On Tue, 2006-06-06 at 21:16 -0700, Randall R Schulz wrote:
Every flash-RAM-based "disk" I have has it's jewel light lit only when data is actually being transferred. In other words, the light is an activity indicator. So I'd wait for it to go out and stay out for a few seconds before I disconnected the device.
Unfortunately I have both Lexmark and Geek Squad (rebranded Memorex?) that have a light that indicates power/connectivity. The hot-plug/media configuration in kernel 2.6 distros "just work." But that doesn't mean you can just yank it out. Depending on speed, you need to give it time. 30 seconds since last transfer is typically fine, depending on the transfer. If your device uses UDF instead of FAT32, it's typically a tad safer since UDF was designed for forcing consistent writes to removable block devices. Ironically enough, Linux 2.6 is extremely superior to Windows XP in how it handles USB storage device consistency. In Windows XP, I've repeatedly seen corruptions, even when the user is only "reading" data from the device. It has to do with the fact that the NT kernel does _not_ have the concept of "read-only" filesystem access, whereas Linux (and all UNIX flavors) do. Don't get me started on that nightmare when it comes to NTFS. ;-> -- Bryan J. Smith Professional, technical annoyance mailto:b.j.smith@ieee.org http://thebs413.blogspot.com ------------------------------------------------------- Illegal Immigration = "Representation Without Taxation" -- Check the headers for your unsubscription address For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the archives at http://lists.suse.com Please read the FAQs: suse-linux-e-faq@suse.com