Thinking and wondering out loud...

[jglen490]

Yeah, KDEC is a sometimes it does and sometimes not kinda thing for me. So I mostly just unmount the SD card on the tablet, pull it out, attach it to a hub, move the files I want, and then move the SD card back to the tablet. It's easy, and takes less time to troubleshoot.

Like I said, sometimes ...

[DoYouKubuntu]

UPDATE: For the source of the Internet connectivity problem, see this post.

==========================

Yeah, KDEC is a sometimes it does and sometimes not kinda thing for me. So I mostly just unmount the SD card on the tablet, pull it out, attach it to a hub, move the files I want, and then move the SD card back to the tablet. It's easy, and takes less time to troubleshoot.

That's way too labor-intensive for someone who's gotten really lazy, like me! I just use my file manager, MiXplorer Silver, on my Android devices to copy/move/delete/transfer files from/to my computers. This screenshot shows three of the computers it's connected to:



I have full access to all the computers' hard drives, including external, from my Android devices, and can copy or move files/directories from or to the computers/devices at will.

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Unrelated, I was about to post a "hallelujah!" thread. I was sooooooo happy to have my new laptop looking the way I want; note its pretty scrollbars, icon theme, and system tray icons:



And I got Samba up and running.

EDIT: Never mind what was here before! Everything's looking great now.

[DoYouKubuntu]

Now that I've figured out the source of that awful connectivity problem, and fixed it, I'm really happy with my new laptop and 20.04. There are still a few things I need to sort out, but overall I'm just very pleased. It never ceases to amaze me how the development folks can crank out such a beautiful, stable, highly customizable product!

For fun, I used to try other distros from time to time, generally when I bought a new computer, just to see what else was out there now and what they looked like and so on, but since its inception Kubuntu has been my default distro. I never kept other distros going more than a few hours, as by then I had seen enough to know that they didn't offer anything Kubuntu didn't. Now that I'm not interested in experimenting, it's nice to have a reliable distro to fall back on.

I know I've done a LOT of griping recently, but I hope you're aware I wasn't complaining about Kubuntu--I was pretty sure all along that user error, as in *me*, was the source of my problems. For the most part, that turned out to be true, although some of it, like the static IP address settings that caused the connectivity problem, I couldn't have known about. If I had, I wouldn't have done them, you know? But now I've added that issue and its solution to my personal knowledge base, so it's all good.

If I can make use of my USB ports for backups, everything will be great! I've gotten a refund for the two 1TB thumb drives that didn't work out, but I haven't yet ordered replacements. I want to take my time and choose carefully. If you have a personal recommendation for replacements, please let me know. I'd prefer 1TB, but will certainly consider smaller capacities--just not TOO much smaller! I can't use something tiny, like 32 or 64GB. Realistically, I'd say 500GB would be about the smallest that would work for me. Keep in mind that case-sensitivity is a big requirement.

So that's my $0.02 worth! I've loved Kubuntu since its first release and will continue loving it, I'm sure.

[jglen490]

I responded in your thumb drive thread about my backup routine. Since my backups are never shared with anything but Linux systems, the drives are formatted as ext4 and are NOT bootable. I do have small (2 GB - 8GB) thumb drives that are formatted as fat32 that has whatever install is current on my main PC, and for a variety of others as potential use on my playground laptop. The biggest thumb drives I have are a couple of 120GB units. One is ext4 for use with my Raspberry Pi, and the other is exfat because on occasion I'll create specific files that I need to share with others.

Everything is targeted to specific end use cases.

[DoYouKubuntu]

I don't remember seeing that response, @jglen490, so I'll be sure to check it out. Thanks.

The thing that's perplexed me from the get-go is that I simply don't recall ever having to format a USB drive. Since I only use *nix, and have since 1985, sharing files with other systems is not and has not ever been a concern. As far as I recall, each USB drive I used in the past, whether an external hard drive or a thumb drive, I simply stuck in to a USB port on a computer and began using it. Is it possible that I've FORGOTTEN formatting them? I don't like to use this as an excuse, and I definitely don't want anyone's pity, but I've had two health issues that could--and did, initially--affect my memory: a brain tumor and its removal via middle fossa craniotomy, then a few years later, near-fatal sepsis that kept me in the hospital for six months, with multi-organ failure. My brain is an organ! It was affected.

But the fog has been gradually lifting. When I bought two new Transcend drives a few months ago, to replace the two still-working ones, I plugged them in to my old System76 laptop, running 19.10, and started copying files. I can post a screenshot of files on them to show that they definitely respect case. I did not format them. The only thing I did was delete their directories containing window$ and Mac utilities.

[claydoh]

USB sticks have always come with a FAT type of file system so they normally don't need to be formatted. Which is why you have never had to format them.

Case sensitivity I dunno. FAT has always been case-insensitive afaik. But it is case-preserving.

Sent from my LM-V600 using Tapatalk

[jglen490]

Agree. USB thumb drives don't need formatting - normally. With exfat used on the larger thumb drives, the only thing necessary in Linux is the presence of the exfat utils and exfat fuse packages. They are installable, and may simply be a part of recent distros - either way it's not a big problem. I just checked and they are both in the repos, at least with 20.04.

[DoYouKubuntu]

Agree. USB thumb drives don't need formatting - normally. With exfat used on the larger thumb drives, the only thing necessary in Linux is the presence of the exfat utils and exfat fuse packages.

So WTF happened with mine?! I'm talking about the two, 1TB thumb drives I bought recently. During my 8 million reinstalls of 20.04, at one point they unequivocally respected case. And then they didn't. That's how the whole formatting journey started, i.e., thinking they needed to be ext4 in order to work right...even though they DID work right at one point along the way.

And now I'm stuck with two brand-new drives that don't work, period. *

Just to be clear for anyone who hasn't read my thousand posts about it, I successfully formatted them as ext4 and gave each one the label I wanted, then that was it. From that point on they were not usable. They can't be mounted and they can't be used. They're recognized by Device Notifier but they're not usable. They're correctly recognized [in gParted and KDE Partition Manager] as 1TB ext4 drives.

* Note that Amazon has already refunded me for both drives, so they're really not my problem any more. Now I need suggestions for replacements that will unquestionably work by simply plugging them in, AND they'll respect case.