I can create files and programs, but when I power cycle the Pi, all the new content is gone. I have tried to edit an existing file. The changes were gone after the power cycle. File manager shows 2.4G free. Any thought?
I can create files and programs, but when I power cycle the Pi, all the new content is gone. I have tried to edit an existing file. The changes were gone after the power cycle. File manager shows 2.4G free. Any thought?
GNU/Linux first writes files to RAM buffers and later writes them to non-volatile storage like an SD card or Flash drive. If you hard reset or power down before the files are written to non-volatile storage, you'll lose the changes.
Use the "sync" command write changes to non-volatile storage immediately. Enter "man sync" in a terminal window for more information.
Use the "shutdown" command before turning off power. If you're using a GUI, there should be a power down command somewhere to shut down safely.
I do use the GUI shutdown before power down. I wait until the touch screen goes to just lines, then pull the power.
I tried the 'sync' commend. Same result, all changes lost. The files revert to a mid Jan 2016 version. Luckily I have a habit of saving copies to a USB drive.
I am considering formatting and reloading Jessie to the SD card.
IF the system would remount your file system read only (due to an error), the write that triggered it has already returned and it is impossible for the system to retroactively forward the error to the application.
But all subsequent writes to a readonly mounted file system would fail immediately and you'd get errors.
The behavior that you describe sounds like the wanted behavior for a guest account. Could it be that your account is flagged as a guest account? (I'm not familiar how guest accounts work at the lower level so I'm not even sure that it is possible to tag a normal account as a guest account).
IF the system would remount your file system read only (due to an error), the write that triggered it has already returned and it is impossible for the system to retroactively forward the error to the application.
But all subsequent writes to a readonly mounted file system would fail immediately and you'd get errors.
The behavior that you describe sounds like the wanted behavior for a guest account. Could it be that your account is flagged as a guest account? (I'm not familiar how guest accounts work at the lower level so I'm not even sure that it is possible to tag a normal account as a guest account).
Another question would be where are the files located at that he is trying to save, some (most?) versions of Linux will clear out the /tmp directory at boot.