Nautilus (Gnome Files) - File transfer progress NOT real

doomguy84 · 2019-09-02 15:28:09

Is there a way to get a REAL progress about a very very very very... simple operation like a file copy??

If I copy a 500MB file to my usb flash drive, on the upper right of Gnome Files it goes from 0 to 100% in 3-4 seconds, but the file IS NOT copied at all.

What can I do to have a REAL file copy progression / speed / time view ??

seth · 2019-09-02 16:50:02

Did you research this at all?
It is the most asked linux question ever…

The file *is* copied - but not written - that's the problem (and that the USB key is much slower than your HDD and that you probably have plenty of RAM): You're not interested in the copy, but in how long you have to wait.

Answer: bypass the OS cache.
Side effects: the copy process will be slower and your usb key dies faster.

Realistically, you can lower vm.dirty_background_ratio and vm.dirty_ratio to get a more fine grained progress.
Defaults should be 10 & 20 (so if you've 8GB RAM, you can copy 800 MB before ever writing to the key)

Don't even think about setting them to"0".

Edit, first google results - read them:
https://lonesysadmin.net/2013/12/22/bet … rty_ratio/
https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/sysctl/vm.txt

Last edited by seth (2019-09-02 16:53:41)

doomguy84 · 2019-09-02 17:08:31

@seth

thank you for the reply
i think i've searched before but none of results found were simple and/or resolutive.
i mean, even Windows can transfer files from/to usb flash driver without issues at all, but Linux seems to be very hard to do this... crazy

is it impossible on Linux to have something like this ?
https://filestore.community.support.mic … a3189262a6

maybe a Gnome Shell Extension ??

Last edited by doomguy84 (2019-09-03 07:41:42)

seth · 2019-09-02 19:23:12

Please replace the image w/ a thumbnail or link. The maximum allowed image size is 200x200/50kB

This is not "hard" and not related to the kernel at all.
The nonsense-fancy copy process would have to ignore the copied bytes and instead poll the destination size. This is possible but would typically slow down the writing (though the watched pot would eventually still boil in this case) and while idk, I don't think it could be done as a "gnome shell extension" (whatever it does needs to know source and destination in order to compare the sizes ie. in this case nautilus, I assume)

I've not read it, but https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/nautilus/issues/136

doomguy84 · 2019-09-03 08:35:26

seth wrote:

Please replace the image w/ a thumbnail or link. The maximum allowed image size is 200x200/50kB

sorry, edited the image

Arch Linux

#1 2019-09-02 15:28:09

Nautilus (Gnome Files) - File transfer progress NOT real

#2 2019-09-02 16:50:02

Re: Nautilus (Gnome Files) - File transfer progress NOT real

#3 2019-09-02 17:08:31

Re: Nautilus (Gnome Files) - File transfer progress NOT real

#4 2019-09-02 19:23:12

Re: Nautilus (Gnome Files) - File transfer progress NOT real

#5 2019-09-03 08:35:26

Re: Nautilus (Gnome Files) - File transfer progress NOT real

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