[Gllug] Linux && iPod: slow file transfers?

[pg_gllug at gllug.for.sabi.co.UK]

gllug> earlier today, I got myself an iPod (new job where I
gllug> can't take my laptop to work [ ... ]

Many/most employers that are concerned about personal laptops
(e.g. financial institutions) are also concerned about any sort
of removable storage... Check with your HR before it becomes a
C.L.M.

gllug> I've been out this afternoon and started copying the
gllug> files when I left here about 6 hours ago. So far gtkpod
gllug> has copied about 5GB (of about 22GB)

5,000,000MB/(6*3,600s) => 230KB/s, which is one quarter even of
that USB can do.

gllug> - which seems ridiculously slow for a USB2 link... [ ... ]

Well, you are not giving a lot of details (consider reading
http://tinyurl.com/bz8v4 on suggestions), but there is a tragic
number of little known details about USB storage devices.

To make a long story short, and this may not apply to you at
all, there are now two completely different drivers for USB
storage devices, 'ub' and 'usb-storage'.

Usually 'ub' supports flash drives and 'usb-storage' matches
disc drives, but not necessarily. The comment at the beginning
of its source reads: "The low performance USB storage driver
(ub)" and that's quite right.

If your iPod is perchance being accessed via 'ub' things will be
inded excruciatingly slow. It should not, but it could, it all
depends on your distro.

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