Ubuntu – USB stick format via Nautilus

formatnautilususb

Okay, so I was fooling around on Ubuntu 13.10, then noticed that when I right-click my USB stick in Nautilus, I have a "Format" option.

When I click "Format", a new window opens and asks for what to do. I choose my options, then click on "Format".

And then, nothing appends… My USB drive is not formatted, and I don't have anything asking for my password.

I looked around, and found this thread, which is not helping, since the "Format" option on right-click does not appear with nautilus started as super-user.

Any thoughts ?

Please note that I'm not trying to format my USB-stick, I'm trying to format it with the built-in nautilus action.

EDIT :
The "Format" option in context menu is provided by gnome-disks. Gnome-disks can't format my drive either. So far, I've found using it one error Error synchronizing after initial wipe: Timed out waiting for object (udisks-error-quark, 0)

Best Answer

Ok well, I found it. But it's messy...

My error was caused by util-linux(in buggy version 2.20 since 2012), which is needed by udisks, which is the package used by gnome-disks to format USB drives, which is the tool used by the "Format" option in the Nautilus context-menu.

The bug is reported here and here. It has not be solved since 2012.

Thats a bummer...

EDIT : and if you want my advice, DO NOT try to build util-linux yourself^^ I just did, following all recommendations and without any warnings, and I bricked my system.

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