On Tue, Sep 30, 2008 at 10:37:29AM -0500, Ron Johnson wrote: Content-Description: original message before SpamAssassin > Date: Tue, 30 Sep 2008 10:37:29 -0500 > From: Ron Johnson <ron.l.johnson@cox.net> > To: debian-user@lists.debian.org > Subject: Re: automounting removable drives on multi-user systems > > 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. I have used gnome-volume-manager under gnome and it seems to do one thing right: the user who own's the active display get to mount the device. However, I haven't tested gnome-volume-manager under KDE+ion3 and I don't know if it is able to give the right user the mount without the gnome desktop stuff. If gnome-volume-mananger does, than that might be the tool I want. > >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. I see no problem here, umount does not return/finish before the buffers are synced, and the script will umount and give the user a notice when the device has been properly umounted. > That's why devices need to be manually dismounted. Not with the work-flow I have drafted. When the user is done moving files, s/he exits the filebrowser, which means that the script continues, and the next step in the script is umount, and when that is done, give the user a note (xmessage or whatever). Actually, I already have such a script working, which when the filebrowser exits asks the user (using xmessage) if the device should be umounted or not. Perhaps my usage of removable media is atypical, but I prefer to use the only when I have to, i.e. when I need to transfer files to computers where I don't have an account and/or does not have a network connection. > 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.) If the user chooses not let the script umount then, the user will have to umount manually, as you state, but the default thing to do when I have tranfered the files, is to umount the device, and I want to be offered that (and offer that to the other users) with a dialog, don't you think such an offer is a good idea? Or even, something debian could offer by default (at least if a automounting daemon like gnome-volume-manager or ivman is installed on the system)? > >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. Can they be configured to only be active for the user who owns the active display? -- Note that I use Debian version 4.0 Linux amin 2.6.18-4-486 #1 Mon Mar 26 16:39:10 UTC 2007 i586 GNU/Linux Hans Ekbrand (http://sociologi.cjb.net) <hans@sociologi.cjb.net> A. Because it breaks the logical sequence of discussion Q. Why is top posting bad?
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