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GNOME Disks
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| GNOME Disks | |
|---|---|
 | |
.png) GNOME Disks 40 (released in March 2021) | |
| Original author | Red Hat |
| Developer | David Zeuthen |
| Stable release | 46.1 
/ 3 September 2024 |
| Repository | |
| Written in | C |
| Operating system | Linux |
| Platform | GNOME |
| Size | 1.4 MB |
| Available in | Multilingual[which?] |
| Type | Partition editor |
| License | GPL-2.0-or-later |
| Website | apps |
GNOME Disks is a graphical front-end for udisks.[1] It can be used for partition management, S.M.A.R.T. monitoring, benchmarking, and software RAID (until v. 3.12).[2] An introduction is included in the GNOME Documentation Project.
Disks used to be known as GNOME Disk Utility or palimpsest Disk Utility. Udisks was named DeviceKit-disks in earlier releases. DeviceKit-disks is part of DeviceKit which was planned to replace certain aspects of HAL. HAL and DeviceKit have been deprecated.
GNOME Disks has been included by default in several Linux distributions including Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Trisquel, Fedora, Red Hat Enterprise Linux and CentOS.
See also
[edit]
- List of disk partitioning software
- System monitor
- Comparison of S.M.A.R.T. tools
- GParted – another alternative
- Disk utility
References
[edit]- ^ Richard Petersen (December 1, 2010), Fedora 14: Administration and Security, Surfing Turtle Press, pp. 147–, ISBN 978-1-936280-23-0
- ^ "Disk Utility management for GNOME". 18 January 2014.
- ^ "udisks2 readme". GitHub. 8 June 2022.
External links
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 | This GNOME-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
GNOME Disks
View on Grokipediafrom Grokipedia
GNOME Disks is a graphical disk management utility integrated into the GNOME desktop environment for Linux-based operating systems, providing users with an intuitive interface to inspect, format, partition, and configure storage devices such as hard drives, SSDs, and USB sticks.[1] It serves as the primary front-end for the udisks daemon, enabling seamless interaction with block devices without requiring command-line tools.[2]
Key features of GNOME Disks include the ability to create and restore disk images for backups or bootable media, benchmark disk performance to measure read/write speeds, and monitor drive health through SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) data, including alerts for potential failures.[2] The application supports partitioning with various filesystems like ext4, NTFS, and FAT, as well as encryption using LUKS for secure storage setup, and it allows mounting, unmounting, and resizing partitions directly from the interface.[3] Additionally, it facilitates imaging USB devices for creating live systems or recovery tools, making it essential for system administrators and everyday users handling storage tasks.[1]
Originally developed as Palimpsest Disk Utility around 2009 and later renamed GNOME Disk Utility before adopting its current name "Disks" in subsequent releases, the application has evolved alongside the GNOME project since its stable debut with GNOME 2.30 in March 2010. Maintained by the GNOME community on GitLab, it continues to receive updates for compatibility with modern hardware and filesystems, with the latest stable version 46.1 released in September 2024.[4] Licensed under the GNU General Public License, GNOME Disks emphasizes accessibility and integration within GNOME, contributing to the ecosystem's focus on user-friendly system tools.[5]
Introduction
Overview
GNOME Disks is a graphical front-end for the udisks daemon, a system service that handles low-level operations on storage devices in Linux systems.[6] It offers an intuitive interface for users to manage disks and block devices without needing to interact directly with command-line tools.[5] The application is designed primarily for inspecting device properties, formatting partitions, creating and modifying partitions, and configuring mount options in Linux environments.[1] Developed as part of the GNOME project, GNOME Disks provides a graphical alternative to command-line utilities like fdisk and parted, democratizing storage management for non-technical users.[7] This shift to a GUI-based approach simplifies complex tasks such as resizing partitions or setting up encryption, reducing the risk of errors associated with manual terminal commands.[6] The current stable release is version 49.0, issued in September 2025, and GNOME Disks is distributed under the GNU General Public License version 2.0 or later.[8][9]Role in GNOME ecosystem
GNOME Disks has been a core application within the GNOME desktop environment since the GNOME 3.x series, specifically included in the official core apps list starting with GNOME 3.22 in 2016 and continuing through subsequent releases up to GNOME 49 in 2025.[10][11] It collaborates closely with other GNOME components to enhance storage management workflows. For instance, GNOME Disks integrates with GVFS (GNOME Virtual File System) to handle mounting and unmounting of volumes, allowing mounted devices to seamlessly appear in the Nautilus file manager for easy access and file operations.[12][13] This integration ensures that disk operations performed in GNOME Disks propagate to the broader GNOME ecosystem, supporting user-friendly interactions without manual configuration. As a graphical front-end, GNOME Disks plays a key role in making storage administration accessible to end-users within the GNOME desktop, thereby reducing the need for command-line tools such as fdisk or parted. It offers intuitive interfaces for tasks like partitioning and formatting, aligning with GNOME's emphasis on simplicity and consistency across applications.[1] The application was primarily developed by David Zeuthen while at Red Hat, with initial contributions dating back to 2008, and is now maintained by the broader GNOME development team.[14][5]History
Origins and early development
GNOME Disks originated as the graphical frontend for DeviceKit-disks, a component of the DeviceKit project initiated by Red Hat engineers in the late 2000s.[15] DeviceKit-disks was developed to handle disk and storage device enumeration and operations, serving as a modular replacement for the increasingly complex and deprecated Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL), which had been announced for deprecation in 2008 due to redundancy with emerging libraries like udev.[16] The initial release of DeviceKit, including its disks module, occurred in 2008, marking a shift toward specialized daemons for device management in Linux distributions like Fedora.[17] In early 2009, the GNOME Disk Utility—branded as Palimpsest Disk Utility—was first released as version 0.1, integrating with DeviceKit-disks to offer a user-friendly interface for desktop environments.[18] This tool was included in distributions such as Ubuntu 9.10 later that year, providing an accessible way to interact with storage devices without relying on command-line utilities. The name "Palimpsest" derives from the ancient practice of reusing parchment by scraping off previous writing, though its specific adoption here reflected the utility's role in managing and reformatting storage media.[19] The primary motivation behind Palimpsest was to deliver a safe, graphical alternative to low-level tools like fdisk or parted, enabling non-expert users to perform disk operations in a controlled manner within the GNOME desktop.[20] Early development emphasized basic partitioning, file system creation, and volume management, with operations requiring elevated privileges handled through PolicyKit for secure authorization.[15] In December 2009, DeviceKit-disks was renamed to udisks to simplify branding and ensure ABI stability, solidifying the backend's role in supporting the frontend's growth under the GNOME project.[21]Key releases and name changes
GNOME Disks originated as Palimpsest Disk Utility, the graphical frontend for the DeviceKit-disks backend, with its initial integration into the GNOME desktop occurring in version 2.28.0, released on September 23, 2009. This version provided basic disk management capabilities, including partitioning and formatting, aligned with GNOME 2.28's enhancements for storage device handling via DeviceKit-disks support for features like disk spindown.[22] The application was rebranded as GNOME Disk Utility starting with version 3.0.2 in 2011, coinciding with the GNOME 3.0 release, though it retained the Palimpsest internal name initially. A further simplification occurred in version 3.6.0, released on September 20, 2012, when the executable and man page were renamed from palimpsest to gnome-disks, reflecting a streamlined branding as simply "Disks" within the GNOME ecosystem.[23] This release also introduced UI enhancements and relicensing to GPLv2+.[23] Subsequent key releases focused on refining core functionality while removing niche features. Version 3.12.0, released on March 22, 2014, followed the removal of MD-RAID (software RAID) support in 3.11.0, streamlining the tool away from advanced array management to emphasize everyday disk operations.[23] GNOME Disks follows the GNOME release cycle, with stable versions typically aligning to major GNOME updates; for example, version 3.34.0 arrived in September 2019, and version 46.1 was released on September 3, 2024.[24] Modern updates have incorporated contemporary technologies. Starting from version 40.0 in March 2021, the application began preparations for GTK4 migration, with the GTK4 port completed in version 47.0 as part of GNOME 47 in September 2024; libadwaita integration for a refreshed interface occurred in version 48.0 as part of GNOME 48 in March 2025.[25] LUKS2 encryption support for creating and managing encrypted partitions was added in version 41.0, released in September 2021.[23] Recent versions, from 43.0 onward (September 2022), have enhanced Flatpak build support, allowing sandboxed deployment with minimal UDisks dependencies for development and distribution. Following the GNOME release cycle, version 48.0 was released in March 2025 and version 49.0 in September 2025, incorporating further modernizations such as expanded Rust usage.[26]Features
Disk inspection and monitoring
GNOME Disks provides a graphical interface for inspecting local and removable storage devices, displaying them in a sidebar list that includes hard disks, optical drives, and USB-connected media. Upon selecting a device, the application presents a visual tree representation in the main pane, illustrating the device's overall capacity, partition layout, and basic properties such as connection type and media compatibility.[27] Device types are differentiated, for example, by indicating whether the drive is a solid-state device (SSD) or rotational hard disk drive (HDD) through details like rotation rate or solid-state status, aiding users in identifying storage characteristics without command-line tools.[1] For partition inspection, GNOME Disks reveals detailed attributes including size, type (e.g., primary, extended, or logical), and flags such as bootable or hidden. Filesystem information is prominently displayed, encompassing the type (e.g., ext4 for Linux native or NTFS for Windows compatibility), volume label, and unique identifier (UUID), which appears in a dedicated details dialog for precise reference. Usage statistics are shown via a graphical bar or numerical values, indicating used and free space on mounted partitions to provide an at-a-glance overview of storage allocation.[27] Real-time monitoring capabilities allow users to mount or unmount partitions directly from the interface, with options to specify mount points and verify accessibility before or after operations. The application checks for basic errors, such as read-only status or failed mounts due to filesystem inconsistencies, displaying alerts if a device or partition is not responsive or properly detected. This ensures safe oversight without risking data integrity during inspection.[28] Support extends to multiple device types, seamlessly handling internal drives, USB sticks, and external enclosures by enumerating all detectable block devices via the underlying UDisks service. For network-attached storage (NAS), GNOME Disks offers limited previews if volumes are mounted as local block devices, though full functionality is constrained to direct-attached hardware. Advanced health checks, such as those using SMART attributes, are available but deferred to specialized monitoring sections.[1][2]Partition management and formatting
GNOME Disks enables users to manage disk partitions via an intuitive graphical interface, leveraging the udisks backend for operations on block devices. To create a new partition, users select unallocated space on a disk and use the "Create Partition" option, which opens a wizard guiding the specification of size, type, and initial filesystem. Resizing and editing existing partitions occur through the "Edit Partition" dialog, featuring graphical sliders for adjusting sizes non-destructively where possible, along with options to modify partition flags such as bootable or hidden. Deleting partitions is straightforward via the same dialog, with confirmation prompts to prevent accidental data loss. These tools support both primary and logical partitions within the selected table type.[27][29] Formatting partitions in GNOME Disks allows selection from common filesystems, including ext4 for Linux environments, FAT32 for cross-platform compatibility, and NTFS for Windows integration, among others like Btrfs for advanced features. During formatting, users can assign a volume label and choose between quick or thorough methods to overwrite data, ensuring the operation aligns with the intended use case. The tool provides presets for these filesystems to simplify the process, while custom options enable fine-tuning such as partition alignment for optimal performance. All formatting actions include explicit warnings about irreversible data erasure on the targeted partition.[30][31][29] The application supports both GUID Partition Table (GPT) and Master Boot Record (MBR) schemes, automatically detecting the existing table on a disk and allowing conversion between them when creating or editing layouts. When altering partition tables, GNOME Disks displays prominent alerts regarding the risk of data loss, recommending backups prior to proceeding, especially for boot or system disks. This ensures safe handling of modern large-capacity drives with GPT or legacy setups with MBR.[27][29] For persistent configuration, GNOME Disks integrates directly with /etc/fstab and /etc/crypttab, permitting users to define mount points, options like noatime for performance, and automatic mounting at system startup through the "Edit Mount Options" dialog. This graphical approach abstracts the manual editing of these files, applying changes atomically to avoid boot issues, and supports UUID-based identifiers for reliable device detection across sessions.[29][27]Backup and imaging
GNOME Disks enables users to create exact, bit-for-bit copies of entire disks or specific partitions as raw .img files, serving as a straightforward method for data backup and disk cloning. This feature relies on low-level block device operations to capture all sectors, including free space and filesystem metadata, ensuring a complete replica suitable for full system recovery or duplication. To initiate the process, users select the target disk or partition in the graphical interface, access the menu via the gear icon, and choose "Create Disk Image" for whole disks or "Create Partition Image" for individual partitions; administrative privileges are required, and the source must be unmounted, often requiring a live session for system volumes. The resulting .img file is saved to a user-specified location, with progress tracked in real-time, though the tool lacks native compression during creation, leading to file sizes matching the source device's capacity—users typically apply external compression like gzip post-creation to reduce storage needs.[2][32][33] Restoration mirrors this process in reverse, allowing users to write .img files back to target devices for recovery or cloning. Through the "Restore Disk Image" or "Restore Partition Image" option, the utility attaches the image as a virtual loop device and copies it sector-by-sector to the destination, preserving all original structures such as partition tables and bootloaders to maintain bootability where applicable. It supports direct restoration from xz-compressed images, automatically handling decompression without manual intervention, which aids in managing large backups efficiently; however, no integrated verification mechanism exists within the tool, so users must rely on external methods like md5sum or sha256sum to confirm the image's integrity against the source before or after restoration. Target devices should match or exceed the source size, and for bootable restorations, the process inherently handles bootloader reinstallation as part of the raw copy, though post-restoration reconfiguration may be needed if hardware changes occur.[33][32][34] Starting with GNOME 47 (released September 2024), GNOME Disks includes a new standalone image mounter dialog that provides a dedicated interface for mounting, unmounting, viewing, editing, writing, and inspecting disk images, enhancing accessibility for these operations without opening the full application.[25] The utility also supports crafting bootable media by treating ISO files as disk images and restoring them to USB sticks or similar devices, a common workflow for creating live environments or installation media. This "Restore Disk Image" method writes the ISO directly to the target, compatible with hybrid images that embed both ISO9660 filesystem and raw disk structures, thereby retaining bootloader functionality like GRUB or Syslinux for seamless booting across diverse hardware. No additional options for customization during this write process are provided, emphasizing simplicity over advanced partitioning tweaks.[35][36]Health monitoring and benchmarking
GNOME Disks provides tools for monitoring the health of storage devices through the Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology (SMART), which allows users to view detailed attributes indicating potential reliability issues.[37] Key attributes displayed include the reallocated sector count, which tracks the number of bad sectors remapped by the drive; current temperature, to assess thermal conditions; and various error rates such as read error rate and seek error rate, which signal data integrity problems.[37] An overall health assessment is presented, categorizing the disk as "OK" or flagging pre-fail conditions that suggest impending failure based on threshold exceedances.[37] Users can initiate SMART self-tests directly from the application to diagnose hardware issues more thoroughly. These include short self-tests, which check basic functionality and take a few minutes; extended self-tests, which perform a comprehensive scan of the entire disk surface and may last several hours; and conveyance self-tests, designed to verify damage from transportation, typically completing in under a minute.[38] The application monitors test progress and results, alerting users to any detected errors or failures.[37] For benchmarking disk performance, GNOME Disks offers a graphical utility that measures sequential and random read/write speeds across the device.[39] By default, it performs read tests, but enabling the write benchmark option includes write operations, requiring unmounted partitions and administrative privileges for accurate results.[39] Results are visualized in a graph showing throughput rates (in MB/s) against disk position, along with access times, minimum, maximum, and average values; historical benchmarks are stored as files in the user's ~/.cache/gnome-disks/benchmarks directory for comparison over time.[40] This feature helps identify performance degradation or inconsistencies, such as slower speeds in specific sectors. Power management options in GNOME Disks allow configuration of hard disk drives (HDDs) to optimize energy use and longevity. Users can adjust Advanced Power Management (APM) levels from 1 (maximum performance, no power savings) to 254 (maximum power savings, aggressive spindown), with level 127 typically enabling spindown while maintaining performance.[41] Additionally, standby timeout settings control how long the drive remains idle before spinning down, with options ranging from immediate to never, applicable only to supported HDDs.[42] The application generates alerts for potential disk failures by monitoring SMART thresholds, notifying users via desktop notifications if attributes like reallocated sectors or error rates exceed predefined limits, prompting immediate backups and further diagnostics.[37] These features collectively enable proactive maintenance, distinguishing health monitoring from basic device inspection by focusing on predictive and performance diagnostics.Encryption and advanced configurations
GNOME Disks provides support for creating, unlocking, and managing encrypted volumes using the Linux Unified Key Setup (LUKS) standard, which secures data on block devices through symmetric encryption. Users can format new partitions with LUKS encryption during the partitioning process, specifying options such as the encryption strength and key derivation function. The tool integrates with the underlying cryptsetup utility to handle these operations, allowing for the addition or removal of keyslots to enable multiple passphrases for a single volume.[29][43] Prior to version 41.0, GNOME Disks primarily utilized LUKS1 for new encrypted partitions, which offers robust compatibility but limited header size and features compared to its successor. Starting with version 41.0, released in September 2021, the application added support for creating LUKS2 volumes by default when compatible cryptsetup versions (2.0 or later) are present on the system, enabling advanced features like larger headers for metadata and improved integrity protection via PBKDF2 or Argon2. Unlocking existing LUKS volumes—whether LUKS1 or LUKS2—is facilitated through a graphical passphrase prompt, with the tool mapping the decrypted device for mounting or further management. Management tasks, such as changing passphrases or resizing encrypted containers, are accessible via the gear menu, though complex reconfigurations may require command-line intervention.[44][45] For software RAID configurations, GNOME Disks offers basic integration with mdadm, the Linux software RAID management tool, primarily for inspection and monitoring rather than full creation capabilities. Following the removal of dedicated RAID array creation tools in version 3.12 (released in March 2014), the application no longer supports assembling new mdadm arrays through its interface, as the feature was deemed unreliable and was deprecated to focus on core disk utilities. However, it recognizes and displays existing mdadm-based RAID devices (such as RAID0, RAID1, or RAID5 arrays) as unified "RAID Array" volumes in the device list, allowing users to view array status, component health, and mount points without needing external tools. This limited support aids in basic maintenance, like checking degradation or spare disk integration, but advanced mdadm operations require terminal commands.[46][47] GNOME Disks includes support for Logical Volume Manager (LVM) to enable flexible storage pooling and volume manipulation on physical volumes. Users can designate partitions as LVM physical volumes (PVs) during formatting, which are then grouped into volume groups (VGs) for allocation into resizable logical volumes (LVs). The tool facilitates creating new LVs within a VG, specifying sizes and extents, and supports resizing existing LVs online if the underlying filesystem (e.g., ext4) permits it, by extending or reducing space without unmounting. This is achieved through integration with the udisks backend, which handles LVM metadata and device-mapper operations. While comprehensive for basic setups, advanced LVM features like snapshots or striping may necessitate the use of lvm2 command-line tools for full control.[48][49] Advanced configurations in GNOME Disks leverage PolicyKit for secure handling of privileged actions, such as formatting encrypted volumes or modifying LVM structures, by prompting for administrative authentication via graphical dialogs. This ensures that operations requiring root privileges, like unlocking LUKS devices or resizing RAID components, are authorized without granting full sudo access. Additionally, the tool integrates with systemd for automated unlocking of encrypted volumes at boot, configurable through the "Edit Encryption Options" menu, which updates /etc/crypttab entries to enable passphrase prompts or keyfile-based decryption during system initialization. This setup supports seamless integration with systemd-cryptsetup units, allowing encrypted devices to be mapped early in the boot process for persistent mounts.[50]Technical details
Backend architecture
The backend of GNOME Disks is built around the udisks2 framework, which provides a D-Bus-based daemon called udisksd responsible for enumerating storage devices, monitoring device events such as insertion or removal, and executing operations like mounting, unmounting, and formatting.[6] This daemon interacts directly with the Linux kernel through libraries like libblockdev for low-level block device management and udev for event handling, enabling GNOME Disks to perform tasks without requiring direct root privileges for non-destructive queries.[51] The udisks2 evolved from earlier backends like DeviceKit-disks, providing a more robust and standardized interface for desktop environments.[51] For API access, GNOME Disks relies on the libudisks2 library, which offers C bindings to the udisks2 D-Bus interfaces, allowing the application to query device properties and invoke operations asynchronously. Additional core dependencies include GLib for utility functions such as event loops and data structures, and components from the GNOME stack like GIO for I/O abstractions, though the backend emphasizes the separation between the udisksd server process and client-side logic.[52] These elements ensure efficient communication over D-Bus, with the daemon activated on demand to minimize resource usage. The privilege model in udisks2 employs polkit (PolicyKit) to authorize sensitive operations, such as partitioning or formatting, by evaluating user credentials against configurable rules without granting full root access to the application.[53] For instance, actions like "org.freedesktop.udisks2.modify-device" require authentication, typically via a graphical prompt, allowing unprivileged users to perform read-only tasks while protecting destructive changes. This integration with system services like systemd-logind further handles session-based authorizations for mounting in user sessions.[53] udisks2 features a modular design that enhances extensibility, supporting plugins for specialized filesystems (e.g., LVM via the udisks2-lvm2 module) and device types (e.g., MD RAID arrays).[54] These modules are loaded dynamically into the udisksd daemon, either at startup or via D-Bus calls, allowing third-party extensions for emerging storage technologies without modifying the core framework.[55] This architecture enables GNOME Disks to adapt to diverse hardware and filesystem support through community-contributed modules.[54]User interface and dependencies
GNOME Disks employs a straightforward graphical user interface designed for ease of use in disk management tasks. The left sidebar lists all detected block devices, enabling quick selection of internal and external storage. Upon selection, the main pane presents comprehensive details such as device model, capacity, partitions, and file system information, alongside action buttons for common operations like mounting or unmounting volumes. For more involved procedures, such as partitioning or restoring disk images, the application utilizes step-by-step wizards to guide users through configurations, minimizing errors and providing clear progress indicators.[56] As part of the GNOME 47 release in September 2024, GNOME Disks was ported to GTK4 and now integrates the Adwaita theme through libadwaita, enhancing responsiveness and visual consistency with the broader GNOME ecosystem. This update introduces modern UI elements like adaptive layouts and improved theming support. The interface briefly references backend interactions via D-Bus calls to udisks2 for real-time device queries and modifications.[57] Essential dependencies include udisks2 for storage device abstraction and control, GTK (now version 4) for rendering the UI, and GLib for foundational utilities; libpwquality is optional but recommended for assessing password strength in encryption features. Accessibility is integrated via the GNOME platform, supporting full keyboard navigation across menus and dialogs, as well as screen reader interoperability through the AT-SPI (Assistive Technology Service Provider Interface) for describing UI elements to assistive technologies.[58] The package size is approximately 1.0 MB, with an installed size of about 6.5 MB (Arch Linux), ensuring a low resource footprint and efficient performance on standard desktop systems.[59]Adoption and usage
Distribution inclusion and installation
GNOME Disks is pre-installed by default in several prominent Linux distributions that utilize the GNOME desktop environment, including Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), CentOS, and Trisquel. The application is distributed under the package name gnome-disk-utility in most traditional package managers, while the Flatpak variant uses the identifier org.gnome.DiskUtility.[9][60] Users can install GNOME Disks via distribution-specific package managers; for example, on Debian-based systems like Ubuntu, the command issudo apt install gnome-disk-utility, while on RPM-based distributions like Fedora and RHEL, it is sudo dnf install gnome-disk-utility (or sudo yum install gnome-disk-utility on older versions). Alternatively, it can be installed as a Flatpak from Flathub using flatpak install flathub org.gnome.DiskUtility. Once installed, the application launches via the command gnome-disks.[9][61][60][62]
The version of GNOME Disks available in a given distribution is typically aligned with the GNOME release bundled in that distribution's repositories, ensuring compatibility with the system's desktop environment. For older releases, backported versions may be provided through additional repositories, such as Ubuntu's backports PPA, to deliver newer features and fixes without requiring a full distribution upgrade.