T2, copying files to USB Drive over network

[Mal]

I have a 1 tb drive attached by USB to T2, I can access the drive from my PC through the browser to the root folder, I can see the video (MP4) files listed under the USB.
The problem is I cannot add additional files, it keeps stating not enough space.
If I remove the drive and connect to the PC I can add videos
I have only used 500 gb on drive.
Is there a fix for this issue?

[prl]

What is "it" in "it keeps stating not enough space"? And what's the exact error message?

[MrQuade]

I have a 1 tb drive attached by USB to T2, I can access the drive from my PC through the browser to the root folder,

What is "the browser" in this context? You aren't talking about a web browser are you?
Are you trying to do this via OpenWebIf, or are you trying to write files via ftp?

Or have you manually set up a SMB share on the T2 to share out the USB drive? (since only the HDD is shared by default)

[Paul_oz53]

If you are trying to copy from a windows PC to the folder on the PC, this will sometimes happen to me if I try to copy to the folder as it appears under the network icon. Note that I have mounted the root folder and a number of others too.

It is because what seems to be the folder is actually a "shortcut". (The linux experts will roll their eyes about now.)

I can do it this way if I navigate via a different path but I'm not in front of the PC so I'll not hazard a guess.

The easiest way to avoid it I found was to mount the folder as a drive letter in windows. Works fine for me.

[Grumpy_Geoff]

Or have you manually set up a SMB share on the T2 to share out the USB drive? (since only the HDD is shared by default)

If I was to take a guess, I'd say it was attempting to write to on-board flash memory (tmpfs) by writing through a share mounted on /media (directly) by navigating to the USB, rather than a specific share mounted further down the device hierarchy to the USB.
I probably didn't explain that very well, so what I mean is -

• An 'All_Media' share on /media (writes will fail, reads of any sub-directory are fine), compared with
• A 'My_USB' share on /media/usb (all access is fine)

[prl]

It is because what seems to be the folder is actually a "shortcut". (The linux experts will roll their eyes about now.)

Correctly, IMO, because there are a lot of differences in both capability and in implementation between U*ix soft links (they go back to BSD 4.2, at least) and Windows Explorer shortcuts.

"A bit like a shortcut" would cause my eyeballs less stress

[Paul_oz53]

...
"A bit like a shortcut" would cause my eyeballs less stress

I'll try to remember that...

MrQuade got close to articulating what I was alluding to: the write is to flash memory rather than to the USB drive.

[MrQuade]

MrQuade got close to articulating what I was alluding to: the write is to flash memory rather than to the USB drive.

I think that you mean Grumpy Geoff. But I also get what he is saying, and that sounds likely.

Anyway, we need Mal to chime in to explain what he was doing before we speculate any more .

[Paul_oz53]

MrQuade got close to articulating what I was alluding to: the write is to flash memory rather than to the USB drive.

I think that you mean Grumpy Geoff. But I also get what he is saying, and that sounds likely.

Anyway, we need Mal to chime in to explain what he was doing before we speculate any more .

Oops - sorry Grumpy_Geoff

[prl]

MrQuade got close to articulating what I was alluding to: the write is to flash memory rather than to the USB drive.

If the flash drive has been accidentally filled, the files that cause the problem need to be removed. Running with a full flash filesystem can break things quite badly.

[Grumpy_Geoff]

If the flash drive has been accidentally filled, the files that cause the problem need to be removed. Running with a full flash filesystem can break things quite badly.

It could just be a size check prior to copy.

Mal - just in case, check the flash memory free space, from live TV, MENU>>Information>>Memory. Check flash total and free.

[prl]

If the flash drive has been accidentally filled, the files that cause the problem need to be removed. Running with a full flash filesystem can break things quite badly.

It could just be a size check prior to copy.

Hard to know either way since we don't know what was actually done.

[Grumpy_Geoff]

If the flash drive has been accidentally filled, the files that cause the problem need to be removed. Running with a full flash filesystem can break things quite badly.

It could just be a size check prior to copy.

Hard to know either way since we don't know what was actually done.

Yesh, we don't know.
When "we" first discovered this "issue", I couldn't even write a 1MB file to a flash system that had 3GB free (here).

[peteru]

My crystal ball tells me that it's better to be safe and mothball that T2 and 1TB drive. Replace them with brand new V2 and 4TB drive.

[Mal]

Hi Guys
This is the path in explorer
\\BEYONWIZT2\Root\media\usb\Test

When I try to copy a 1.5GB file, the error is 'There is not enough space on Root. You need an additional 1.10 GB to copy these files'
The drive is 1TB and only 500GB used

I can see all the files within this folder and I can copy them back to the PC
If I delete all the files, i still can't copy to this folder.

I can copy to the hard drive in the T2 but not the USB attached

Hope this is a better explanation

[Grumpy_Geoff]

This is the path in explorer
\\BEYONWIZT2\Root\media\usb\Test

I think you're running ancient firmware, as that is a very old SMB mapping config that was deprecated years ago as it shares the root file system.

What firmware version are you running? From live TV, MENU>>Information>>About. What does it show in 'Revision' or 'Last Upgrade' field (field is firmware dependent)?

[Mal]

I have now updated the T2 to the latest firmware.
But now the Root folder is not visible in windows explorer, I have set a password on the T2, but it just wont display

[Grumpy_Geoff]

I have now updated the T2 to the latest firmware.
But now the Root folder is not visible in windows explorer, I have set a password on the T2, but it just wont display

You posted that info yesterday morning in a different topic, and in a reply were given advice on how to give access to the USB drive and also given a link to a script file that'd modify that setup for you. That post is here - viewtopic.php?f=16&t=12452&p=185781#p185780
Did you miss the reply?

[prl]

In general, it's better to ask a question in only one place on the forum. Multiple posts about the same thing can end up with the discussion split up across the topics, making it harder to follow and hard to find again if someone wants to go back to the discussion from a search.

The most active posters on the forum look at all the new posts and will answer them if they think they can contribute, no matter where in the forum they're posted.

[Paul_oz53]

This is the path in explorer
\\BEYONWIZT2\Root\media\usb\Test

I think you're running ancient firmware, as that is a very old SMB mapping config that was deprecated years ago as it shares the root file system.

As a quick experiment I copied an mp4 to a USB stick formatted NTFS and plugged it into the front port of the U4. The U4 recognized it and it played. I then went to the Win7 PC and navigated to \\BEYONWIZU4\root\media\usb. (I have root access set and 19.3 firmware.) Again, I could play the file on the PC.

Now the critical test: I copied a 100MB file from the PC to the USB stick. No problem. Completed in seconds. Played fine too.

Mal, what is the format of the USB drive? Was the file over 4GB? FAT32 has size limits. Apart from that possibility, it should work based on my setup.

[Grumpy_Geoff]

I then went to the Win7 PC and navigated to \\BEYONWIZU4\root\media\usb. (I have root access set and 19.3 firmware.) Again, I could play the file on the PC.

Now the critical test: I copied a 100MB file from the PC to the USB stick. No problem. Completed in seconds. Played fine too.

Mal, what is the format of the USB drive? Was the file over 4GB? FAT32 has size limits. Apart from that possibility, it should work based on my setup.

Mal posted that the file size was 1,5GB which should put it below the a FAT32 limit -

When I try to copy a 1.5GB file, the error is 'There is not enough space on Root. You need an additional 1.10 GB to copy these files'

Sandy B had the same issue, and here I couldn't even copy a 1MB file.
Samba has changed a lot since then though.

I just then tried to copy a 232MB file to a subdirectory of 'movie' using Windows File Explorer via my 'AllMedia' share (\\BEYONWIZT4\AllMedia\hdd\movie\XtestX)
It failed -

NotEnoughSpace.png (8.19 KiB) Viewed 2559 times

The 'AllMedia' snippet from smb-user.conf is shown below -

Code: Select all

[AllMedia]
 comment = /media
  path = /media
  guest ok = yes
  read only = no

I can successfully perform the same copy using Windows File Explorer via the standard 'Movie' share (\\BEYONWIZT4\Movie\XtestX).

[Paul_oz53]

Fascinating Grumpy_Geoff.

My smb-user.conf snippet is

Code: Select all

[USB]
  path = /media/usb
  guest ok = yes
  read only = no
 

When the usb folder is accessed directly, I get the same error. When I tried copying a larger file as per my earlier post I also got the error. After that, files which had copied earlier also resulted in errors.

However, when I mapped the USB folder as a drive letter in windows I could copy large files to the usb BUT woefully slow!

Direct copying to the media folder when mapped does not suffer the same slow copying.

The upshot being accessing the USB drive from windows is obviously deficient but the media folder appears ok.

[Grumpy_Geoff]

I think it's murkier

I just tried a copy of the 232MB file to USB from Windows Explorer (path \\Beyonwizt4\usb), it was successful, the share setup snippet being -

Code: Select all

[USB]
  comment = /USB
  path = /media/usb
  guest ok = yes
  read only = no

I just tried the setup that I'm guessing you're using to access the root file system -

Code: Select all

[rooty-toot-toot]
  comment = /
  path = /
  guest ok = yes
  read only = no

I can use Windows File Explorer to successfully copy a 232MB file to \\BEYONWIZT4\rooty-toot-toot\media\hdd\movie\XtestX, whereas that same copy fails via the 'AllMedia' share (post above).

I don't know the reason for the difference in behaviour with a share on '/' and one on '/media'. If I look at the mounts with the mount command I see (snippets) -

Code: Select all

rootfs on / type rootfs (rw)
tmpfs on /media type tmpfs (rw,relatime,size=64k)

I think that may be saying anything navigated off /media is restricted to 64KB in size, whereas anything anchored off root is not.
There must be a difference too when a share path of /media/something is specified, as that is writeable whereas navigating through a share on /media to /media/something is not writeable.
One of the linux gurus may be able to clear that up.

[Grumpy_Geoff]

I think that may be saying anything navigated off /media is restricted to 64KB in size, whereas anything anchored off root is not.
There must be a difference too when a share path of /media/something is specified, as that is writeable whereas navigating through a share on /media to /media/something is not writeable.
One of the linux gurus may be able to clear that up.

Ahh, one of 'em already spoke a year ago -
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=13173&p=176071#p176071

[prl]

I wouldn't count myself a Linux guru, but then it's not what I'd call a guru-level question.

It's just how U*inx mount points work, all the way back to Version 6.

[Paul_oz53]

Hi Grumpy_Geoff,

You're right about how I access the root folder. Your results also duplicate mine when writing to the folder. What did surprise me was that I have had trouble with larger files when writing to /root/media/usb.

In practice, I don't use the usb for storage so it's not a problem for me.

[Grumpy_Geoff]

Hi Paul,

My private nickname for you is "the happy hacker", so I'm not surprised if you sometimes encounter some "strange" things.

Like you, I rarely use Windows to write to a USB drive attached to the Wiz (I rarely even connect one), so I wouldn't normally encounter any such write errors.
Perhaps there are some obscure Samba sizing issues still lurking, perhaps even architecture dependent. I certainly haven't gone looking.

[Grumpy_Geoff]

What did surprise me was that I have had trouble with larger files when writing to /root/media/usb.

I've done a little bit of testing, and I think there may be a size limit of just slightly below 1.57 GB where the file copy will succeed on a share based on '/' that is used in Windows File Explorer to then open/explore 'media' and then 'hdd' (e.g. to \\BEYONWIZT4\rooty-toot-toot\media\hdd\IPTVDownloads via my 'rooty-toot-toot' SMB snippet posted previously).
A copy of a 1.57 GB file to the same destination complained of needing an additional 7.12 MB to be able to succeed.
Copying that 1.57 GB file via the share based on /media/hdd succeeds (e.g. to \\BEYONWIZT4\Movie\XtestX).

So a write of 1.57 GB to your \\BEYONWIZU4\root\media\usb path may fail, whereas a file size of around 10 MB smaller should succeed.

My sizes above are Windows reported sizes.

[Paul_oz53]

Interesting that it's such an odd size (1.57GB) Grumpy_Geoff. Even if mapped, the same restriction appears to apply, unlike the movies folder where I have not encountered a size limit. However, I haven't written more than 1GB as a single file in recent times.

We previously had the 2GB problem when oplocks were a problem but in 19.3 the default settings disable oplocks in their many guises. Obviously it's only a problem in limited circumstances but, for V2 users, a subset of computer savvy users will want a solution.

Best regards, Paul (aka "the happy hacker")