USB Jumpdrive problems and Gnome: Don't use GPILOTD

[Sam Williams]

I need to be able to go between windows and linux with these things.
Thats why it is necessary to get it working under gnome... I think I was
misunderstood in my first note.... If you have problems with anything
over 256 Mbytes, then make sure GPILOTD is not running as it more then
likely is getting in the way. Not sure why, but the problem and solution
are 100% reproducible....

Besides, you have a finite limit on the number of times that you can
write to these devices. I would think that formatting them might shorten
their useful life a little.... The fat filesystem should work fine, in
the same that it does on floppies when these are used between Operating
Systems...

Sam
On Wed, 2004-09-01 at 08:17, Terry Polzin wrote:
> On Tuesday August 31 2004 22:01, Wolfgang Gill wrote:
> > On Tue, 31 Aug 2004 20:12:38 -0500, Sam Williams wrote
> >
> > > I have been having difficult with usb thumb style drives and FC1 /
> > > FC2 for a long time. I have scoured the web for reports of similar
> > > problems and solutions. While I found quite a number of problem reports
> > > there were no solutions. In fact, to the contrary, people seemed to
> > > abandon the search.
> > >
> > > Recently I purchased a Lexar JumpDrive (128 mbytes), which replaced the
> > > 256 Mbytes Sandisk MiniCruiser that I just knew was bad. Well, it worked
> > > great and I didn't give it a second thought.... My wife, kind soul that
> > > she is, went out and bought me the 256 Mbyte Lexar Jumpdrive. I was
> > > excited. I had another jumpdrive with twice the capacity.... I was
> > > shocked when I plugged it into my system and had the exact problem I
> > > had seen with the MiniCruiser. The problem scenario looks like a
> > > defective device. The system tries multiple-times to mount it, then
> > > ultimately comes up with some timeout messages and a message that says
> > > that the fat filesystem is unreadable!!!
> > >
> > > After many days I have found the source of the problem. If I have
> > > gpilotd ( version 2.0.10) running on my system I can mount and use
> > > 128Mbyte jumpdrives and lower, but it will not allow me to use anything
> > > of higher capacity then this. If I kill or pause the gpilotd, EVERYTHING
> > > works just fine!!! I can use both of my 256 Mbyte usb drives as well
> > > as all the lower capacity ones that I now own....
> > >
> > > Gpilotd has some real problems. It is somehow getting in the way of
> > > my use of the jump drives, and it will not allow an easy hot-sync
> > > with my Sony Clie. I have to try multiple times. Sometimes I have to
> > > try and then recycle the gpilotd, before I can get a successful
> > > sync. There is a real problem with this daemon.... Sadly, I think
> > > I'm the only person that has seen this relationship..
> > >
> > > Anyway, for all of you that have been having these types of usbdrive
> > > problems I would suggest you make sure and try it without gpilotd
> > > running in the mix....
> > >
> > > --
> > > Sam Williams                                             samurai at acm.org
> >
> > [snip]
> >
> > I've had simlar problems with an Apacer HT202 (1GB). I've noticed that the
> > format on these devices are not of the standard configuration. As it would
> > not mount on my system either. However, it had some instructions in the
> > manual to reconfigure the drive. And now it works perfectly. I'm not
> > familar with your device, but if you goto this site (below), and download
> > the manual. It has the instructions there on how to reformat it, so you can
> > mount it properly in Linux.
> >
> > http://www.apacer.com/apacer_english/product_html/handy_steno_ht202.asp
> >
> > Hope this helps.
> >
> > Wolf
> > --
> > Open WebMail Project (http://openwebmail.org)
> I just did this yesterday to a Lexar 256mb jumpdrive sport.  Fdisk followed by 
> mke2fs followed by mount.  Default partitioning on Lexar appears to be FAT16
-- 
Sam Williams                                             samurai at acm.org
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+"It is easy to be blinded to the essential uselessness of computers   +
+ by the sense of accomplishment you get from getting them to work at  +
+ all."                                                                +
+                                                     - Douglas Adams  +
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