Can't directly change case of filename on FAT32.

[LAZA]

I got an USB-Stick (FAT32) from a friend and wanted to edit some files:

Fat old sun
into
Fat Old Sun

This fails with the error:
File could not be renamed cause the file name exists.
(Datei kann nicht umbenannt werden, da der Dateiname bereits existiert.)

I can reproduce this with different files on the stick.

There are no other problems to edit and/or copy the files with GNOME Commander, Nautilus, ...

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: thunar 1.6.3-1ubuntu5
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-38.65-generic 3.13.11.8
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-38-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: fglrx
ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.5
Architecture: amd64
Date: Tue Oct 28 19:47:08 2014
InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-03-16 (226 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 14.04 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Alpha amd64 (20140225)
SourcePackage: thunar
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Thaddaeus Tintenfisch (thad-fisch-deactivatedaccount)]

From the xubuntu-users mailing list:

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/xubuntu-users/2011-June/002864.html

[LAZA (laza74)]

Reading the info --> facepalm!

"Is that drive formatted fat or ext? If it is formatted fat16 or fat32,
it will not see the names as different, since that file system does not
recognize such differences."

Shure this is right!

Would it be possible to fire/pop up a little notice about this behavior cause
- most of the LInux users do not use FAT16/FAT32 formated drives?
- would be also irritated about this...

Could be don if the drive is mounted/automounted in Gnome Commander?

For all others:
Just change the name a bit (by adding a "1" in first place or something) and THEN change the misspelling and delete also the added "1"...

[Thaddaeus Tintenfisch (thad-fisch-deactivatedaccount)]

Please forward this bug to the upstream bug tracker then.

https://bugzilla.xfce.org/

[Alistair Buxton (a-j-buxton)]

As LAZA mentioned, you can work around this by adding a character to the filename, and then renaming back to the changed case version you wanted. It will stick, because FAT32 stores the filename case even though it ignores the case when searching for a file.

Note however that even the shell 'mv' command wont let you directly do this without renaming twice. This is because it checks if the destination filename already exists before renaming, and because case is ignored, it does exist. So the rename fails.