GNOME MultiWriter: Easy Duplication Of Many USB Devices

[phoronix]

Phoronix: GNOME MultiWriter: Easy Duplication Of Many USB Devices

Richard Hughes' latest announcement isn't of another open-source hardware project but rather a new GNOME software application...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=MTg3Nzc

[Chewi]

cp /dev/sdc /dev/sdd

Job's a good'un.

[RahulSundaram]

cp /dev/sdc /dev/sdd

Job's a good'un.

A simple cp doesn't do what this program does. When we are in trade-shows and we have to write dozens of USB disks, running cp isn't efficient since it is not multi-threaded.

[Nobu]

Wouldn't it be better to make a virtual device which acts like a switch/router, taking in data and then writing to all the devices at once? It would really help if USB had a method of doing this easily (ie: specify in a special packet a list of which devices are supposed to receive the following data), so that you wouldn't have to saturate the bus with redundant information...if that exists, it should definitely be used. lol

[schmidtbag]

How often would something like this be necessary? In most cases where the inefficiencies of USB (such as controller bandwidth or CPU utilization) have an impact on your workflow, you'd be better off just doing eSATA.

[gens]

cat image.iso | tee >(dd of=/dev/sda) >(dd of=/dev/sdb) >(dd of=/dev/sdc) | dd of=/dev/sdd

making a simple program for it is dead easy


edit: or just use multiple dd's (with an & at the end), iso will be cached in ram so it doesn't matter

[RahulSundaram]

cat image.iso | tee >(dd of=/dev/sda) >(dd of=/dev/sdb) >(dd of=/dev/sdc) | dd of=/dev/sdd

making a simple program for it is dead easy


edit: or just use multiple dd's (with an & at the end), iso will be cached in ram so it doesn't matter

I guess you didn't read the post?

"I spent last night writing a GNOME application to duplicate a ton of USB devices. I looked at mdcp, Clonezilla and also just writing something loopy in bash, but I need something simple my dad could use for a couple of hours a week without help"

[gens]

I guess you didn't read the post?

"I spent last night writing a GNOME application to duplicate a ton of USB devices. I looked at mdcp, Clonezilla and also just writing something loopy in bash, but I need something simple my dad could use for a couple of hours a week without help"

true that (y)

my father, on the other hand, does not care about mass writing on usb's
and if he did id make a script out of this, make it executable and let him drag things on it
idk, maybe zenity for graphics or some OSD

[RahulSundaram]

true that (y)

my father, on the other hand, does not care about mass writing on usb's
and if he did id make a script out of this, make it executable and let him drag things on it
idk, maybe zenity for graphics or some OSD

Do whatever you are comfortable with. If you think bash+zenity is a good way to do it, noone is stopping you but IMO, a simple GUI application with built-in error handling and multi threading is nicer.

[TheOne]

Do whatever you are comfortable with. If you think bash+zenity is a good way to do it, noone is stopping you but IMO, a simple GUI application with built-in error handling and multi threading is nicer.

Is always nice to have GUI counterparts of command line applications for system stuff. Ignore what other people say, they just feel so superior with the command line that their ego makes them spit nonsense.

Thanks for your contributions to the community!