i had a prob with updatedb running out of partition space a while back. i 
think it uses /tmp rather than /var/tmp. i hadnt a seperate /tmp partition so 
i had to fiddle with symlinks to get it to use /var/tmp.

check you have a /tmp directory (should be there in normal install) and that 
there is plenty of space for it.

GREG

> Hi all,
> 
> I've got my SS20 netbooting from my antiquated FreeBSD box.. 
> everything is fine and dandy with the exception of the locate 
> command.  Run /usr/libexec/locate.updatedb and the command fails a 
> few seconds later with no explanation ("locate: updatedb failed"). 
> I've searched the list archives and haven't found any previous 
> questions that even come close to the problem--am I missing something 
> dead obvious to others?
> 
> I'm still very much a BSD newbie so I've only done the most basic of 
> sanity checks: /var/tmp is accounted for and I am running 
> locate.updatedb as root.
> 
> Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
> 
> Cheers,
> Derek
> -- 
> 
>    Derek Warren / acheron303@mac.com.nospam.dammit.jim
>    http://www.sfu.ca/~dwarrena/  |   http://derek.trideja.com/
> 
>    "Mr. Gandhi, what do you think of western civilization?"
>    "I think it would be a good idea."