Re: Compact flash; is it hot lugable

From: Jeff Jonas (jeffj_at_panix.com)
Date: 02/28/04

  • Next message: Chesney Christ: "Selective linking with gcc/g++/ld" 
    Date: 28 Feb 2004 14:26:02 -0500

    >>>I think there is two issues here, mount/unmount and hotplugable.
    >> Theoretical youre right, but hotplugging _together_ _with_ manual
    >> mount/umount makes no sense, therefore hotplugable cf-card makes no sense,

    Oy, I remember a customer around 1987 who was frothing at the mouth
    because ejecting a floppy disk while still Unix mounted
    caused file system corruption.
    They were apparently accustomed to the DOS way of
    yanking any floppy without the activity led on
    (yet older floppy drives locked the eject mechanism while busy or selected).
    Sadly, there was no software solution since only Macintosh systems
    have floppy disks with "soft eject" to notify the system to finish up
    before physically ejecting the disk.
    And even in the 80s, floppy drives no longer locked the eject mechanism
    to prevent removing an in-use disk.

    Linux is rather cd-saavy like Windows and auto-detects when a CD is inserted.
    The eject buttion is usually disabled, but the 'eject' command
    auto unmounts the file system before opening the tray.

    But as to other removeable media, there's no "lock/disable eject button" mechanism
    or even "IN USE, DO NOT TOUCH" LED to prevent removal of the still-active device.

    I've plugged in and removed USB storage devices to Linux while still running
    (compact flash and such), but I was careful to "sync" and unmount the device
    before unplugging. Sadly, there was not even an LED
    to warm me when it was safe to unplug, only an LED for activity.

    SCSI folks have more experience with such things:
    the drive MUST be idle and LOGICALLY DETACHED (unmounted, etc.)
    before physically removing.

  • Next message: Chesney Christ: "Selective linking with gcc/g++/ld"

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