Format SD card

[oshunluvr]

I did some digging and it looks like there used to be a KDE app for this called "quickusbformatter" but the source files are from 2016 so I doubt it'd be worth attempting to install. In fact, it would probably be easier to start from scratch writing a new program than trying to update something this old.

[die.boer]

here is a script i sometimes use that works for me

1. run

nano usb-format.sh

2. paste this script in there:

#!/bin/bash

# ========================================
# Universal USB/SD Formatter for Linux
# ========================================

# Check for root
if [[ $EUID -ne 0 ]]; then
echo "This script must be run as root (sudo)"
exit 1
fi

# List removable devices
echo "Detecting removable devices..."
lsblk -o NAME,SIZE,MODEL,TYPE,MOUNTPOINT | grep -E 'disk|part'

echo ""
read -p "Enter the device to format (e.g., /dev/sdb): " DEVICE

# Confirm the device
read -p "WARNING: All data on $DEVICE will be lost. Are you sure? (yes/no): " CONFIRM
if [[ "$CONFIRM" != "yes" ]]; then
echo "Aborting."
exit 1
fi

# Choose filesystem type
echo "Choose filesystem type:"
echo "1) FAT32 (Windows/Most Devices)"
echo "2) exFAT (Windows/Linux/Mac)"
echo "3) NTFS (Windows)"
echo "4) ext4 (Linux)"
echo "5) Btrfs (Linux)"
read -p "Enter your choice [1-5]: " FS_CHOICE

case $FS_CHOICE in
1)
FS="vfat"
LABEL="USB"
;;
2)
FS="exfat"
LABEL="USB"
;;
3)
FS="ntfs"
LABEL="USB"
;;
4)
FS="ext4"
LABEL="USB"
;;
5)
FS="btrfs"
LABEL="USB"
;;
*)
echo "Invalid choice!"
exit 1
;;
esac

# Unmount if mounted
echo "Unmounting any mounted partitions on $DEVICE..."
umount ${DEVICE}?* 2>/dev/null

# Format
echo "Formatting $DEVICE as $FS..."
if [[ "$FS" == "vfat" ]]; then
mkfs.vfat -F 32 -n "$LABEL" $DEVICE
elif [[ "$FS" == "exfat" ]]; then
mkfs.exfat -n "$LABEL" $DEVICE
elif [[ "$FS" == "ntfs" ]]; then
mkfs.ntfs -f -L "$LABEL" $DEVICE
elif [[ "$FS" == "ext4" ]]; then
mkfs.ext4 -L "$LABEL" $DEVICE
elif [[ "$FS" == "btrfs" ]]; then
mkfs.btrfs -f -L "$LABEL" $DEVICE
fi

echo "Formatting complete!"

save and exit ( ctrl+O - enter - ctrl+X )

3. run

chmod +x usb-format.sh

4. run the script with

sudo ./usb-format.sh

Warning: be real careful which device you choose , make sure it's the right one

you can change the "label" in script to anything you want , eg. LABEL="USB" to LABEL="SDCARD"

[CDR0224]

Anyway - back to the thread topic. It seems to me having a limited (few options) formatting tool for portable devices is a good idea. I'm wondering if a simple Dolphin Service Menu already exists or if one could be easily created.

I'm pretty sure that isn't too complicated to do ... for an IT professional or anyone who can program and has a good knowledge of the OS and ... but not for the average PC user

Since you now now the bug wasn't in Discover you might be able to figure out where the bug actually is, report that to the correct developer (not some faceless corporation), and then yourself have become part of the solution and you have contributed to the improvement of your operating system.

Yeah, only (optimistically estimated) maybe up to 1% of PC users are capable to do that ... probably much less.


Also, what you try to sell as features of Linux actually pose a big problem for the larger adoption of Linux as they make lots of people go back to Windows or MacOS. Those features are in the way of usability for the average user.

Yes, most things Linux are free. And there is the other problem. People want free stuff but also full support. I myself have absolutely no issue paying for software if the price is worth it for me (if not, I look for an alternative). I have always paid for my applications. Never used pirated copies.

I've had many situations in Linux where I wished I had paid for something and could shoot my problem (and anger ) at the support for that application.
Not that that's a guarantee for a solution, but I'm pretty sure that most of the time (from my experience) I'd have a better chance to get a solution (which I can implement without deep knowledge about the OS or IT in general!)

[CDR0224]

here is a script i sometimes use that works for me

Warning: be real careful which device you choose , make sure it's the right one

That's definitely something I'd include in the script, to test whether the device is a USB stick or SD card. A simple test of the size might be enough.

[vanadiumboy]

Some of the "issues" you describe are a feature of Linux, not a problem. For example, imagine if you want to install zip/unzip but when you install it, you also have to install the 100's of programs that also include the ability to zip or unzip files. Instead, unzip is a command line tool, period. Then each application developer of any and every Desktop Environment (there are dozens) need only call the command line tool from their GUI program.

I believe the nature of the above is one of the reasons Linux is way smaller on disk than the most basic Windows installation.

Re. the original topic of this thread, for myself, the lack of an additional GUI tool to format a thumb drive goes unnoticed because I generally use the command line to format USB or sdcard drives.

As far as bugs effecting some application outside of the control of the application developer? - this is also a feature of Linux. Imagine instead a giant corporation that controlled the development of every tool and demanded $100s of dollars from you every year just to keep the system running and 100's of other companies also asking for payment just so you can add more features to your operating system to make it usable. That's Microsoft.

In the Linux world, we have 100's (maybe 1000's) of developers working (mostly) totally free. Of course, this also means we - the users - are subject to occasional issues like one developer or another not keeping pace with others. Also, since the developers are not paid, they and only they get to decide what's available. The topic of this thread is a good example of that - someone wants a basic formatting tool for one purpose and no one else has offered it yet. Our options are to look for the tool elsewhere (outside Kubuntu) or develop it ourselves. You can use Linux totally free of cost and add features yourself or voluntarily fund projects you find to be of value.

The bug reporting problem you describe IMO is also part of the nature of what makes Linux better than Windows. Since you now now the bug wasn't in Discover you might be able to figure out where the bug actually is, report that to the correct developer (not some faceless corporation), and then yourself have become part of the solution and you have contributed to the improvement of your operating system. This simply isn't available in the MS world. You never have actual access to any developers, and lodging complaints with "AI" chatbot of a Microsoft rarely if every results in anything.

In my now 30 years using Linux I can say confidently that developers generally do respond to bug reports that are valid and properly filed and do so in a timely manner. They do collaborate on many, many things, but not everything. The totality of the entire Linux word is simply too vast and diverse for any one group of unpaid volunteers to try and do everything. Instead, most focus on their one thing that interests them. If you want an idea of the vastness of variety that exists in Linux, go over to Distro Watch and count how many Distros are active then multiple that by thousands of "packages" required to keep all that running.

I for sure can agree Discover still needs a lot of work. If I was to point at one thing Kubuntu has lacked for many, many years, it's a single, easily usable, complete package manager. Discover is not that, not yet at least. I only use Discover to update flatpaks and a few other odd-ball things like Tor browser. I update my system with apt (or pkcon) in the terminal so I can see what "barfs" when it rarely happens. This gives me the info needed to trouble-shoot and find a solution on my own.


Anyway - back to the thread topic. It seems to me having a limited (few options) formatting tool for portable devices is a good idea. I'm wondering if a simple Dolphin Service Menu already exists or if one could be easily created.

I was a big supporter of closed source software. Windows was the king of the desktop. For example, double click the setup.exe to install and from the Control Panel, Add remove program, a single click can remove it. You can do this with drivers as well.
This model worked well in the 90s up to ~2015 and you could sell closed source software. With Win 8, things seem to only go downhill and now we are at the micro pay or pay monthly thing. (I think this is bc there isn’t much reason to buy a new version of a software. People don’t feel that they are getting their money’s worth.)
MS removed flexibility from Windows while Linux added all sorts of theme-ing options.
That’s why I switched.

Command line tools are fine. No need to get rid of them.
Some of the improvements to be made to Linux are very lightweight, very simple.

For example, you can correct me if I am wrong, I have never understood the search at the top left corner of Discover.
For example, type Firefox and you get all sorts of things that aren’t Firefox.
You might get KDocker, Bleachbit, uGet, GSConnect, You might even get a bunch of wallpapers.

I suppose you can click on Internet and you get a better search result but I am only giving one example.

It would be good to have a feature that let’s you search by program name and not just text that appears anywhere.

For example, a newcomer to Linux will probably not be looking for command line tools. He is most likely a desktop user. Most likely, he isn’t going to play his MP3 file from the command line and is not going to burn a CD from the command line.
So, it would be good to have a filter that removes command line tools from the search results.

Having libraries (DLL, SO) or these command line tools is normal. It is the same in the Windows world where you might have a GIF file reader provided by MS or maybe an open source project has made one already.
Other software can now use this libGIF.dll file but ........ make sure that the DLL comes with your software.
That’s why I gave that OCR software example. Well, it isn’t really a OCR software if it tells you the command line tool is not installed.
Once, I installed VLC player, I put in a DVD movie as a test. It can’t play it. It doesn’t say anything, no error message. It took a while to figure out that libdvdcss.so or some thing like that was not installed since it was a copyrighted technology. It would be nice if this was mentioned by VLC in a MessageBox.

I can understand that you have used Linux for 30 y and it took a very long time for GUI tools to come along but I think at this point, the features to be added aren’t a big job.

There needs to be a good uninstaller for DEB packages we install ourselves. Muon disappeared. Synaptic somewhat sucks.

[die.boer]

That's definitely something I'd include in the script, to test whether the device is a USB stick or SD card. A simple test of the size might be enough.

it does show the size