At work I use openSUSE 13.2, KDE, 64-bit version. For months now I have one mistake for which I have not found a way to fix it.
When I got to the USB port connected up an external HDD, and when you want to disconnect the HDD then in GUI mode, click on that icon to safely disconnect the device. After this menu is displayed pop-up screen that can now safely disconnect the device, but I hear that the plates in the disk still spinning. Then still disconnect the USB cable from the laptop, and then I hear the ugly and unpleasant sound of parking the head of the disk.
On a couple of websites I found a description that might be operating on a KDE bug.
Is there any way that I can fix it somehow, maybe I forgot something click in YaST?
I may be wrong here, but I thought that “safely remove” makes sure that all cache is written to the device. Not that the device should be switched off in some way.
I think the term “safe remove the device” should mean just that, that can safely remove my ext hdd without risk to data or HDD.
In ubuntu I’m used to that after the “safely remove the device” the device off completely, and even can not be re-mout without physical re-connection to the USB port.
I’m not sure whether it was a error to opensuse, or error in KDE, or somewhere that I skipped settings .
I do not have any problems with this. After I am told that I can safely remove, I can still mount the device with a root “mount” command, but I cannot mount via the GUI unless I disconnect then reconnect.
If you can still mount with the GUI, then something is amiss though I’m not sure what.
When the device notifier says that it is safe to remove the device, that should indicate that all data has been written to the device. However, it is possible that the device itself has a hidden on-board cache. That shouldn’t matter either, if the device has its own power supply. Buf if the device is powered via the USB line, then maybe that could be a problem.
I seem to recall that there was an earlier thread where somebody else had a similar problem. I don’t remember the details. I seem to recall that it might depend on whether you are using the device notifier to unmount, or are using Dolphin or some other file manager.
On 2015-05-14 17:06, nrickert wrote:
>
> I do not have any problems with this. After I am told that I can safely
> remove, I can still mount the device with a root “mount” command, but I
> cannot mount via the GUI unless I disconnect then reconnect.
>
> If you can still mount with the GUI, then something is amiss though I’m
> not sure what.
How the desktop(s) handle “safely remove” varies from version to
version, desktop to desktop.
There are several possibilities. One is umount and tell the device to
power down. Another simply umounts. I remember a thread discussing all
possibilities and their names in the desktops, long ago. All of them are
“safe”, the difference is how convenient each one is for each person.
Hearing the disk spin down and park (now or later) is no problem, at
least regarding data safety.
But I’m convinced that the option “safely remove device” should stop spinning plate ext HDD, such as ubuntu and windows. My ext hdd has no additional external power supply. To safely remove the option of using the icon in the system tray (the icon that appears when the person connecting HDD). This is how it works to me now, the greater the possibility of failure ext HDD.
On 2015-05-15 09:26, MaxBunker wrote:
>
> But I’m convinced that the option “safely remove device” should stop
> spinning plate ext HDD, such as ubuntu and windows.
It is a matter of opinion
I remember a desktop (but not which one) that had both types: umount and
power down, or only umount. The wording of each option was not clear
about what each one did, and caused confusion.
Let me see…
On Nautilus, with right click, eject, the media is apparently powered down.
On Thunar (xfce) I see both umount and eject, clearly labeled. With
umount, click again and it mounts. With eject, I see the LED go off.
On Dolphin (inside xfce) I do not see the device appear. Ah, Ok, found
it, I had to activate the “places” panel. Safely remove powers down my
stick.
This is on 13.1.
> My ext hdd has no
> additional external power supply. To safely remove the option of using
> the icon in the system tray (the icon that appears when the person
> connecting HDD). This is how it works to me now, the greater the
> possibility of failure ext HDD.
After the “disk” is umounted, there is no danger to the data, even if it
keeps spinning.
I would like to find a way to using the "safely remove device " to my ext hdd unmount and off, so that disconnection is absolutely safe for health information and HDD health.
I tried to process the file manager , delphin , and the result is the same as the ones from the system tray icon.
On 2015-05-15 15:16, MaxBunker wrote:
>
> I would like to find a way to using the "safely remove device " to my
> ext hdd unmount and off, so that disconnection is absolutely safe for
> health information and HDD health.
Again, your hard disk is absolutely safe. Please show documentation that
it isn’t, and when you find it, open a bugzilla on the issue.
I’d have to agree with the other sage advice here… use “Safely Remove” then turn the power off to the usb harddrive and do whatever you want after it spins down. Perfectly safe to the data and integrity of the hard drive. I use a couple of hard drive docking stations and shuffle multiple hard drives in and out, since I’ve been doing this for years I’d tell you if this could cause a problem. Seems that you are hesitant because the hard drive does not spin down automatically. It’s not supposed to…if the “Safely Remove” does not give an error message then there are no reads/writes pending and the head is parked. It doesn’t presume your next action since you might re-mount, turn-off, or leave on-standby. if the spin down is important to you, you could identify the device using: #lsblk *to get a listing of all block devices then once the device name is known, put in “sleep” mode with: #hdparm -Y /dev/sd? this is not really necessary as most usb devices of this kind have a power on/off switch which can be used and accomplish the same thing. hope it helps…
The problem is that the panel ext HDD will continue to spin, and then the head is not parked, although I had previously received a pop-up message that it is now safe to remove the device. If you then still disconnecting ext HDD from USB port, then I hear the sound of parking the head and only then the panel stopped spinning. And it’s happening at all KDE distributions, I tried to live in the mode with opensuse tumblewed, Kubuntu, Linux Mint KDE.
The problem will not be solved if we deny or diminish. The problem there and appeared to me on more than one computer, but only if it is installed KDE distribution. Such a phenomenon that happens to me inevitably lead to malfunction ext HDD or USB port.
When on that same PC try windows or a gnome distribution (ubuntu, mint cinnamon), then the problem does not, but act “safely remove device” do its job properly (unmount ext hd, stop motion HDD board, park the HDD head, remove voltage from uSB port).
If someone successfully solve this problem please share this knowledge with me.
Opinions colleagues on this board who are trying to minimize the problem or deny it, not helping me in any way.
At all sites there are HDD manufacturers instructions that before disconnecting certainly must park HDD heads and stop spinning plates in HDD.
On 2015-05-19 16:56, MaxBunker wrote:
>
> The problem will not be solved if we deny or diminish. The problem there
> and appeared to me on more than one computer, but only if it is
> installed KDE distribution. Such a phenomenon that happens to me
> inevitably lead to malfunction ext HDD or USB port.
I don’t see any problem to solve, sorry.
If you think it is a problem, you have to convince the developers (not
here) to redesign the feature. Talking to us is useless, we are not the
KDE devs.
It is safe to remove when the Device notifier says it is. If you want to confirm put a CPU activity widget on the desk top and watch the activity when the CPU usage drops back to normal the device is safe all the data has been written and the device is umounted. I would not expect the device to power down but ten that may depend on the device I’d guess.
I use the cpu monitor widget
Note It is how things are writen to external drives that makes this critical. A file is copied but the device is not near as fast as the CPU so the file is buffereed in memory or a tmp file and the process continues at the convenience of the OS. A safe removal causes any unwritten data to be written before it is deemed safe to remove. ( It has nothing at all to do with power/ head position etc), In essence you are doing a “commit” which forces the OS to empty it’s write buffers. The amount of data buffered and held is dependent on the OS and setting. I have noticed the Windows seem lazy on writing the data where Linux appears to write though pretty much right away. Of course it is limited to the write speed of the device and some data may still be buffered if you try to remove immediately after a large copy/change.
On 2015-05-19 18:06, gogalthorp wrote:
>
> It is safe to remove when the Device notifier says it is. If you want to
> confirm put a CPU activity widget on the desk top and watch the activity
> when the CPU usage drops back to normal the device is safe all the data
> has been written and the device is umounted. I would not expect the
> device to power down but ten that may depend on the device I’d guess.
He thinks that if the device is not powered down it is unsafe, and
doesn’t shift from this opinion.
And some desktops have two separate options, one to umount, and another
that umounts and powers off. Thunar, in xfce, does that. Nautilus does
the second version only.
It is a matter of how the particular application designer choose to do it.
If KDE chooses NOT to do it, then either he does it himself or convinces
the developers to do it for him…
