• From: Melbourne
  • Registered: 2009-03-26
  • Posts: 86

Topic: Unable to unmount SD or USB - files become unreadable

Hello friends,

I've had this problem for near 6 months now, and haven't been able to find any information about it (I don't like to impose on people by asking about such things).

When transferring videos to an SD card, or USB flash drive, I am unable to unmount afterwards. It asks that I please wait as the drive is busy or some such, and then waits about 30 seconds and then says it was unable to unmount:

"Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken."

My NTFS and FAT32 portable harddrives work fine, no problems. But all my (FAT32) sd cards and USB flash drives have this problem. I need to use FAT32 as I am using the SD cards in my phone.

The problem always occurs with files over 200mb, randomly with files 100mb - 200mb, and never with files below 100mb unless I have copied multiple files.

This is now becoming quite urgent for me as I am going to be spending ~40hours on a plane in a month or so, and I have spent weeks converting videos to suit my phone display, and now I cannot get them onto my phone.

I have tried transferring files directly to my phone via wifi and ftp transfer, but they always come out unreadable.

It's not a hardware problem, as in the past I just booted into my XP partition and everything worked fine. But now the XP install is corrupted, so it's not an option.

Any help is much appreciated, thank you.

#! Statler on eeepc 1000H
#! Statler alpha 2 on eeepc 701

PoliticsOfStarving's Website

  • From: Venezuela
  • Registered: 2011-07-17
  • Posts: 23

Re: Unable to unmount SD or USB - files become unreadable

I'm not exactly sure what is happening on yours, but I have seen very slow copy rates going to USB drives and Flash keys.

This might provide some insight, seems to have similar problem to yours.
http://code.google.com/p/cyanogenmod/is … il?id=2949
Good luck.

Core 2 Duo : #!-Statler,  SalineOS
AcerAspire1: #!-Statler,  WinXP
ThinkCentre: SalineOS, Peppermint
Pre-school computers: 3-P4, 2-P3 w/ DoudouLinux
  • From: Melbourne
  • Registered: 2009-03-26
  • Posts: 86

Re: Unable to unmount SD or USB - files become unreadable

Hmm. Well i think it's definitely related to SD and USB write speeds. The card seems to be timing out before all the data is written. Also because smaller files do not produce the issue. Maybe exclusive to solid state devices as none of my USB harddrives have any problems.

To test; I just attempted to copy a 1.8gb video (~six the size of the ones I've been working with), and left the SD card in for about 15 minutes before trying to unmount it. It unmounted perfectly and the video is playing with no error.

So as a workaround, I can wait 5 - 10 minutes per file copied (avg file size is 300mb), unmount after each individual file, then mount and do the next one, wait, unmount, etc..

Not ideal, but better than not being able to copy at all.

This seems to only happen under crunchbang. I have a smaller eeepc with Mint9 in which I have not replicated the issue. I also have not had the problem at work using XP, or as I mentioned, my previous XP install on this computer.

I can only think it's some kind of software failure. (?) I wonder if it's worth reinstalling my entire system. Really don't want to do that if I can help it though.
Or is there some way to tell crunchbang to wait for longer periods before timing out an unmount request?

#! Statler on eeepc 1000H
#! Statler alpha 2 on eeepc 701

PoliticsOfStarving's Website

  • From: California, USA
  • Registered: 2008-11-29
  • Posts: 8,647

Re: Unable to unmount SD or USB - files become unreadable

Maybe try running "sync" after you copy the files then try unmounting?

Alternatively, if you have your sdcard in your fstab, you could modify it to read something like:

/dev/mmcblk0p1 /media/card auto defaults,sync 0 0
Note: ** Please read before posting **

BTW if you wish to contact me, send me an e-mail instead of a PM.
  • gurtid
  • #! CrunchBanger
  • Offline
  • From: NEW ZEALAND
  • Registered: 2011-04-07
  • Posts: 220

Re: Unable to unmount SD or USB - files become unreadable

i've just realised i have the same issue . . . anyone else?

  • Registered: 2011-02-22
  • Posts: 419

Re: Unable to unmount SD or USB - files become unreadable

Same exact problem on my #! machine! sad

Milozzy's Website

  • From: Portugal
  • Registered: 2011-10-22
  • Posts: 62

Re: Unable to unmount SD or USB - files become unreadable

posting from my cell phone so dn't have access to PC. Are you copying the files in X or shell?

Didi you try the other environment? If yes, is the beaviour the same?

Just some thoughts.

ASUS eeePC 1015 PEM 2GB 1666MHz - Crunchbang-10-20111125 - Linux 2.6.39-bpo.2-486 kernel

"If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?" Albert Einstein
  • From: Las Vegas, Nevada
  • Registered: 2011-07-04
  • Posts: 803

Re: Unable to unmount SD or USB - files become unreadable

To those with the issues are you using thunar? If so it has a mounting issue that's addressed I the new rewrite. Other wise use an alternative.

"'If fighting is to result in victory, then you must fight'...Sun Tzu said that and id say he knows a little more about fighting then you do pal."

- TF2 Soldier
  • dubois
  • The Old Codger
  • Offline
  • From: Austin, Texas
  • Registered: 2010-09-03
  • Posts: 2,177

Re: Unable to unmount SD or USB - files become unreadable

Hmm, Thunar works just fine on my system.  I know that doesn't help anyone but it does rule out the fact that not all copies of Thunar are flaky.


EDIT -- I'm using version 1.0.2-1+b2 on a Debian netinst, therefore it may be newer than what's in #! but it's still not the newest version available.  smile

Last edited by dubois (2011-11-03 01:03:05)

My formula for living is quite simple. I get up in the morning and I go to bed at night. In between, I occupy myself as best I can - Cary Grant

The Old Codger’s Lament
  • From: Las Vegas, Nevada
  • Registered: 2011-07-04
  • Posts: 803

Re: Unable to unmount SD or USB - files become unreadable

Yeah it's a pretty common problem but not every one has it, I didn't when I used it before I switched to rox-filer. it's just one of the freak inks that jus that pennies on some systems.

Last edited by psyco430404 (2011-11-03 01:25:07)

"'If fighting is to result in victory, then you must fight'...Sun Tzu said that and id say he knows a little more about fighting then you do pal."

- TF2 Soldier
  • dubois
  • The Old Codger
  • Offline
  • From: Austin, Texas
  • Registered: 2010-09-03
  • Posts: 2,177

Re: Unable to unmount SD or USB - files become unreadable

^ fox-filer??  If you mean rox-filer that is a cool fm, for sure.  smile

My formula for living is quite simple. I get up in the morning and I go to bed at night. In between, I occupy myself as best I can - Cary Grant

The Old Codger’s Lament
  • From: Las Vegas, Nevada
  • Registered: 2011-07-04
  • Posts: 803

Re: Unable to unmount SD or USB - files become unreadable

Yes thank you for point that out Dubois lol, darn iPad auto correct...

And rox is a lot more basic but it does what it does extremely well. It's a hellacious amount faster as well believe it or not.

"'If fighting is to result in victory, then you must fight'...Sun Tzu said that and id say he knows a little more about fighting then you do pal."

- TF2 Soldier
  • dubois
  • The Old Codger
  • Offline
  • From: Austin, Texas
  • Registered: 2010-09-03
  • Posts: 2,177

Re: Unable to unmount SD or USB - files become unreadable

NP.  Think I'll put that back on my system now that I think about it.  It's been a year or so -- thanks for the tip!  wink

My formula for living is quite simple. I get up in the morning and I go to bed at night. In between, I occupy myself as best I can - Cary Grant

The Old Codger’s Lament
  • From: Las Vegas, Nevada
  • Registered: 2011-07-04
  • Posts: 803

Re: Unable to unmount SD or USB - files become unreadable

Yeah it was a bit of a shock going from dual pane to single pane but once you get used to it it's really nice.

"'If fighting is to result in victory, then you must fight'...Sun Tzu said that and id say he knows a little more about fighting then you do pal."

- TF2 Soldier
  • Registered: 2011-12-16
  • Posts: 12

Re: Unable to unmount SD or USB - files become unreadable

using thunar 1.2 with the newer (crunchbang-10-20120207-amd64.bpo.iso) and it takes too long to copy a big file! Shall I use rox-filer ?

crunchbang-10-20120207-amd64.bpo
  • From: A kingdom in transition
  • Registered: 2011-06-24
  • Posts: 2,083

Re: Unable to unmount SD or USB - files become unreadable

I do not think it will make much difference.
More important is, which USB driver is loaded? uhci or ehci? That makes a world of difference!

If you poke the bear it is going to come after you.
  • Registered: 2011-12-16
  • Posts: 12

Re: Unable to unmount SD or USB - files become unreadable

also in ubuntu too; http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1899359

could be a kernel thing again, like the nasty ASPM thing ?

also found this
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour … bug/177235

This must be it, but I don't understand what the "fix" is :-(

and this
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1867460

Possible Fix for slow USB flash drive transfers and freezes
Appparently, this problem has been around since Ubuntu 8.04 and still is alive and well. Please read the description of the problem as I had it and the solution I found. There is more than one issue with USB file copies, so be sure this is the one you have!

Symptom: when copying large files (let's say larger than 1GB) to a USB flash drive (aka USB Stick or Thumb Drive), the copy starts very fast and slows down to a snail's speed after a while, significantly less than the flash drive is capable of handling. At the same time, you may experience intermittent system stalling - application windows graying out for a couple of seconds, even the mouse cursor might freeze. Once the copy process ends (finished or you yank the flash drive out to end the agony), everything returns to normal.

Solution: on many modern systems, an interrupt that deals with USB on non-ACPI computers, should be disabled during the boot process, but isn't. You can manually disable this interrupt by adding the following to your GRUB's KERNEL command:

Code:

pci=acpi

In Legacy GRUB, you add this code in menu.lst to the kernel command line of your kernel (where it says "ro quiet splash"). In Grub 1.99, you have to add the parameter in
grub.cfg to the option line of your kernel. YOu may or may not have to repeat this after upgrading to a new kernel.

All I can say is that it worked for me. (Ubuntu x64 10.04.3 with Natty kernel 2.6.38-12). I found the solution in the 13 pages of this thread:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p... … mp;page=13

Can you believe that bugs like this one (make system unusable, drive people back to Windows) have not been taken care of since 2008? I guess that all that counts nowadays is additional bling...

Last edited by stavros (2012-02-19 13:04:25)

crunchbang-10-20120207-amd64.bpo
  • Registered: 2011-12-16
  • Posts: 12

Re: Unable to unmount SD or USB - files become unreadable

the issue is gone by its self.. it never appeared again, must have been a failure of the moment, lol

crunchbang-10-20120207-amd64.bpo