Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

UPDATE: Solved by using a NTFS thumb drive. It turns out that audacity that won't save files to a FAT32 partition.

Just installed audacity-linux-3.2.1-x64. I opened an AUP file on a FAT drive and made a few changes, but now audacity tells me I am not allowed to save to a FAT drive. But... it is the same drive and the same folder where I opened the file.

What's up with that? Is it because the drive is locked?

Thanks!

I would think that the lock icon, is what is stopping you from editing the file. When you open the file, is it indicated that the file is 'read only'?

Hi @TerryH,

the lock on the drive is one thing - the other is: Audacity blocks you from using FAT/FAT32 disks for saving project files as they are limited to a maximum 4GB per single file and this can easily be exceeded when editing.

peace

one wrote: ↑Sat Dec 03, 2022 7:01 pm

Hi @TerryH,

the lock on the drive is one thing - the other is: Audacity blocks you from using FAT/FAT32 disks for saving project files as they are limited to a maximum 4GB per single file and this can easily be exceeded when editing.

peace

OK thanks, I have no experience with audacity.

Audio and video can be reallllly big. One youtuber posted about how their project is 140GB. And that's not even for a very long music video!

Phoenix wrote: ↑Fri Dec 09, 2022 1:26 am

Audio and video can be reallllly big. One youtuber posted about how their project is 140GB. And that's not even for a very long music video!

The audio files I work with are about 10 minutes in length on average. These files are around 30-60K in size. After I edit them, I convert them to MP3.

Does anyone have experience with this? I cannot afford to have more file corruption issues. So here I am being forced to save files to a Linux partition, but I have to be able to use these files on a Windows computer.

The question is do I have to give up using audacity in Linux.

Governor wrote: ↑Fri Dec 16, 2022 3:18 pm

The question is do I have to give up using audacity in Linux.

I have a TON of experience with this. I am a musician, I use pro-audio apps all the time. I hate audacity, never use it.

the main reason I hate it is the way it handles projects, they become unbearingly big.

But some people love it and are familiar with it. You do have options, but seeing how things have been very difficult for you to get running I hesitate suggesting them.

I'll just list the options, but don't jump into it haphazardly!

1) Try and use a USB drive formatted to ext4 to save and edit your audacity project files. This option is relatively harmless, but of course will run slower based on the read/write speeds of your USB drive and ports and may not perform playback as well. If your drives are USB3 this option should work fine I think, unless audacity balks at the idea for some reason.

2) Use gparted to shrink your big fat32 partition on nvme, maybe to half of it's current size, and add an ext partition to the nvme, save and edit your audacity projects from there. Shrinking your nvme fat32 partition will require that you aren't running from that partition, so best done from a USB install of fossapup.

3) Reformat only the nvme partition that fossapup is installed to ext4, but NOT the fat32 partition that limine resides. Rerun limine installer, or edit limine .cfg to find the new install. This is one I probably should not be mentioning. But you have a lot of initiative, so it's your call.

WARNING: whatever you do with audacity, make sure you are not saving files and projects in your root file system, in other words the pupsave. It could max out your pupsave filesystem size and become buggy or crash entirely.

Governor wrote: ↑Fri Dec 16, 2022 3:18 pm

I cannot afford to have more file corruption issues. So here I am being forced to save files to a Linux partition, but I have to be able to use these files on a Windows computer.

If what you are saying is that you want to be able to work on an audacity project file from linux, and then open that same file from audicity in Windows, I believe you would be able to do it if your project files were stored on an ntfs partition. It's fat32 that has the 4GB file limit size.

The three options I gave for fat32>ext should work the same with fat32>ntfs.

If you're just saying that you need to open your mixed mp3 with windows, that's not a problem, but you'll need to copy those files to a drive with a format that windows can see first.

Quite frankly, I gave up on windows a long time ago. Once you are good with linux, and aren't required to use windows by employers or specific applications that can't be duplicated with linux, then it's just easier to do it all from linux.

I still mirror all my data on fat32 partitions, but no single file is bigger than 4GB.

geo_c wrote: ↑Fri Dec 16, 2022 4:35 pm

Governor wrote: ↑Fri Dec 16, 2022 3:18 pm

I cannot afford to have more file corruption issues. So here I am being forced to save files to a Linux partition, but I have to be able to use these files on a Windows computer.

If what you are saying is that you want to be able to work on an audacity project file from linux, and then open that same file from audicity in Windows, I believe you would be able to do it if your project files were stored on an ntfs partition. It's fat32 that has the 4GB file limit size.

The three options I gave for fat32>ext should work the same with fat32>ntfs.

If you're just saying that you need to open your mixed mp3 with windows, that's not a problem, but you'll need to copy those files to a drive with a format that windows can see first.

Quite frankly, I gave up on windows a long time ago. Once you are good with linux, and aren't required to use windows by employers or specific applications that can't be duplicated with linux, then it's just easier to do it all from linux.

I still mirror all my data on fat32 partitions, but no single file is bigger than 4GB.

I don't see file size as any issue whatsoever. I am concerned about possible file corruption.
When I transferred files from ext4--->fat32--->ext4 there was corruption of the files.

Also, one .rtf file on a fat32 drive which I had opened in Puppy got corrupted. Can this be avoided?

Governor wrote: ↑Fri Dec 16, 2022 5:56 pm

[I don't see file size as any issue whatsoever.

I'm going to be honest. This is a nonsensical statement that tells me you are not reading carefully. Go back through and read your own posts and the responses and find out why that makes no sense.

in particular this: viewtopic.php?p=74383#p74383

You can create an NTFS partition on the usb, assuming this usb is not being used at the moment. Linux and Windows can write to this.

@geo_c

Phoenix wrote: ↑Sat Dec 17, 2022 4:10 am

You can create an NTFS partition on the usb, assuming this usb is not being used at the moment. Linux and Windows can write to this.

This worked! I was able to save an audacity project file to a NTFS thumb.

geo_c wrote: ↑Fri Dec 16, 2022 6:01 pm

Governor wrote: ↑Fri Dec 16, 2022 5:56 pm

[I don't see file size as any issue whatsoever.

I'm going to be honest. This is a nonsensical statement that tells me you are not reading carefully. Go back through and read your own posts and the responses and find out why that makes no sense.

in particular this: viewtopic.php?p=74383#p74383

I have no files anywhere that even come close to 4GB in size

Governor wrote: ↑Sat Dec 17, 2022 2:46 pm

geo_c wrote: ↑Fri Dec 16, 2022 6:01 pm

Governor wrote: ↑Fri Dec 16, 2022 5:56 pm

[I don't see file size as any issue whatsoever.

I'm going to be honest. This is a nonsensical statement that tells me you are not reading carefully. Go back through and read your own posts and the responses and find out why that makes no sense.

in particular this: viewtopic.php?p=74383#p74383

I have no files anywhere that even come close to 4GB in size

Then your problem is solved.

Of course that tells me you're still not reading responses carefully.

And so I'm going to go ahead and explain this last time what has already been explained three times in this short thread. And this is the last I'm ever going to go to such length. So here it is:

It doesn't matter how big your personal audacity project files get, because it's audacity that won't allow you to save the project files on fat32. It has nothing to do with your file sizes. Of course there is a technical reason why fat32 has file size limits, which is one of the reasons ntfs was created. That information can all be found in a simple web search.

Without researching the subject of why Audacity doesn't let the user make the choice of fat32 and monitor files sizes themselves, I can easily surmise that there's probably a good chance they got tired of support questions by people who exceeded the limits of fat32 while running audacity, and it made sense to simply disable the ability to save on it.

I can't I say I blame them.