Overcoming USB copy delay

[vtpup]

Hi Flash, since I'm not duplicating right now the conditions resulting in file corruptions, I'm trying to remember the circumstances. Okay here's one for sure: I have had situations in the past where I saved a file to USB, and the save dialog closes before the file transfer is finished. This was evidenced on the thumb drive via the LED (if it has one). On some thumbdrives I have it flashes while a transfer is taking place. With those it was possible to see that a transfer was still taking place, sometimes long after the save dialog closes.

Also the OP talked about unmounting under pupmode5 where the automatic flush transfer appeared to finish before it actually had. This is the same problematic process.

I think I have also had situations in the past when graphically unmounting a USB drive (by left clicking the drive "dot") when the "dot" or light or X on the drive icon went out before the transfer was finished, and then I pulled the USB stick out before it was actually ready.

Thinking about why this could be happening, I'm wondering if there is some kind of USB cache or buffer that these indicators are reacting to. They finish sending data to the cache, signal completion, but maybe the cache hasn't fully emptied to the drive? Kind of like how a printer spooler can cause a word processor to return from a print dialog as completed, while the printer hasn't yet started to print.

As a guess also, this may be more apparent in say an older system with USB 2.0 with longer transfers and more perceptible delay than in newer USB 3.0 systems. Which may be why some people are having the problem, and others never see it and don't know what the fuss is about.

I dunno, these are just guesses...

[greengeek]

From my experience swap is a fake.

Yes i tend to agree in some ways.

I have not found swap to be much use - but i think this is because i do not use a savefile or savefolder.

But one thing to note is that Puppy ADDS the amount of swap space onto the amount of system RAM in order to calculate the size of personal storage - on systems that are booted without personal storage file.

ie: if you have a PC with only 1GB of RAM and boot it from CD you will have only 1GB of personal storage space and will run out very quickly.

But - if you boot with 4GB swap partition attached (even a 4GB usb stick formatted as swap) your personal storage space will be much bigger than the original 1GB.
(This can be particularly useful if your PC allows a USB3 adapter Expresscard adapter. I posted about this in gychang's thread here

So - the swap space is not much use as "swappiness" but is much use as "personal storage" - allowing manipulation of larger files including iso remasters or video transformations etc.
(as long as the swap partition is plugged in before boot....)

[Jafadmin]

Here is a buffer flush tool: viewtopic.php?f=85&t=813

[greengeek]

Here is a buffer flush tool: viewtopic.php?f=85&t=813

Thanks.

Not working for me yet tho'
Probably a yad version issue. I am on Slacko 5.6 so will have to try some other yad pets.

Code: Select all

# ./Sync-gui
./Sync-gui: line 13: 15084 Terminated              yad --info --height=100 --width=100 --center --title="Syncing" --text="$(printf "\n\tSyncing buffers to disk ..\t\n")"
Unable parse command line: Unknown option --info
# 

EDIT : Tried another yad pet and now see the following display for about 10 seconds or so. Is that what I should see?
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sync.jpg (8.5 KiB) Viewed 272 times

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[Jafadmin]

An Xdialog version:

Code: Select all

Xdialog --title "Syncing" --msgbox " Syncing buffers to disk .. " 10 40 &
sleep 2
sync
killall Xdialog
Xdialog --title "Syncing" --timeout 10 --msgbox "  Sync complete!  " 10 40 

[greengeek]

Ahhh, lovely. I like it!
cheers!
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syncing.jpg (6.95 KiB) Viewed 253 times

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complete.jpg (7.2 KiB) Viewed 253 times

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[mikewalsh]

@greengeek:-

Ian, here's a generic version of YAD 0.40, which I've used successfully with Slacko 5.6.0.....if you're interested. Can't remember which Pup I compiled it in, but it works with most of 'em. Your 'native' version will be a LOT older than this.


Mike.

[greengeek]

here's a generic version of YAD 0.40, which I've used successfully with Slacko 5.6.0.... Your 'native' version will be a LOT older than this.

Thanks Mike - that did the trick. Actually i did not have a native version of yad - it was gtk only with Slacko 5.6 and if i absolutely need yad i load a pet - but the outcome seems to be a bit variable for some reason.

I now have 4 yad pets but always struggle to remember which one woks best and i'm not certain which of them is "newest" or "best":

yad_0.33.1-slk56.pet
yad-0.4.0-i686.pet
yad-0.8.1-i486.pet
yad-0.9.0-i486.pet

Where does "0.33.1" sit in the age range? Is that "newer than "0.4.0" i wonder?

Anyway - thanks for the 0.4.0 it seems to be doing the business.
cheers!