Why is there no option to "Eject" a USB device rather than remove???

[oshunluvr]

This is somewhat related to another problem I'm having, but now this is starting to peeve me off.

Why can't I "Eject" a USB device rather than "Safely Remove?" What if I don't want to remove a thumb drive, but I want to wipe it and create a new filesystem on it? Well, you can't if you've mounted it because the only option the device manager gives you is "Safely Remove" once a device has been mounted. You have to pull it out of the port, grit your teeth (for being forced into this action) and plug it back in - What a stupid requirement. Apparently we are too dumb to know whether or not we actually going to physically pull a device or not.

I know I can do whatever I want from the command line but what's the point of a GUI if you can't use it?

[Snowhog]

Well, I know that you know this, but you can't "eject" a HDD, and a USB thumb drive is a HDD.

You can format a USB stick when it's mounted. Why do you say otherwise? Applications > System > KDE Partition Manager

[vinnywright]

Well, I know that you know this, but you can't "eject" a HDD, and a USB thumb drive is a HDD.

You can format a USB stick when it's mounted. Why do you say otherwise? Applications > System > KDE Partition Manager

I think he is talking about the Querk where once you "safely remove" a USB device nothing (the partition manager,startup disk creator ) will recognize the device untill you pull it out and plug it back in,,,,,,,,,,,annoying indeed !!

VINNY

[oshunluvr]

@Snowhog: Sorry, I guess we're not on the same page at the moment because on my computer I cannot format a filesystem that's mounted whether or not it's on a USB stick or not. The Partition Manager shows lock icon on it and you can must unmount it and then format it. I can do that in a dozen ways, but that's not the issue.

My rant refers to the device notifier. If I stick a USB device in my computer, the device notifier pops up and gives me several options to use the device. What it does not do is give me any options when it's time to stop using the device. I must stop the device entirely and remove it from the USB port and plug it back in if I am to do anything else with it - like reformat it. Or I must slog through the menu and launch another tool like Partition Manager. My original opinion on this "feature" stands - it's stupid, or at a minimum - crippling, and unnecessarily so. It smacks of "dumbing down" the system to the lowest common denominator. The question stands: Why can I not choose Eject vs. Power down from Device Notifier?

And not to get into an argument about semantics but USB thumb drives are not HDD's. Where a hard drive might require or benefit from a power down so the platters stop spinning, thumb drives obviously do not benefit from or require this step IMO. The point being that if a filesystem is unmounted on a solid state device, there's no (or at least extremely little) chance that pulling the device will cause any problems.

From what I've read in bug reports and such about this topic the issue stems from having multiple partitions on a single USB device. The potential exists that a user might unmount one filesystem but not another and mistakenly pull the device causing a corruption. I submit that not giving me the option is equivalent to telling me I'm not smart or aware enough to figure out which option I should select. Very MicroSoft-ish IMO.

In my perfect world (the one where I control everything ), the options would state "Un-Mount" or "Eject" followed by "Remove" or "Disconnect." The former causing a single filesystem unmount and the later a complete removal of the device.

[Snowhog]

On my 32-bit Toshiba Satellite P105-S6147 laptop running 12.10, I plugged in a USB thumb drive that has an installed OS on it. The Device Notifier popped up and I opted to open it with Dolphin. I closed Dolphin and opened KDE Partition Manager. I clicked on the thumb drive and sure enough, it shows that the file system is locked and all options on the menu bar entries show grayed out. But all I had to do was click on the partition entry in the right-side display, right-click and select Unmount. Done. Now it can be formatted, resized, what ever.

It is true, at least in KDE Partition Manager, that once unmounted, it won't remount the USB thumb drive. Didn't check if I could remount it from the CLI.

[oshunluvr]

I realize I can use the Partition Manager to format a device. That's not my issue at all. However, I believe you misspoke when you stated you can format a USB drive when it's mounted. You must unmount it first.

My issue is you cannot unmount a device from the Device Notifier, but you can mount it from there. This is bad programming IMO.

[Snowhog]

You are correct. My statement was worded incorrectly.

The Device Notifier isn't performing the mounting -- that has already been done by the OS when the thumb drive was plugged in. You are simply being offered (it's) choices of what to do with it. You can ignore the options entirely (just click on the Device Notifier icon in the System Tray to minimize it) and go straight into Dolphin and it is there under Devices.

Given that, I can agree that having an option to Unmount the device might be nice. It might be possible to write a Device Actions rule to do this.

[claydoh]

Here is m guess: KDE has no official partition manager in the SC, so it would be up to the distro to create an added entry for formatting a drive/partition in the device notifier. There is a section in device actions for adding/changing actions, but I cannot figure it out

[claydoh]

I dunno if this is truly useful, or working
http://kde-apps.org/content/show.php?content=137493
However, it does not seem terribly difficult to create such an action to unmount/unlock a drive, then open it with the partitionmanager. Or some simple dialogs to choose what file system to use.

[oshunluvr]

Wow, Snowhog you and I are on opposite sides on the arena today. On my computer, USB device are not mounted when plugged in. When you click on an action in the Device Notifier, it gets mounted.

[oshunluvr]

BTW: Dolphin also does not provide an Unmount option with a mounted USB device.

[Snowhog]

Hehe. I can only speak to my observations, and of course, what I observe may not actually be what I'm seeing!

[oshunluvr]

Actually, this difference could be explainable if you have automount removable devices set in your system config.

[Snowhog]

Yes, I do: System Settings > Removable Devices > Enable automatic mounting of removable media (checked) and Automatically mount removable media when attached (checked)

[james147]

FYI, safely removing the device is ejecting the device... (does the same things as the eject command line util) what you want is to be able to unmount the device without ejecting it.