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Bug 687093 - No easy way to easily format a USB stick
No easy way to easily format a USB stick
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Product: nautilus
Classification: Core
Component: general
3.6.x
Other Linux
: Normal normal
: ---
Assigned To: Nautilus Maintainers
Nautilus Maintainers
Depends on: 693682
Blocks:
 
 
Reported: 2012-10-29 08:55 UTC by Allan Day
Modified: 2013-02-18 16:25 UTC
See Also:
GNOME target: 3.8
GNOME version: ---


Attachments
places-sidebar: add a Format menu item for volumes (5.74 KB, patch)
2013-02-12 22:49 UTC, Cosimo Cecchi
committed Details | Review

Description Allan Day 2012-10-29 08:55:41 UTC
There is no easy way to easily format a USB stick in GNOME 3.6: Nautilus doesn't provide this option, and Disks makes it complicated.

I think that Nautilus is the most appropriate place for us to provide simple USB formatting. It is where people see USB sticks most often, hence we get the direct manipulation factor. Also, I suspect that formatting is a kind of "files" operation to a lot of people.
Comment 1 Cosimo Cecchi 2012-10-29 12:07:36 UTC
We used to have this as an extension provided by gnome-disk-utility back before it became Disks, then it was removed. I'm not opposed to reintroduce this feature back in Nautilus, but I think I would like to keep the format code in Disks.

UI-wise, how do you think this feature should be exposed?
Comment 2 Allan Day 2012-10-29 12:13:11 UTC
(In reply to comment #1)
...
> UI-wise, how do you think this feature should be exposed?

Same as before - context menu on the drive in the sidebar, then a little dialog.
Comment 3 David Zeuthen (not reading bugmail) 2013-01-26 18:06:16 UTC
I think the best would be to have Files offer a "Format Disk" option (context menu item, button, whatever...) that simply launches Disks and its "Format Disk: dialog (e.g. "gnome-disks --block-device /dev/sdb --format-disk").

FWIW, I added an item to the Disks TODO list for the "Format Disk" dialog to make it more friendly (insofar that the user will not have to create partitions manually afterwards), see

 http://git.gnome.org/browse/gnome-disk-utility/tree/TODO#n55
Comment 4 David Zeuthen (not reading bugmail) 2013-01-26 18:10:01 UTC
Btw, another option (as I think was originally proposed) is to have the gnome-disk-utility package provide a gnome-format-disk(1) command (that would show the "Format Disk" dialog) but I really would prefer to just have this in Disks.

E.g. I don't think that "Disks makes it complicated" is a good answer - if Disks is too complicated, we should make it simpler, not duplicate functionality etc.
Comment 5 Allan Day 2013-01-28 10:12:19 UTC
I don't have an opinion on which component should provide this functionality. The only requirement is that there's a simple format option available from Files.
Comment 6 Matthias Clasen 2013-02-10 19:14:45 UTC
What is the current state of affairs here ? 
Right now, if I insert a usb stick with a fedora live image on it, nothing happens - I don't get a notification, and it doesn't show up in nautilus either.
gnome-disks shows it as a drive, but the fedora partition on it doesn't get mounted automatically
Comment 7 Matthias Clasen 2013-02-11 22:16:56 UTC
Filed the failure to mount as bug 693621
Comment 8 Cosimo Cecchi 2013-02-12 22:47:14 UTC
The gnome-disks implementation of this is now in bug 693682
Comment 9 Cosimo Cecchi 2013-02-12 22:49:37 UTC
Created attachment 235827 [details] [review]
places-sidebar: add a Format menu item for volumes

This runs gnome-disks with a commandline that just sets the format
dialog as transient for the Nautilus toplevel.
Comment 10 Cosimo Cecchi 2013-02-18 16:25:25 UTC
Attachment 235827 [details] pushed as a73c8c7 - places-sidebar: add a Format menu item for volumes

This is fixed now in master.