This is still broken in Trusty. Nautilus is invoking gnome-disks like this:
gnome-disks --block-device /dev/sdb1 --format-device --xid 39846040 I believe the problem is actually in gnome-disks, not Nautilus. When I launch gnome-disks directly and attempt to format either a single partition of a USB stick or the whole drive, the format does nothing and I see an error message like this: Error formatting disk Error synchronizing after initial wipe: Timed out waiting for object (udisks-error-quark, 0) -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop Packages, which is subscribed to gnome-disk-utility in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1227440 Title: Nautilus' Format option doesn't actually work Status in GNOME Disks: New Status in “gnome-disk-utility” package in Ubuntu: Confirmed Status in “nautilus” package in Ubuntu: Triaged Bug description: As reported by GNOME, the new Format option when right-clicking on a USB stick doesn't actually format the device. This feature was added to nautilus with https://git.gnome.org/browse/nautilus/commit/?id=a73c8c773 If we can't fix this before Saucy freezes, it would be better to not show the Format option in Nautilus. ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.10 Package: gnome-disk-utility 3.8.2-1ubuntu2 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.11.0-7.13-generic 3.11.0 Uname: Linux 3.11.0-7-generic x86_64 ApportVersion: 2.12.2-0ubuntu1 Architecture: amd64 Date: Wed Sep 18 21:56:49 2013 MarkForUpload: True SourcePackage: gnome-disk-utility UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install) To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/gnome-disk-utility/+bug/1227440/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages Post to : desktop-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
