USB drive, sync and umount

From: luc wastiaux (dustpuppy_at_airpost.net)
Date: 10/24/04 

Date: Sun, 24 Oct 2004 20:26:18 +0200

Hello,

I bought an mp3 player: the creative muvo TX FM. I works perfectly under
linux, but I'm running into software problems:
First of all, foor the data on the player to be consistent, I have to
either:
- mount the drive with the 'sync' option
- run the 'sync' command before unmounting the drive

Why doesn't 'umount' perform the sync before unmounting ? It seems it
doesn't. I'm afraid to try to make sure, but I have seen forum posts
implying that a sync is needed before unmounting.

Second, I can mount the drive automatically in Nautilus (I assume this
is because I have 'user' listed as option in the relevant fstab entry)
by accessing the drive. The problem I encounter is that Famd then
proceeds to monitor the drive for any changes, preventing me from
unmounting the drive (I get a "drive is busy" message, and running lsof
indicates that famd is indeed the culprit).

I would like to be able to use this mp3 player with less hassle, so I'm
looking at ways to make this easier:

- is there a way I can get umount to run sync ? I would like to mount
the drive as async because this gives me more (perceived) performance, I
can copy an album, then copy another without waiting for the writes to
be complete.
- what can be done about famd preventing me from unmounting the drive ?

I am curious as to how the automount systems that are installed by
default on some distributions handle this. Do they require the user to
manually unmount a drive ? Or is there a timeout ?

Thanks for any suggestions. 

-- 
luc wastiaux

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Mount option hazardous to USB Flash!
    ... >> the key and mount it somewhere else without the sync option. ... I got a 1GB flash player this week. ... Unmounting was previously fast, ...
    (Fedora)
  • Re: My MP3 Player deletes songs if I have deleted them from Windows.
    ... If you want to leave files on your device but take them off your computer, you need to disable autosync. ... This will set the player to be in "manual sync" mode, which means you pick what comes off and what goes on. ... external storage drives are coming way down in price. ... I have to use Windows Media 10 for this specific MP3 player ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsmedia)
  • Re: Copy CD to MP3
    ... the CD, go to the Rip tab, and rrip the CD to your music library... ... Then go to the Sync tab, connect the MP3 player, find the newly added ... tracks in the library then use the WMP Sync feature to copy the tracks ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsmedia.player)
  • Re: Did WMDC sync with memory card now?
    ... I do not need to sync with my memory card like a mp3 player. ... I know WMC can sync the files with mp3 player but that is not I want unless it changes in version 11 comes with Vista and I did not know it. ... Some Windows Mobile 5 devices will have a tool to ...
    (microsoft.public.pocketpc.activesync)
  • Re: How to export to drive:music without creating a tree in it?
    ... If you go to the Sync tab with the MP3 player plugged in, ... That would usually dump all files into a single folder on the MP3 ... files are named accorgind to artist/album/track. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsmedia.player)