asked on Script format question
I am creating a script to write zero data to a CF card (Don't ask. It's stupid but I have to do it anyway)
sudo watch dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb bs=4k > mylog & tail mylog
My question is three parts.
1) Using the line above, why does the dd action stop? If I take the " & tail mylog" off, it works and writes to the file just fine.
2) Why can I not get this to run in a script from a desktop icon?
3) Is there a better way to do this? It has to be easy for the end user so the hope would be a double click on the desktop icon, password for sudo is fine and then the process runs with an easy to read status.
I have several more action icons to make after this one so hopefully this will get me on the right track.
Thanks all!
sudo watch dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb bs=4k > mylog & tail mylog
My question is three parts.
1) Using the line above, why does the dd action stop? If I take the " & tail mylog" off, it works and writes to the file just fine.
2) Why can I not get this to run in a script from a desktop icon?
3) Is there a better way to do this? It has to be easy for the end user so the hope would be a double click on the desktop icon, password for sudo is fine and then the process runs with an easy to read status.
I have several more action icons to make after this one so hopefully this will get me on the right track.
Thanks all!
LinuxLinux OS Dev
Last Comment
arnold
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ASKER
Okay. I see where you are going with this but it still does not show the status. Just a blank screen while the dd runs. This is an Ubuntu machine if that makes any difference.
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ASKER
That didn't work either. I just get a blank white background terminal screen after I type in the sudo password. Once I type CTRL+C the screen disappears. I do see dd running in another window using top.
I really like the look of pv and have been trying to get that to work. So far I have this:
echo 'z,,,1234' | sudo -S dd if=/dev/zero bs=10M | pv -s 16G -N dd | echo 'z,,,1234' | sudo -S dd bs=10M of=/dev/sdb
It took me awhile to figure out that I would need to echo the password twice. I get no error but it also doesn't do much.
administrator@kiosk1:~$ echo '123456' | sudo -S dd if=/dev/zero bs=10M | pv -s 16G -N dd | echo '123456' | sudo -S dd bs=10M of=/dev/sdb0+1 records in0+1 records out9 bytes (9 B) copied, 0.0048828 s, 1.8 kB/s dd: 0B 0:00:00 [ 0B/s ] [> ] 0% administrator@kiosk1:~$
I think sudo may be my problem. I remember a few version ago where you could sudo su and be done with it. I know the dangers but this PC will not be on the network and will only be used by IT folks for a few specific tasks.
I really like the look of pv and have been trying to get that to work. So far I have this:
echo 'z,,,1234' | sudo -S dd if=/dev/zero bs=10M | pv -s 16G -N dd | echo 'z,,,1234' | sudo -S dd bs=10M of=/dev/sdb
It took me awhile to figure out that I would need to echo the password twice. I get no error but it also doesn't do much.
administrator@kiosk1:~$ echo '123456' | sudo -S dd if=/dev/zero bs=10M | pv -s 16G -N dd | echo '123456' | sudo -S dd bs=10M of=/dev/sdb0+1 records in0+1 records out9 bytes (9 B) copied, 0.0048828 s, 1.8 kB/s dd: 0B 0:00:00 [ 0B/s ] [> ] 0% administrator@kiosk1:~$
I think sudo may be my problem. I remember a few version ago where you could sudo su and be done with it. I know the dangers but this PC will not be on the network and will only be used by IT folks for a few specific tasks.
you may need to escape some parameters
xterm -e "sudo watch dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb bs=4k \> mylog \& tail mylog"
I.e. the & was sending "xterm -e "sudo watch dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb bs=4k \> mylog" into the background and there is no interface to run the tail mylog.
xterm -e "sudo watch dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb bs=4k \> mylog \& tail mylog"
I.e. the & was sending "xterm -e "sudo watch dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb bs=4k \> mylog" into the background and there is no interface to run the tail mylog.
ASKER
Still get the blank screen so I can't see the progress.
Is the mylog file gets created? This will at least deal with whether the program runs.
xterm -e "sudo watch dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb bs=4k \\> mylog \\& tail mylog"
You may have to add another escape if this does not work.
xterm -e "sudo watch dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb bs=4k \\\> mylog \\\& tail mylog"
xterm -e "sudo watch dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb bs=4k \\> mylog \\& tail mylog"
You may have to add another escape if this does not work.
xterm -e "sudo watch dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb bs=4k \\\> mylog \\\& tail mylog"
ASKER
Okay guys. I got it working. I really wanted to use pv as it has a much easier to read output but the sudo chaining was causing issues so this is what I ended up doing. Also note, this takes the echo of the password out of the script so a little better security for when it matters.
echo "WARNING!! CF card will be wiped!"
echo "ALL DATA WILL BE LOST!"
echo "Press CTRL+C to stop this process now"
sleep 10
dd if=/dev/zero bs=10M | pv -s 16G -N dd | dd bs=10M of=/dev/sdb
echo "clean complete"
sleep 5
Thank you all for your help and I hope this helps someone else.
- sudo passwd root // I wanted to get away from sudo and back to a su environment.
- xterm -e su -c 'bash /home/administrator/Deskto
p/clean.sh && bash' // I
added the su to the launcher. Don't forget that the path will change so add back the full path to the script. - below is the finished clean.sh listed above.
echo "WARNING!! CF card will be wiped!"
echo "ALL DATA WILL BE LOST!"
echo "Press CTRL+C to stop this process now"
sleep 10
dd if=/dev/zero bs=10M | pv -s 16G -N dd | dd bs=10M of=/dev/sdb
echo "clean complete"
sleep 5
Thank you all for your help and I hope this helps someone else.
ASKER
I finally figured it out but not without the help of these guys.
The alternative is that you can use suid to set the permission on the script to run with owner's rights.
i.e. root owned script with chmod 2755 thisscript.
The user would not need to know the su - password nor have rights to sudo.
i.e. root owned script with chmod 2755 thisscript.
The user would not need to know the su - password nor have rights to sudo.