Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

bash-5.1$ dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb bs=1M count=1
1+0 records in
1+0 records out
1048576 bytes (1.0 MB, 1.0 MiB) copied, 0.0928783 s, 11.3 MB/s
bash-5.1$
That looks like what the command should do.

Now try using Gparted on the drive, to make a new partition table (msdos), make a partition ...

Tried plugging it into a different USB port?

To be clearly understood.

You cannot run this command on it?

(The code of=/dev/sdb. (sdb is the flash drive, yours could be sdc, sdd, etc.... adjust to match yours)
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb bs=1M count=1
If no.
What exactly happens when you try ...

I now have one USB stick not responding to my commands. It is not reporting a Write Protected / Read Only condition YET but it only shows about 4 Gig out of a 32 Gig stick.
Won't respond to gparted, gnome disks or to the command line.

After countless attempts the stick now shows 8 Gig as the total ...

still curious what gparted reports when first trying to create a new partition table on one of the now "read-only" drives.


I still have been unable to get a USB stick to go Read Only. Maybe you can then you can tell us all. My memory isn't quite that good. One thing came back to me though. An ...

Another point...

When you get a new USB stick or SD card, it comes with a partition already on it. There is an unpartitioned space of 4, 8, 16 or 32 MB at the start of the device.

I think you should assume that it is unsafe to include this space within a working partition that is written ...

Using the command line to restore a USB stick to original condition as long as it was not Read Only:
RUN THESE COMMANDS AS ROOT USER.

Restoring your USB key to its original state using Linux if it now has more than one partition:

A. First check to see if your computer detects the USB drive and ...

MXLinux, Slackware, Fatdog64 and BionicPup all show as iso9660 when written to my USB stick.
Can you tell us which tools you used to create these installs?



I used the command line to prepare the USB, format, write and to restore the USB to an "as purchased" condition. MSDOS partition table ...

SIGH

I can see plainly that this has never happened to you, has it? You are fortunate.

The USB itself becomes "Write Protected", "Read Only". gparted is a poor tool in this case and proves powerless to do anything with it. Linux needs a better solution than that. What is most maddening is that ...

bigpup
Perhaps I was premature with my thanks and praise and should have checked first.

iso9660 is the file system I would expect to find with a cd or dvd iso. gparted doesn't show me an iso9660 choice for formatting my stick.

Hmm, MXLinux, Slackware, Fatdog64 and BionicPup all show as iso9660 ...

bigpup wrote: Tue Jan 04, 2022 3:50 am

You should be able to use Gparted to look at what is on the USB drive.
If it shows the format as iso9660.
That is the problem.

Thanks for that. It may well prove to be the explanation for this phenomenon.
Thank you for your time and expertise. I am truly grateful

I run Slackware and it boots up to my desktop in the way you have described. KDE Plasma 5 can do this for you. I have used KDE and Fluxbox just the way you want. Presently I use XFCE in this way.

I just turn on my laptop and everything is done for me. No password, just a short wait and go to work ...

Desperation caused me to try all sorts of things. After all, Necessity is the Mother of Invention.

Since Slackware is my go to Linux OS I looked in the available Slackbuilds to see what I could compile into a usable program.

Gnome-Disk-Utility worked some of the time. It provides a gui to zero a ...

Look with gparted and you find more than one partition and for some reason that becomes a problem when trying to reformat and use again.
Not only do they become write protected but very restrictive as far as partition size with the rest being unwritable
To do a clean complete setup of a drive ...

My observations:
- Linux has messed up many of my USB sticks. For some reason it is hard on them. Until lately I would say Linux destroys USB sticks. Heck, one time Linux messed up my 1 T Passport. I was able to fix it though.

- Windows almost always has been what saves the day. Even after trying ...