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Description
When you use quite often USB key, you always have to unmount them correctly to keep your data safe. When you're copying a file on a USB key, you must wait to empty the copy buffer.
I would propose to link the USB key icon to the state of the transfer :
- If there's a transfer, we can see clearly that we can not take the USB key away.
- When transfer is finished and the buffer emptied, the icon can show that the USB key can be safely removed
and thus it's not yet useful to click on "unmount", because the unmount management is totally transparent, and treated by the system. We can simply pick the USB key away because transfer is already finish and correctly closed. This will be a great innovation to simplify unmount such usual disks.
edit : Maybe the icon can stay like the same, but w can add some little sub-icon to inform of the state.
(see also ideas 1373 and 10032)
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Comments
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droetker wrote on the 1 Jul 08 at 08:20
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This would mean that the system MOUNTS the device each time you want to copy something on the stick, and UNMOUNTS it when the copy process is finished?
hmmmmm...
don't know, it would be a workaround, but - is this "sane"?
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sebsauvage wrote on the 1 Jul 08 at 10:55
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>MOUNTS the device each time you want to copy something on the stick, and UNMOUNTS it when the copy process is finished?
No.
I think it's more:
- sync when there were no writes to the peripheral for more than x seconds, then display "Can unplug" icon.
- As soon as there is data in the write cache for this peripheral, change the icon to "Transfer in progress".
That's a *very* good idea.
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svergeylen wrote on the 1 Jul 08 at 11:17
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Thanks for your comments.
droetker: No, the goal in NOT to unmount after each transfer. Only show when the key CAN be uplugged. The goal is to accelerate the procédure to unmount a USB device.
I think we can also take benefit from an old package which represented acalable "sub-icons" on icons. I think this is still available in Ubuntu but I'm on Win for my job just now.
These "sub-icons" permit to add a status as "urgent", "personal", "holyday", "smiley"... and this is the kind of info's we need to display on the icon of USB key.
If I remember well, these "sub-icons" were real-time updated without lot of CPU
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droetker wrote on the 1 Jul 08 at 11:53
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yes, i know that.
I was only thinking - because if you unplug a mounted device (and with sync and all data written the device IS still mounted) - the system HAS to unmount it automatically...
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andruk wrote on the 1 Jul 08 at 15:28
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Very good idea, seems (to me) to tie into emblems that are already designed for folders. It would be cool to see exactly which programs are accessing the drive (like PortableApps) by making an emblem out of each program's logo and embleming the drive icon with the logo/s of programs that are accessing the drive. Hard to implement though, and there would be a problem when 15 programs access a drive with a 32x32px icon.
+1, helpful
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jvin248 wrote on the 1 Jul 08 at 20:50
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I noticed with 8.04 that when you select the USB icon to unmount, that it shows "eject device" which is more similar to the "safely remove" choice that many Windows users are used to (rather than "whats this mount/unmount stuff mean").
As for changing the icon, I usually look at the flash drive to see that the light is off (no activity) and then unmount with the icon. So unless it's easy and low cpu overhead to change the icon states, I'd leave it alone. I think the best change (in the wording to unmount) was completed already.
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ImperfectLink wrote on the 2 Jul 08 at 00:41
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This sounds like a pretty good idea. I could see it being useful. Much like a close button being red when there is unsaved data...
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_sebastian_ wrote on the 2 Jul 08 at 00:59
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hmm, I think that using the unmount does not take too long but I do it only once or twice a day.
There must be a reason for not syncing the drive immediately... to save write cycles? does anyone know more?
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sebsauvage wrote on the 2 Jul 08 at 07:20
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>There must be a reason for not syncing the drive immediately... to save write cycles? does anyone know more?
Yes:
- performance (delay then group writes)
- increase device life (less writes).
Using unmount may not be long, but when you plug/unplug things like CompactFlash (for your digital camera), this is a burden.
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laryllian wrote on the 7 Jul 08 at 21:13
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WON-DER-FUL, as I understood, he is neither talking about always mounting and unmounting if data is to be written or not, nor mounting it in sync mode. Fact is, the usb buffer is flushed from time to time, so where is the problem in unplugging the usb drive at a period with the buffer being empty? The OS should then silently unmount the device, because no harm is being done. The user just has to know when he could do that. Maybe the icon could just be a bit more reddish or greenish depending on the state. I'd love it. Or are there problems with the file descriptors/file system consistency or something?
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Dauerbaustelle wrote on the 8 Jul 08 at 20:33
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WHAT A WON-DER-FUL IDEA.
++++9
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mambazo wrote on the 12 Jul 08 at 12:20
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Excellent idea, and this can be extended further. Basically, instead of using overlay icons to indicate whether a thumb drive is safe to unmount or not, use them everywhere in nautilus. There will be overlay icons signaling when a directory or file is actively being modified (using copies, or saves from programs, or downloads), and the overlay icon will automatically change. Using them on mounted devices is just an extension of the whole paradigm.
I really want this idea to be implemented.
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droetker wrote on the 17 Jul 08 at 10:30
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it depends on the file system as well.
If you have a NTFS, plug it out, and next time you maybe have crashed your data. unmounting a NTFS writes some data on the disk, something like "oke, cleanly unmounted".
FAT is a very old file system, and I don't know exactly how it behaves when you just switch off the power.
http://www.slax.org/documentation_usb_troubleshoot.php
Do what you want - but you SHOULD unmount it before unplugging.
And don't complain when you loose data...
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