Pcmanfm and usb flash drive

[monkeybrain2012]

I have a strange problem with usb drives on lubuntu12.04. When I plug a usb drive into a pc with lubuntu installed and look at the content, then remove it and modify its content in another machine then plug it back into the lubuntu machine, the change does not seem to be picked up by the gui.

For example, if I plugin the drive, open it and then remove the drive, and plug it into a different machine and remove some files, then plug it in again into the first machine (with Lubuntu) and open it with pcmanfm the files' icons are still showing even though checking in the terminal confirms that they have indeed been deleted.

Or, I plug a usb into a lubuntu machine, open it and inspect its content, then remove it and plug it into a different machine to add some files. When plugging back into the lubuntu machine and open the drive with PCmanfm these files don't show up, yet checking with the terminal confirms that these files are present.

So it seems that when the usb drive is first plugged into lubuntu, it somehow remembers what is in it and that if the drive is modified later in a different machine, the changes don't get picked up by pcmanfm when the same drive is plugged into the original lubuntu machine a second time.


Sorry if it sounds a bit confusing, but it seems to be a very confusing problem. Does anyone experience the same problem?

Thanks for any suggestion or advice.

[sudodus]

Do you unmount the usb flash drive (click the eject symbol in pcmanfm) or use

sudo umount

? Then, when remounting, linux should read the drive and update its content.

It is important to unmount drives in general, and slow USB drives in particular, to make sure all write operations have finished before disconnecting it. Otherwise you a likely to corrupt your file system. You can check that everything is written from the buffers using

sync

in a terminal window.

[monkeybrain2012]

Yes I did unmount. As I said if I use the terminal to list the content it does show the changes and I can manipulate the content (say copying and moving them ) with the command line so I don't think the problem has to do with write operation not having completed. It seems that somehow pcmanfm remembers the previous state of the drive and fails to update it accordingly.

Edited: I should emphasize that the change was done on a different machine (say one with Ubuntu or another Lubuntu) and that this change is not picked up in the lubuntu machine if the drive has been in the lubuntu machine before.

[sudodus]

I see. What happens if you tell pcmanfm to reread the directory (either via the menu or with F5)?

Edit: Maybe pcmanfm uses some kind of caching data, but this should be updated by 'a reread'

[monkeybrain2012]

I see. What happens if you tell pcmanfm to reread the directory (either via the menu or with F5)?

I tried refreshing if that is what you mean.

[sudodus]

Yes, I translated from my language (anyway F5 should be doing it). Still no go?

[monkeybrain2012]

No.

[sudodus]

Maybe it's a bug. What happens if you try another file browser, Nautilus from Ubuntu or Thunar from Xubuntu? They are easy to install from the repos

 sudo apt-get install nautilus

 sudo apt-get install thunar

Will the problem persist or is it only affecting pcmanfm?

[monkeybrain2012]

Maybe it's a bug. What happens if you try another file browser, Nautilus from Ubuntu or Thunar from Xubuntu? They are easy to install from the repos

 sudo apt-get install nautilus

 sudo apt-get install thunar

Will the problem persist or is it only affecting pcmanfm?

Thanks for the advice, I will try to do some more experiments when I go home. I think, however, mixing and matching file managers maybe a bad idea because some functions may stop working as the system is confused about which file browser should take over and when. For example, installing nautilus along pcfman may result in folders on Desktop not openable with double click and some media failing to mount because apparently pcfman cedes control to Nautilus in some functions but Nautilus may not be aware of that, or some such reasons.

[sudodus]

Thanks for the advice, I will try to do some more experiments when I go home. I think, however, mixing and matching file managers maybe a bad idea because some functions may stop working as the system is confused about which file browser should take over and when. For example, installing nautilus along pcfman may result in folders on Desktop not openable with double click and some media failing to mount because apparently pcfman cedes control to Nautilus in some functions but Nautilus may not be aware of that, or some such reasons.

I have all three running in the OS I am using right now, and there is no problem for me. They are just three independent programs. You might prefer to open Nautilus without control of the desktop with

alias nautilus='nautilus --no-desktop'

Edit: Of course, after some testing you can select the one you like the best and remove the other two file browsers.