this post was submitted on 12 Dec 2024
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    [–] [email protected] 79 points 1 week ago (18 children)

    IMHO, it was a mistake to make USB block storage use the same line of names also used for local hard disks. Sure, the block device drivers for USB mass storage internally hook into the SCSI subsystem to provide block level access, and that's why the drives are called sd[something], but why should I as an end user have to care about that? A USB drive is very much not the same thing for me as a SCSI harddisk. A NVMe drive on the other hand, kinda sorta is, at least from a practical purpose point of view, yet NVMe drives get a completely different naming scheme.

    That aside, suggest you use lsblk before dd.

    [–] [email protected] 19 points 1 week ago (1 children)

    Yeah lsblk, lsscsi, fdsik -l , go have a coffee, come back later and hit enter on dd

    [–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago

    Yeah lsblk, lsscsi, fdsik -l , go have a coffee, come back later and hit enter on dd

    Then realize you typed the command wrong and panic when you don't get an error.

    [–] [email protected] 11 points 1 week ago

    I still made the mistake, when I sleep deprived switched if and of somehow
    My then girlfriend wasn't exactly happy, that all here photos and music, which we just moved off old CDs, that couldn't be read correctly anymore, and I spent quite some time to finally move them

    Obviously the old CDs and the backup image were thrown out/deleted just a few days earlier, because I proudly had saved the bulk of it - and being poor students having loads of storage for multiple backups wasn't in reach.
    Backing them up again to fresh CDs was on the plan, but I quickly needed a live USB stick to restore my work laptop...

    Since then I'm always anxious, when working with dd. Still years later I triple check and already think through my backup restoration plan
    Which is a good thing in itself, but my heart rate spikes can't be healthy

    [–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

    While we're at it, can we also rename the hard drive block devices back to hd instead of sd again? SATA might use the SCSI subsystem, but SATA ain't SCSI.

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    [–] [email protected] 56 points 1 week ago (2 children)

    Always lsblk before dd. The order of /sdX might change from boot to boot. Only /nvme doesn't change.

    [–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)
    [–] [email protected] 15 points 1 week ago (1 children)

    It's a design thing. BIOS can know NVMe disks' location because they're directly mounted to PCIe. SATA isn't like this. Similar logic with the RAM slots.

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    [–] [email protected] 54 points 1 week ago

    I am become dd, the destroyer of disks

    [–] [email protected] 51 points 1 week ago

    "/dev/sdb? It's sdb? With a B? Yep that's the flash drive. Just type it in... of=/dev/sd what was the letter again? B? Alright, /dev/sdb. Double check with lsblk, yep that's the small disk. Are my backups working properly? Alright here goes nothing... "

    [–] [email protected] 46 points 1 week ago (2 children)

    Commands like dd are the best. Good ole greybeard-era spells with arcane syntax and the power to casually wipe out the whole universe (from their perspective ofc) if used haphazardly or not in respectful manner.

    [–] [email protected] 21 points 1 week ago (2 children)

    What do you mean? Explicitly having to set if= and of= is way harder to screw up than mixing up the order of arguments for e.g. cp.

    [–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago

    I could swear the argument order to "ln" swaps every now and then!

    [–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago (3 children)

    Unless you forget what if and of mean. With cp it's simply "cp what where". Never had problems remembering that.

    [–] [email protected] 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

    is it really hard to remember infile and outfile?

    [–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

    No, but you're just typing if and of, not infile and outfile, and the letters are right next to each other on a qwerty kbd. One can haphazardly misuse a lot of commands, it's just that some commands may lead to nastier outcomes than others.

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    [–] [email protected] 41 points 1 week ago (2 children)

    --status=progress. So happy when they added this.

    [–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

    If only I could remember to set status=progress...

    I always end up using killall -USR1 from another terminal

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    [–] [email protected] 27 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (5 children)

    This is the only reason why I still use GUI for making Linux USBs. Can't trust my ADHD ass to write the correct drive name. Also, none of my USB drives have a light.

    Popsicle is pretty nice, it doesn't let you choose the internal drives afaik.

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    [–] [email protected] 24 points 1 week ago (3 children)

    i always just

    cat /dev/??? > /dev/null
    

    to make sure the usb blinks

    [–] [email protected] 19 points 1 week ago (1 children)
    [–] [email protected] 10 points 1 week ago

    More like *screams into the void*

    [–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

    Me laughing with /dev/nvme0n1p1

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    [–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

    That's a good way of doing it

    [–] [email protected] 22 points 1 week ago (2 children)

    You all still have a LED inside USB flashdrive?

    [–] [email protected] 12 points 1 week ago (7 children)

    Yep! I just installed Void about ten minutes ago off a 2GB stick from the mid-2000s. Somehow, those little sticks just keep going!

    [–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

    Same! I have a 4gb white SanDisk stick, from like 12-14 years ago and is still working 💀💀 it even died on me once, and started working again after a few days 😳😳

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    [–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago

    I buy them specifically with LED. It s helpful for data transfer, but also helpful for doing a flash of new OS to old nas hardware... You have to hold reset button in on nas until you see it start to read USB (by LED) then you know you can release the reset button.

    [–] [email protected] 16 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

    Remember kids, always lsblk before you dd

    [–] [email protected] 13 points 1 week ago

    heh i do it hardcore, my USB has no light ;)

    [–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)
    [–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

    don't cross the streams

    [–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

    ls /dev > /tmp/before

    ls /dev > /tmp/after

    diff /tmp/before /tmp/after

    <sweating>
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    [–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

    /dev/disk/by-id/xxx works for me. Never made a mistake.

    [–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago (2 children)

    worst case for me would be ereasing my ventoy drive.

    cause i for sure wont be partitioning any of my nvme drives. so the only mistake i can make is like type sda instead of sdb which would just be another usb drive🤷

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    [–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

    Sounds like someone's not up to date with their backups.

    [–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

    We seriously need a series of DD-Command 4 Dummies guides Also you guys have USB drives with lights ????

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