Problematic USB flash drives#@%[SOLVED]

[wrender]

I have been having these random problems where I try to copy files to a usb flash stick and then when I eject it and put in my buddies computer the file is not there. Or I can not delete files that already exist on the flash stick. I had to at one point go to a windows machine and format it to wipe it!!


kubuntu 8.10 x64 kde 4.1.3


ps. my buddy runs Linux Mint 5 x64 and using the same two usb flash drives never had any of these problems.

[toad]

Re: Problematic USB flash drives#@%

fwiw - you could have installed gparted and wiped them on Kubuntu. Don't know what causes the trouble, though

[Qqmike]

Re: Problematic USB flash drives#@%

Not sure wassup.

Like toad says, GParted for the partitioning/formatting.

Somewhere in this thing, I put something about permissions on UFD, I think in the 2nd post, as an example. I wonder if that's what's going on? I'm not an expert. Please post back here with further issues, rather than in the how-to:
Commands at Konsole: Beginners
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3091607.0

[dibl]

Re: Problematic USB flash drives#@%

I had to at one point go to a windows machine and format it to wipe it!!

Hmmmmmm ... I hope you chose FAT32 as the filesystem format, and not NTFS!

In Kubuntu, you need to right-click on the USB stick and "safely remove" or "safely eject" or whatever it says -- that flushes any unwritten data to the device before you pull it out. If your system is pretty busy and you click a "save" and then yank the device, you can pull it faster than Linux writes out 100% to it.

[wrender]

Re: Problematic USB flash drives#@%

Yes it is fat 32.....

[Snowhog]

Re: Problematic USB flash drives#@%

What dibl said. In Linux, write operations are often cached, and don't happen immediately. With pluggable USB devices - HDs, Floppy's, Thumbdrives - you need to tell the system that you are going to unmount them so that the OS will write any unsaved data to the device before you unplug it. If you think back to Windoze, this behavior is similar. You click on the connected devices sys tray icon and select the removable device you want to disconnect, and you wait for the system to tell you it is safe to remove.

[wrender]

Re: Problematic USB flash drives#@%

So it happened again. With some interesting light.

My buddy dropped by and he wanted me to give him a copy of a file onto a usb flash stick.

So I opened it up in dolphin and copied the file over. Once done copying I opened the file to make sure it was there, closed it then waited a couple of seconds and clicked unmount and waited a few seconds, took it out. Checked it on my openSUSE machine and the file was not there!

Now the flash stick has a little LED to show activity....

So I did it again and watched the light. Once done copying the little led would not stop blinking. So I decided to copy another file over and open it up to make sure it was there and then deleted it. Still blinking..... So I clicked unmount and closed all dolphins. Waited a really long time and the LED stopped blinking and everything turned out ok.



If the file gets copied over to the stick and I can open it ...how can it disappear?

I don't know what to say.

[toad]

Re: Problematic USB flash drives#@%

Yep, totally bizarre behaviour. Dibl's and Snowhog's possible explanations are correct and I would have gone down the same road. You now say that you took that info into account and yet the behaviour persists.

You got gremlins? Just saying that because I haven't noticed any other posts reporting this. I noticed a couple of other posts from you, among them the shared folder thingy which got confirmed, but this is WEIRD.

Could you try and repeat the error - and after having unplugged the stick and the file NOT being there, could you run dmesg|tail and post the output please. Not promising nothing - just interested...

[The Liquidator]

Re: Problematic USB flash drives#@%

In your last post you refer to opensuse as well, so you are experiencing the same problem on 2 different machines running 2 different linuxes (that the right word?) but with the same flash drive?

Flash drives can be funny and you can't totally rule that out as part of the problem. I have a PNY Attache USB2 flash drive that works great in my Linux (and Windows XP) Dell 630m laptop. However, that resolutely failed to be recognised by XP in an Acer XP laptop I was using in the job I had at the time, my 2 offsprings XP desktops and the front USB ports of my current work Dell XP desktop. In all cases it is detected but not recognised. Oddly, the rear USB ports of my work desktop (the same machine) detect and recognise it instantly. Same also applies to USB headphones. I know it always happens, but don't know why. I'm reluctant to say it's dodgy USB ports given the fact it has failed on so numerous machines. Not tried the rear USB ports of the kids machines though but I bet if I did it would work.

I'm not sure whether you are running a desktop or a laptop but if the former and you are trying the front ports you could try the ones at the back.

[dibl]

Re: Problematic USB flash drives#@%

Once done copying I opened the file to make sure it was there

This is not the way to verify that the data has actually been written. You can interpret what you see on the screen as "a plan to write it there one of these days, after I fetch it out of cache and send it on its way".

Once done copying the little led would not stop blinking. So I decided to copy another file over and open it up to make sure it was there and then deleted it. Still blinking..... So I clicked unmount and closed all dolphins. Waited a really long time and the LED stopped blinking and everything turned out ok.

Yep -- the blinking is telling you that data is flowing -- the blinking stops when the flow of data stops.

If the file gets copied over to the stick and I can open it ...how can it disappear?

It didn't really copy the data -- it only offering a glowing prediction of future writes to the stick, but in reality the stick was removed before the writes actually were finished.

I also happen to have a PNY Attache, 8G stick, and it is very reliable in all machines I've tried it in. I recently had a very disappointing experience with another brand, Lexar -- I had bought it only 6 months ago and I initially set it up as a bootable Linux stick, and it was fine for many months that way. But when I went to re-partition and reconfigure it a week ago, it crapped out with "can't read superblock" errors, and nothing I could do, with any OS or formatting software, would revive it. Sucks when that happens ....

[wrender]

Re: Problematic USB flash drives#@%

In your last post you refer to opensuse as well, so you are experiencing the same problem on 2 different machines running 2 different linuxes (that the right word?) but with the same flash drive?

I am not experiencing this problem on any other machine. Only my kubuntu laptop is having this problem.

I'm not sure whether you are running a desktop or a laptop but if the former and you are trying the front ports you could try the ones at the back.

I have a laptop running Kubuntu and a desktop workstation that dual boots windozeXP and openSUSE 11. I will have to try out different ports to see if this affects it. Perhaps this is just a delayed writing problem.

It didn't really copy the data -- it only offering a glowing prediction of future writes to the stick, but in reality the stick was removed before the writes actually were finished.

...... If it shows that the copy operation is complete and I can open it from that location is it false on my part to assume that it is transfered safely?

[bitnissen]

Re: Problematic USB flash drives#@%

...... If it shows that the copy operation is complete and I can open it from that location is it false on my part to assume that it is transfered safely?

Do you copy via the GUI or via konsole? If you only tried one you could try the other and see if it makes a difference. I have had a few problems with copying using Dolphin, but the command line never let me down so far

[Wenches_Master]

Re: Problematic USB flash drives#@%

fwiw - you could have installed gparted and wiped them on Kubuntu. Don't know what causes the trouble, though

I've thought the same thing, "BUT" that's providing they are even being reconized.

[wrender]

Re: Problematic USB flash drives#@%

I have been experimenting(with Dolpin and Konsole) and it seems that the main thing is that you when copying files and unmounting the usb flash drive you need to be patient.

After copying a file I wait a few seconds then click unmount and check the "Devices recently plugged in" applet until it does not present the option to umount anymore and it will work.

In the grand scheme of things this is no big deal.

However compared to doing the same thing on suse 11 with kde 3.5 or mint 5 it is slow.

[Wenches_Master]

Re: Problematic USB flash drives#@%

fwiw - you could have installed gparted and wiped them on Kubuntu. Don't know what causes the trouble, though

I thought this too but mine don't show up on gparted either?

Also had to use my Wimdoze partition to wipe it, but since then everything so far is working good...