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Re: automounting removable drives on multi-user systems



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Content preview:  On 09/30/08 10:08, Hans Ekbrand wrote: > Hi fellow debian-user(s)
   > > My problem concerns auto-mounting of removable media on multi-user systems.
   > > What I want is a tool/some scripts that: > > Whenever a removable media[1]
   is inserted the user who is owning the > active display [2], should automatically
   get the device mounted and a > filebrowser should be launched on the mountpoint.
   (which filebrowser [...] 

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--- Begin Message ---
On 09/30/08 10:08, Hans Ekbrand wrote:
Hi fellow debian-user(s)

My problem concerns auto-mounting of removable media on multi-user systems.

What I want is a tool/some scripts that:

Whenever a removable media[1] is inserted the user who is owning the
active display [2], should automatically get the device mounted and a
filebrowser should be launched on the mountpoint. (which filebrowser

GNOME already does this. Konq should be able to be configured to do this.

is up to the user to decide, I prefer mc in terminal, but other users
prefer konqueror). When the user closes the filebrowser, the device
should be automatically unmounted, so a little script will be needed
here.

The problem with this is that the device's buffers need to be flushed *before* the device is unplugged. That's why devices need to be manually dismounted.

I hate to sound like a curmudgeon, but it shouldn't be hard to teach
users to dismount devices.  In GNOME, one of the right-click menu
choices in a drive's desktop icon is Unmount Volume, and I'm sure
that KDE does something similar.  (Even Windows has the awkward
Safely Remove Hardware button.)

I know of and use, ivman, which seems be the right tool for this,
since it runs system-wide and once per user.[3] The other users on
this system use KDE, and I don't know:

- if KDE uses ivman or has its own builtin code for handling removable
  media.

- if KDE has its own method for this, can that code be deactivated?
  Should it be deactivated, or is smart enough to not try mount device
  when it runs under an inactive display? (my experience suggests
  otherwise)

KDE has it's own techniques for automounting.

- Suppose KDE:s mounting can be deactivated, or be configured to use
  ivman, so there is only ivman to configure, can ivman be configured
  to only mount devices when run by the user who owns the active
  display?

If ivman is not up to this, then are there other tools that can do
this? (And do these other tools play well with whatever window-manager
I happen to prefer?)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

[1] For now, I'm just interested in USB-sticks (but auto-playing DVD:s
    would be a nice bonus

[2] or current VT, or whatever it is called, but all users are using
    their own X-server (e.g. Lisa uses X-server 0 at vt7, Bob, uses
    X-server 1 at vt8 and so on).

[3] ivman is started automatically on my system at login-time by
    Xsession, as described in the documentation for ivman in Debian).

--
Ron Johnson, Jr.
Jefferson LA  USA

"Do not bite at the bait of pleasure till you know there is no
hook beneath it."  -- Thomas Jefferson

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