Arch Linux

kourosh

Member

From: England

Registered: 2009-03-10

Posts: 241

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Stability of Removable Media support in Linux?

Hey all, I'd previously thought support for removable media in linux was very good, and everthing I've used has been detected and mounted correctly and such, however I have experienced some corruption on them, especially on my microSD, as I've recently lost a few photos.

I'm wondering the current status of the support in linux, is it stable, are there any problems, or is it my configuration?
I use Thunar+Hal to manage my removable media.

Thanks

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sand_man

Member

From: Australia

Registered: 2008-06-10

Posts: 2,164

Re: Stability of Removable Media support in Linux?

It should be stable. I've never had any problems.
What filesystem are you using? Do you make sure you unmount it and wait for the buffer to write to the SD before you remove it?

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Peasantoid

Member

Registered: 2009-04-26

Posts: 928

Website

Re: Stability of Removable Media support in Linux?

Extremely stable. Just remember to properly unmount stuff before you yank it out.

bwh1969

Member

Registered: 2008-01-05

Posts: 151

Re: Stability of Removable Media support in Linux?

I have found one "odd" issue with Linux: sometimes it delays writing to some external usb card readers.  It might be an issue with the reader but it seems absent in XP.  I have a kingston multi card reader.  I started using it to run my live Arch (Chakra-Live) because it was faster than an ide sd card adapter (odd); however, if I saved my overlay, the drive would show little activity while it was using squashfs on the overlay, and right at the end, the reader light would start flashing but the machine would shut down while the light was still going... and it always botched the save and lost data.  It only happened with the external reader; if the card was mounted on the internal reader on my eee-box, or in the ide adapter, it was fine.

Do make sure you do unmount / safely remove the drive, and maybe wait a few seconds.  I know my sandisk micromate has no light, so there is no way of telling if has stopped or not.

iBertus

Member

From: Greenville, NC

Registered: 2004-11-04

Posts: 2,228

Re: Stability of Removable Media support in Linux?

I've had no trouble transfering thousands of photos from CF cards using my generic 4-in-1 reader. The cards are all SanDisk 8GB Ultra/Extreme III/IV cards that were formatted by my EOS 50D.

karol

Archivist

Registered: 2009-05-06

Posts: 25,440

Re: Stability of Removable Media support in Linux?

I don't think that microSD used a Linux FS, as you mention photos, I'd guess it was VFAT formatted. As we all know, VFAT comes from Microsoft so you know who you should blame for your grievances ;-)

Have you tried PhotoRec?

Last edited by karol (2009-06-03 10:01:41)

kourosh

Member

From: England

Registered: 2009-03-10

Posts: 241

Website

Re: Stability of Removable Media support in Linux?

Well I usually right-click and unmount the device in Thunar (it having been automounted by it and HAL), when it tells me its safe to remove, I pull it. I assume I've waited the required time to finish what it was writing if it tells me this.

And yes, it is VFAT..maybe it is my reader, but it works fine in Windows.

And thanks karol, I'll try that.

Seems like I'll just have to start waiting a while and observing the indicator light...

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wakkadojo

Member

Registered: 2009-05-31

Posts: 50

Re: Stability of Removable Media support in Linux?

If you want to make sure that writes to a mounted volume are not delayed, mount with the option nodelalloc.

moljac024

Member

From: Serbia

Registered: 2008-01-29

Posts: 2,676

Re: Stability of Removable Media support in Linux?

If you want to make sure that writes to a mounted volume are not delayed, mount with the option nodelalloc.

What if you use thunar-volman (which I'm using) or gnome ?
Writes to usb are delayed here too.

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The day Microsoft makes a product that doesn't suck, is the day they make a vacuum cleaner.
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But if they tell you that I've lost my mind, maybe it's not gone just a little hard to find...

kourosh

Member

From: England

Registered: 2009-03-10

Posts: 241

Website

Re: Stability of Removable Media support in Linux?

I am using thunar-volman, might not have been clear about that.
How would I make sure devices are automounted with the nodelalloc option?

EDIT: I run thunar --daemon in Openbox's autostart.sh as follows:

ck-launch-session thunar --daemon &

For some reason devices would'nt automount properly before without that.

Last edited by kourosh (2009-06-03 19:56:46)

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lucke

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2004-11-30

Posts: 4,018

Re: Stability of Removable Media support in Linux?

"nodelalloc" works only for ext4. I think wakkadojo had "sync" (generally) or "flush" (for FAT) in mind.

Last edited by lucke (2009-06-03 20:15:37)