[Solved] I can never get USBs to work with Linux...

[Chiefahol2]

2019, usbs are pretty much becoming outdated, Debian still struggles immensely just to format and use usb drives. I'm just trying to use the inbuilt gnome desktop tools to format a drive with NTFS, i get this error:

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'Error formatting volume

Error synchronizing after initial wipe: Timed out waiting for object (udisks-error-quark, 0)'

Wasn't able to copy/paste this error (why gnome?), anyway how do you resolve it?

Edit: It was a broken USB!

[Chiefahol2]

Just tried formatting it for FAT32, same error

[Chiefahol2]

Trying and failing to install gparted:

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dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/libgtkmm-2.4-1v5_1%3a2.24.5-4_amd64.deb (--unpack):
 unable to clean up mess surrounding './usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgdkmm-2.4.so.1.1.0' before installing another version: Read-only file system
dpkg-deb: error: paste subprocess was killed by signal (Broken pipe)
Preparing to unpack .../gparted_0.32.0-2_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking gparted (0.32.0-2) ...
dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/gparted_0.32.0-2_amd64.deb (--unpack):
 unable to clean up mess surrounding './usr/sbin/gparted' before installing another version: Read-only file system
dpkg-deb: error: paste subprocess was killed by signal (Broken pipe)
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/libgtkmm-2.4-1v5_1%3a2.24.5-4_amd64.deb
 /var/cache/apt/archives/gparted_0.32.0-2_amd64.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

[Chiefahol2]

I get this error when attempting to delete the existing partition via gnome-disks:

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Error deleting partition /dev/sda1: Failed to commit changes to device '/dev/sda' (Partition map has no partition map entry!) (udisks-error-quark, 0)

I check fdisk and it definitely does have a partition entry.

[p.H]

unable to clean up mess surrounding './usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgdkmm-2.4.so.1.1.0' before installing another version: Read-only file system

Looks like /usr is mounted read-only. Is this expected ? If yes, you must remount /usr read-write before installing, upgrading or removing packages. If no, this may be the cause of your trouble, especially if the whole / filesystem has unexpectedly become read-only.

[Chiefahol2]

Rebooted.

Installed gparted. (Why is gnome-disks even packaged if it's broken?)

Formatted usb to NTFS.

Copied files.

Press eject...

Now it's just hanging. Said not to remove the disk and that it was still writing... then the notification disappeared, i don't see the new notification that it is safe to unplug?

How do i simply eject a usb from Debian 10?

'Unable to eject Volume

An operation is already pending'

[Chiefahol2]

After powering down the systemd job for mounting/unmounting filesystems was still running for several minutes. I have no idea if the data is copied properly.

I guess I'll find out tomorrow...

[stevepusser]

Have you tried a different pendrive to see if your problem is hardware-based? They do get borked once in a while.

[Chiefahol2]

I believe that USB was defective, it seems to work fine with others, cheers steve.

[phenest]

2019, usbs are pretty much becoming outdated, Debian still struggles immensely just to format and use usb drives.

Where did you get that information from? USB is not outdated. And Debian has never struggled with formatting USB drives in the 10+ years I've been using it regardless of whether I use CLI or GUI.

[reinob]

I believe that USB was defective, it seems to work fine with others, cheers steve. :lol:

You might want to update the first post and/or title of the thread to avoid people wasting time reading about your defective USB drive...

[Chiefahol2]

agreed, cheers