fat32-repair-notifier

Automatic detection and repair notification for FAT32 USB flash drives on Linux desktops.

Dependencies: libnotify polkit dosfstools systemd udev

fat32-repair-notifier monitors newly attached removable FAT32 drives using udev and checks whether the filesystem was improperly unmounted. If a dirty filesystem is detected, a desktop notification appears with an option to repair the drive using fsck.fat.

Features

• Automatic detection of newly inserted FAT32 USB drives
• Dirty bit detection using fsck.fat
• Desktop notifications via notify-send
• Optional filesystem repair using pkexec
• Lightweight and dependency-free shell implementation
• No background daemon required

How It Works

USB drive inserted
        ↓
udev rule triggers
        ↓
systemd-run starts checker
        ↓
fsck.fat checks dirty bit
        ↓
Desktop notification appears
        ↓
User can repair filesystem

Notes

• Only FAT32 (vfat) filesystems are checked
• MTP/PTP smartphones are ignored
• Existing mounted filesystems are skipped
• The project is intentionally minimal and lightweight

Notification Support

A running Freedesktop-compatible notification daemon is required.

Examples:

• xfce4-notifyd
• mate-notification-daemon
• notification-daemon
• dunst

Without a notification daemon, notify-send will not display messages.

Tested Desktop Environments

• Budgie
• XFCE
• LXDE
• MATE

Recommendation

Disabling automatic opening of removable drives may improve repair reliability on some desktop environments.

Keep your flash drives clean 😄