Incorrect file transfer progress bar

Bug #1001579 reported by abhijeet
214
This bug affects 55 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
Linux Mint
Confirmed
Undecided
Unassigned
Unity
New
Undecided
Unassigned
unity (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
Low
wachirapranee tesprasit

Bug Description

When I am transferring data from my PC to USB storage device, the transfer rate shown during the process is completely incorrect. So, also the progress bar.

Please check the attached screen shot:

It is showing the transfer rate to be : 31.5MB/sec while my USB drive only supports maximum of 7MB/sec. Similarly the progress bar is shown as 100% completed but internally still it is transferring the data and took almost another 1 minute to finish. Till the end of this process I am clueless whether the transfer is still going on or there is some hang.

Even though it's not a blocking issue but surely an usability issue.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: unity 5.12-0ubuntu1+ojno1 [origin: LP-PPA-ojno-unity-minimize-on-click]
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-23.36-generic 3.2.14
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-23-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: fglrx
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu5
Architecture: amd64
CompizPlugins: [core,composite,opengl,compiztoolbox,decor,vpswitch,snap,mousepoll,resize,place,move,wall,grid,regex,imgpng,session,gnomecompat,animation,fade,unitymtgrabhandles,workarounds,scale,expo,ezoom,unityshell]
CrashDB: unity
Date: Sat May 19 15:15:41 2012
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release amd64 (20120425)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_IN:en
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_IN
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: unity
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

Revision history for this message
abhijeet (abhijeetnayak) wrote :
Revision history for this message
quantumphaze (quantumphazor) wrote :

This has to do with the way Linux kernel has cached file transfers recently (I don't remember it effecting older distros like 8.04). It seems that the file progress indicator is showing the progress of the reading to RAM part, not the writing part. Mounting with -o sync will fix the progress bar but make the transfer itself many times slower.

The bug effects more than just Unity, quite possibly all file progress bars. I see this on Kubuntu 12.04 and Arch Linux

Also
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=281270
https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=41472

Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

Changed in ubuntu:
status: New → Confirmed
affects: unity → ubuntu
affects: ubuntu → linux
Revision history for this message
Omer Akram (om26er) wrote :

not the correct package but I guess its closer than the kernel :-)

Changed in nautilus (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Omer Akram (om26er)
affects: linux → nautilus (Ubuntu)
Changed in nautilus (Ubuntu):
importance: Undecided → Low
Revision history for this message
abhijeet (abhijeetnayak) wrote :

Hello, Can I expect any fix from Ubuntu side?
Checked the kernel bugzilla and there is no progress since Jan 2012.

Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

Changed in nautilus (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Joel Duckworth (joel-jpd) wrote :

This is really annoying and will probably cause a few people to loose some data because they pull their drives thinking it has crashed etc.

Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. The issue you are reporting is an upstream one and it would be nice if somebody having it could send the bug to the developers of the software by following the instructions at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Upstream/GNOME. If you have done so, please tell us the number of the upstream bug (or the link), so we can add a bugwatch that will inform us about its status. Thanks in advance.

Revision history for this message
abhijeet (abhijeetnayak) wrote :

As quantumphaze had mentioned in previous comment that it's an kernel issue and there is already a bug filed about it

https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=41472

There no progress on this bug since Jan 2012.

affects: nautilus (Ubuntu) → linux (Ubuntu)
tags: added: kernel-bug-exists-upstream
Changed in linux:
importance: Unknown → Medium
status: Unknown → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Santiago Roland (santiago-roland) wrote :

This bug (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nautilus/+bug/1022433) that i filled some time ago is a duplicate of this one,

This is a very serious bug, a lot of users that i know had lost many data on USB pendrives because they think the files are already copied so they pull the USB stick out and afterwards they cannot read the content that has been partially copied.

Is there any way to boot with an older kernel version that is not affected by this bug? Would that version of the kernel will be compatible with ubuntu 12.04??

thanks,

Revision history for this message
Xetius (xetius) wrote :

As memory sticks get bigger, and the files being transferred get bigger, this problem gets accentuated.

affects: linux → raring-backports
Felix Geyer (debfx)
affects: raring-backports → linux
Revision history for this message
penalvch (penalvch) wrote :

abhijeet, this bug was reported a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering if this is still an issue? If so, could you please test for this with the latest development release of Ubuntu? ISO images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/ .

If it remains an issue, could you please run the following command in the development release from a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal), as it will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report:

apport-collect -p linux <replace-with-bug-number>

If reproducible, could you also please test the latest upstream kernel available (not the daily folder) following https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds ? It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please comment on which kernel version specifically you tested. If this bug is fixed in the mainline kernel, please add the following tags:
kernel-fixed-upstream
kernel-fixed-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

where VERSION-NUMBER is the version number of the kernel you tested. For example:
kernel-fixed-upstream-v3.13-rc5

This can be done by clicking on the yellow circle with a black pencil icon next to the word Tags located at the bottom of the bug description. As well, please remove the tag:
needs-upstream-testing

If the mainline kernel does not fix this bug, please add the following tags:
kernel-bug-exists-upstream
kernel-bug-exists-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

As well, please remove the tag:
needs-upstream-testing

Once testing of the upstream kernel is complete, please mark this bug's Status as Confirmed. Please let us know your results. Thank you for your understanding.

Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: Confirmed → Incomplete
tags: added: needs-kernel-logs needs-upstream-testing
removed: kernel-bug-exists-upstream rc-5.12-0ubuntu1+ojno1
Revision history for this message
Onkel Dithmeyer (unwucht) wrote :

Because of the Bug I have a corrupted USB-Device. Is there an other workaround than mounting with "-o"-Flag?

Revision history for this message
Aleksey (evenfrost) wrote :

I can confirm the problem exists on my home and work Ubuntu machines. My config is Ubuntu 15.04, Linux 3.19.0-16-generic #16-Ubuntu SMP x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux. Both of them utilize SSD:
ATA device, with non-removable media
 Model Number: Samsung SSD 840 PRO Series
 Serial Number: S1ATNSAF209621N
 Firmware Revision: DXM05B0Q
 Transport: Serial, ATA8-AST, SATA 1.0a, SATA II Extensions, SATA Rev 2.5, SATA Rev 2.6, SATA Rev 3.0

And because of that. like unwucht, I have plenty of corrupted USB, and this is rather frustrating.

Revision history for this message
Carl (cephyr) wrote :

I can also confirm this behavior and it is present for so long now.
I would really appreciate a fix for this since this is a very serious bug for the most "casual" users out there!

Revision history for this message
Hadrien (psydk) wrote :

Maybe there is a way in Ubuntu to mount an USB stick with something in-between full use of cache and full sync mode? For example, a sync done every megabyte or every two seconds. Otherwise this operation should be done by Nautilus itself.

penalvch (penalvch)
no longer affects: linux (Ubuntu)
Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
penalvch (penalvch)
affects: archlinux → linux (Ubuntu)
no longer affects: linux (Ubuntu)
affects: linux → unity (Ubuntu)
Changed in unity (Ubuntu):
importance: Medium → Undecided
status: Confirmed → New
importance: Undecided → Low
Changed in unity (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
federico (speedfede55) wrote :

i just have this problem on Lubuntu 14.04.4 on writing operations (write on pendrive or HDD). The progress bar show and disappear but the system is already writing on the drive. The delay before it ends depends on the size of the file.

Revision history for this message
Aron Schatz (aronschatz) wrote :

I want to confirm this is still happening on Kubuntu 16.04. Upon attempting to transfer a large file to a USB drive, the progress bar will fill up very fast and the task will just sit there transferring at 100% until the actual copy progress is done.

Once the copy is done, the copy notification does show up. It seems that the progress notification is just totally broke here.

Revision history for this message
Scott Palmer (skewty) wrote :

And it is still happening on my ubuntu-gnome 16.04.1 running nautilus 3.20.2

Revision history for this message
XA Hydra (xa-hydra) wrote :

This is happening for me in 16.04 as well. I am surprised by the age of this issue as it is such a basic piece of functionality for any OS. The only way I can tell if the transfers are done is to keep checking target file info or ejecting the drive and waiting for the "safe to remove" notification.

Revision history for this message
K cM (kcm.) wrote :

Same here on mint mate 18.1, caja 1.16.1

K cM (kcm.)
affects: mate-desktop (Ubuntu) → linuxmint
Changed in linuxmint:
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
George Inman (ghinman) wrote :

 This is still happening in Ubuntu 16.04 4.4.0-92-generic

Revision history for this message
moe (moize-barbu) wrote :

Same problem here on Lubuntu and Xubuntu 16.04.
This needs to be taken more seriously, I've had this problem for years and like someone said before, it should be a basic functionality.
I've lost a few files because of this.

Revision history for this message
Raushan Kumar Pandey (bp2711) wrote :

bug still exist in 18.04

Revision history for this message
Stephen D Boulton (actualste) wrote :

I installed ubuntu today and the problem still here :(

Changed in unity (Ubuntu):
status: Confirmed → Fix Released
assignee: nobody → wachirapranee tesprasit (tatar28)
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