Dolphin not copying files correctly to removable media

[simonh]

I regularly copy/move files to flash drives, sd cards etc. Dolphin reports files transferred successfully, but when I disconnect, reconnect the drive, sometimes not everything has been copied or is zero bytes. It seems hit and miss at best.

Has anyone else having this bother?

I'm using Kubuntu 9.04, KDE 4.2.3, ext4 file system on / drive. File system on removable drives is either FAT or FAT32.

Cheers for any ideas.

[dibl]

Re: Dolphin not copying files correctly to removable media

You need to bear in mind that just because Dolphin throws up a graphic suggesting that the copy process has completed doesn't mean the copy process has completed.

Linux does not execute every user command immediately -- there is latency, due to the other services running in the background. If you will (in Dolphin) right-click on your removable device and choose "safely remove", that is the command to the system to finish the copy process immediately, and then when it gives you the indication, you can remove the device and your files will be on it.

[simonh]

Re: Dolphin not copying files correctly to removable media

Thanks dibl. I try to remember to disconnect 'safely', but I'm used to trusting apps when they report that something has happened.

I'll try and contact the Dolphin devs, and see what they say about it.

Cheers

[dibl]

Re: Dolphin not copying files correctly to removable media

I'll try and contact the Dolphin devs, and see what they say about it.

Sure -- go for it. I'll wager a ham sandwich the answer, should you get one, goes about like this:

"My flawless application dutifully reports to you, Mr. User, when it has completed the hand-off of the copy command to the OS. Unfortunately, it is the OS that has ownership of the storage devices, and decides, based on a zillion factors (most of which are user determined/controllable), when it is the appropriate moment to execute the copy of the data to the device in question."

More:

http://rudd-o.com/en/linux-and-free-...ow-to-fix-that

[simonh]

Re: Dolphin not copying files correctly to removable media

Nice link dibl. I won't bother with the email after all.

Should it be safe to set the swapiness at 1 with 2gig of ram, do you think?

Edit: How do I find out the swappiness at present?

[dibl]

Re: Dolphin not copying files correctly to removable media

*buntu default swappiness is 50, IIRC. No guarantees on my memory. :P

vm.swappiness=1 is a good setting -- that's the one I use.

Here's the bottom of my /etc/sysctl.conf file, FYI:

.
.
.
# kernel.maps_protect = 1
#
vm.swappiness=1
#
vm.vfs_cache_pressure=50
#
vm.dirty_ratio = 40
vm.dirty_background_ratio = 1
vm.dirty_writeback_centisecs = 12000
#

Note that I've also slowed down the ext4 journalling frequency and the write flushes. This is a desktop system on a UPS, and I typically shut it down (S2RAM) when I'm leaving for more than a few hours, so I don't consider my data at much risk of surprise crashes. For a notebook/laptop, I would leave the journaling and write flushes alone, and limit my speedup to the swappiness and cache pressure adjustments.

[sithlord48]

Re: Dolphin not copying files correctly to removable media

i find that running the sync command(just "sync" in the konsole no "s) is the only true way to be sure my files are added to my flash drives before unmounting.. after that command finishes you can safely remove it as you normally do.