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Any LXDE flashdrive GUI manager ? [solved]

Graphical Environments, Managers, Multimedia & Desktop questions.
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Laadna
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Any LXDE flashdrive GUI manager ? [solved]

#1 Post by Laadna »

Hello,

I'm using LXDE. I lack a simple graphical interface to manage my usb sticks and drives. Openbox allows me to mount and unmount them, that's all. For example I could use format and rename options.

I tried to do so using Gparted, but it is a rather heavy and time-consuming solution. Moreover it ended once with an unusable, unformatable flashdrive (even with a command-line software) that only Windows could format... I do not remember picking exotic features or doing something unusual with Gparted or the flashdrive.

I guess an Openbox tweak or a gui daemon could do the job simpler than a dedicated software.

Thanks for your tips.
Last edited by Laadna on 2018-10-03 22:53, edited 1 time in total.

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bw123
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Re: Any LXDE flashdrive GUI manager ?

#2 Post by bw123 »

When you need root in a gui, it's never simple. Creating new filesystems(AKA formatting) and renaming a partition needs root. There seem to be at least two main ways, either through libparted (GParted and QtParted), or through udisks2 (Gnome Disks and KDE part Editor) and they require some type of auth stuff like dbus/policykit/etc which has a lot of dependencies. If you want to add all the dependencies, then I guess you can use them. There are probably several filemanagers that can do this also, but I don't use them. You can find out about them maybe from wikipedia file manager comparison.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compariso ... e_managers

The light and simple, reliable way to do it is through terminal, logged in as root.
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Head_on_a_Stick
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Re: Any LXDE flashdrive GUI manager ?

#3 Post by Head_on_a_Stick »

Laadna wrote:a simple graphical interface to manage my usb sticks and drives
What exactly do you want to do with the storage devices?

I would second bw123's recommendation to do stuff from the command line if possible.
deadbang

Laadna
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Re: Any LXDE flashdrive GUI manager ?

#4 Post by Laadna »

Like I said, mostly format and label volumes. I don't mind command-line for stuff I do on a regular basis, otherwise I forget how to do it and I lose a lot of time searching for it again.

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GarryRicketson
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Re: Any LXDE flashdrive GUI manager ?

#5 Post by GarryRicketson »

For example I could use format and rename options.
You are confusing Linux with Windows or Dos,
There is no 'format' command on a linux system, but try typing at the terminal:

Code: Select all

man mkfs 
, it is pretty simple, but if and when you forget , the manual is just a few keystrokes away. It is all ways there.

I don't know of any reliable GUI's that are versatile and reliable enough to be of much use, for this kind of thing.
I have heard some people mention "parted", or something like that, but have never used or tried it my self, I think if you do a search :
key words:

Code: Select all

How to format a flash drive using Linux CLI

Might get you some information. Gparted and most other GUI tools for this are very limited
as you have all ready seen.
I don't mind command-line for stuff I do on a regular basis, otherwise I forget how to do it and I lose a lot of time searching for it again.
There is not much anyone here can do to help you with that, I find it easy to remember, if I first , for example:

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$ mkdir format-usb-drive
$ cd format-usb-drive
$ pwd (just to make sure)
$ format-usb-drive$  (now I am sure)
$ cat > notes.txt
In the "notes.txt" file , I copy paste the commands, with options,etc, that worked well, later when I need to run them again, I simply use a file manager, open the directory for the task at hand, open my "notes.txt" file, and copy paste the lines I need into the terminal,... I agree , it is hard, if not impossible to memorize all of the commands, with syntex,options, etc,...
For commands that should be run as root, I do open the "notes" as a normal user, in another window, on one side, I have the terminal open, and am using "su", so am root,..
simply copy/paste from the notes.txt, to the terminal prompt. No real need to remember much.
A screen shot would help explain, and maybe later will show one.
Some commands, that are very long, and difficult to remember, I make a simple KSH script, give it a easy name to remember, when I need to run the command, I just type the script name at the terminal prompt.
A example, to start my QEMU VM, and run Debian, the actual command is:

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cd /home/garry/Images/ISO-images/debianwheezy/
ulimit -d 3000000
qemu-system-i386 -localtime -net user -net nic -m 1000 -drive format=raw,file=debian.img 
To much to remember for me, so the script name is:
'start-debian', all I do, at the CLI prompt:

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$ start-debian
And press enter,...wait for it to load and boot.
=============== edited ===========
Here some screen shots to hope fully clarify.
Image
I noticed the OP mentions they are using OpenBox WM, that is a good start, I am using the same, in the above, you see how I started the VM, and also have it on my screen.
In a nut shell , most , if not all GUI's are limited to only performing the tasks, and commands the designer decides to allow you to use. The terminal, however can be used to run any command , if it exists as a command you decide you need.
The only use full GUI, might be a good file manager, and also a good text editor. What is good ?, this is something only you can decide, based on trying various, and you will find what suites your needs best. I like "leafpad", but sometimes, I need to use "joe" or "nano", the same may apply to the file manager, one that you like, might not work so well for certain tasks, so you have another you can use when need be.
To sum it up, you make your own GUI, that utilizes a filemanager, text editor, and terminal that you prefer. Then you start building your "libraries", these are directories,with names that tell you what they are for, no need to remember, the name should be clear, and with no spaces in the name. Each directory contains files that include notes, with the commands you used, and in some cases scripts, that run when you type or copy/paste the script name into the terminal, in fact the scripts can be made t run if you just click or double click them, I avoid that for reasons, 1 being a rather mischievous parrot, but that is another topic.
Image
In this (above) It is a simple command, and I no longer need the "notes", I have it memorized, but it is for a example. In the Xterm window, the "scrnshot-3", is the script (command), it is more complicated and is a script I wrote that takes my screen shots, resizes them,to make a thumbnail, and then uploads both to the server. I do not need to remember everything involved in doing that at the cli, I just type "scrnshot-3", and then select the area on the screen , or the entire screen, ...the "command" (script does the rest), the others ,scrnshot-1, etc, are for other situations, so the command is slightly different.
Any way, my point is, instead of wasting your time looking for a GUI, that might not even exists, or if it does, it probably still will not have certain commands,or options that you might want or need, so instead of looking for the "perfect GUI", start exploring the various commands used by linux to prepare and make a filesystem on a flash drive. Keep good notes, then later you can use those same notes to make your own GUI,... hope I am not wasting my time here.
Last edited by GarryRicketson on 2018-09-30 18:15, edited 1 time in total.

Bulkley
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Re: Any LXDE flashdrive GUI manager ?

#6 Post by Bulkley »

Laadna, have you had a look at gnome-disk-utility ? It might solve your issues. Maybe not but easy to install from repository and test. It does work on my Openbox.

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debiman
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Re: Any LXDE flashdrive GUI manager ?

#7 Post by debiman »

Laadna wrote:Like I said, mostly format and label volumes.
gparted.

btw, openbox has nothing to do with any of this.

shep
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Re: Any LXDE flashdrive GUI manager ?

#8 Post by shep »

Laadna wrote: Moreover it ended once with an unusable, unformatable flashdrive (even with a command-line software) that only Windows could format... I do not remember picking exotic features or doing something unusual with Gparted or the flashdrive.
If you used Windows to reformat your flashdrive, you likely ended up with a vfat (msdos) file system. Vfat/msdos is old and will not accept files greater than 4GB. On the plus side, it can be mounted by just about any OS. Some of the newer usb hard drives come preformated with ntfs.

Depending on what you are using your flashdrives for, you can partition your drive with multiple partitions and format the partitions with ext2/ext4, ufs, ntfs ....

The ability to read/write to ntfs, with Linux, requires the fuse module. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I do not believe that windows can mount ext2/ext4 or ufs file systems.

Laadna
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Re: Any LXDE flashdrive GUI manager ?

#9 Post by Laadna »

Bulkley wrote:Laadna, have you had a look at gnome-disk-utility ? It might solve your issues. Maybe not but easy to install from repository and test. It does work on my Openbox.
No I didn't. As a matter of fact, this package is already installed (I do not remember installing it though, and my system is pretty new). Any idea on how to access/use it ? Both udisks (which gnome disks claims to use) and gnome-disk-utility commands typed in the terminal are "not found".

@GarryRicketson : I'm sorry you spent all this time writing. It does not answer my question nor does it solve my problem. I specifically asked for a non-command line solution (which I can search online in a matter of seconds).
@shep : Thank you too, I am not asking for a Gparted support I just mentioned it to avoid someone suggesting it to me as a proper solution.

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Re: Any LXDE flashdrive GUI manager ?

#10 Post by shep »

You used the term "manage" in your original post. If you mean access the contents you may need gvfs-backends.
https://packages.debian.org/stretch/gvfs-backends With this, the contents of the flash drive should show up in a complaint file manager - ie pcmanfm.

Laadna
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Re: Any LXDE flashdrive GUI manager ?

#11 Post by Laadna »

I also have this package installed. I don't know what you mean. My previous question was : how can I access or use gnome-disk-utility, which may be a solution ?

I already have a gui file manager (it's pcmanfm by the way, I thought it was openbox 'cause it's supposed to be the default lxde file manager). With the file manager I access the content of a flashdrive. I can also mount and unmount it. What I can't do, and I want to do, is format/rename my flashdrives. Either within this file manager or with a dedicated software (as long as it's something light, ie not Gparted) I don't really care.

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Re: Any LXDE flashdrive GUI manager ?

#12 Post by bw123 »

you can probably find it with apropos

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apropos disk
apropos format
apropos partition
apropos gnome
I don;t use gnome, but it might be called disks, or gnome-disk, gnome-something? try looking in /usr/share/doc/gnome-disk-utility or /usr/share/applications at it's .desktop file for the command to run it.
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debiman
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Re: Any LXDE flashdrive GUI manager ?

#13 Post by debiman »

Laadna wrote: (as long as it's something light, ie not Gparted)
i wonder how you got the impression that gparted isn't light enough?

Laadna
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Re: Any LXDE flashdrive GUI manager ?

#14 Post by Laadna »

It takes like 30 seconds to launch the software, during which my computer is freezing.

The package name is gnome-disks, thanks bw123 for the trick.

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debiman
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Re: Any LXDE flashdrive GUI manager ?

#15 Post by debiman »

Laadna wrote:It takes like 30 seconds to launch the software, during which my computer is freezing.
it takes a while to read in all the devices.
try Ctrl-R in gparted, does that also take 30s?

kevinthefixer
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Re: Any LXDE flashdrive GUI manager ? [solved]

#16 Post by kevinthefixer »

Or invoke it from terminal and specify the device you want to tweak:

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sudo gparted /dev/sdc
or whatever your flashdrive might be. Saves searching all partitions on all drives.

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