Re: [SLE] How would you like hotplugged USB drive mounting to work?

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To: Suse Users <suse-linux-e@suse.com>
Date: Mon, 24 May 2004 23:38:33 +0200

Good call!
I've also been trying to think of a way to do this also.
Your 2 methods are good, but I'd like one more feature.

Another level of inderection. The suse generated names
that are less than user friendly. They seem to be unique.
I assume that the name stays the same irrelevant to which
port you connect to. ie. the name is unique to the device.

So here my suggestion:
Keep a relationship between the unique ids and mount points
in a seperate file. This will allow the user to rename the
mount point to something that is usefull to hime/her, like
freecom for my freecom fw disk. In order to avoid changes
to Konqueror I guess you need to offer the mount point renaming
in yast?

But here a question:
In konqueror, under drives:/, if you right mouse click
you got a "add new device menu", with a list of device types...
What is this about?

Jerry

On Mon, 2004-05-24 at 23:17, Chris Carlen wrote:
> Folks:
>
> This is driving me bonkers. I tried editing my
> /etc/hotplug/hotplug.subfs.functions file to the way shown in Sjoerd's
> reply to my "Why does USB drive mount automagically?" thread.
>
> As anticipated, the result of this is that USB storage devices are no
> longer automounted, but then can only be mounted by root. This could be
> partially dealt with by adding a line in /etc/fstab, but this is not a
> good solution because the device name isn't guaranteed when using these
> USB hotplugged devices.
>
> Thus, I am curious to get some sort of feedback from you folks about how
> this *should* work.
>
> Here is what happens with the default 9.1 installed system:
>
> 1. User plugs in USB storage device.
> 2. KDE Konqueror window automatically pops up with display of device
> contents. A mount point in /media has been automatically generated.
> 3. When user is done, he tried to unmount by going to Konqueror's
> "devices" right clicking on the device, and selecting "unmount" to which
> the system complains that he is not root.
> 4. User unplugs device not knowing if the file buffer is flushed or not.
> 5. Window disappears. Mount point dir disappears.
>
> We hope all went well. The only real problem here is that Suse didn't
> allow the user to unmount the device. Here is my proposal for a well
> thought-out setup with some options for different user preferences
> instead of "Bill G. knows best how you shall compute" :
>
>
> OPTION 1 (fully automatic, but user unmountable):
>
> 1. User plugs in USB storage device. System automatically mounts
> device on automatically created mount point dir.
> 2. KDE Konqueror window automatically pops up pointed to the mount path
> with a display of device contents.
> 3. When user is done, he unmounts by going to Konqueror's "devices"
> right clicking on the device, and selecting "unmount". Alternatively
> the power user can umount it at the command prompt.
> 4. Window disappears. Mount point dir disappears.
>
> This setup is also KDE transparent. It should be an option in KDE that
> causes the Konq. window to appear or not. But the automounting and user
> manual unmounting will satisfy the non-KDE user as well.
>
>
> OPTION 2 (fully manual mounting, automatic mount point creation and
> /etc/fstab entry creation):
>
> 1. User plugs in USB storage device. System automatically creates
> mount point dir in /media, and adds a line to /etc/fstab to allow user
> to mount manually.
> 2. User can go to Konqueror's "devices," right click on the device, and
> select "mount". Contents of device may now be browsed and used as a
> normal part of the filesystem under /media/thingy_name
> 3. When user is done, he unmounts by going to Konqueror's "devices"
> right clicking on the device, and selecting "unmount". Alternatively
> the power user can umount it at the command prompt.
> 4. Mount point disappears.
>
>
> Other options anyone?
>
>
> My final points:
>
> 1. Suse didn't design handling of hotplugged storage devices very well.
> It is very close to being a good system, but the failure to allow
> users to unmount is an unfortunate oversight.
>
> 2. There are also inconsistencies in the whole user interface to these
> devices. In the 9.1 User Guide section on digital cameras it says a KDE
> icon shoud appear on the desktop when you plug in a USB camera. But a
> USB storage device pops a Konq. window ?
>
> Which way Suse? Please make up your mind and quit changing it with each
> version, or worse having different devices handled different ways.
>
> 3. Offer the ability to configure this stuff in Yast. We should at
> least be able to choose between options 1 and 2 described above. More
> fine grained configuration options would be even better.
>
> 4. There is no documentation on hotplug, Suseplugger, etc. Fortunately
> there is at least a manpage for submount. There should be a large
> chapter in the books about this stuff, explaining in detail how to make
> the system behave in exactly the way the user wants.
>
> THAT is what can make this thing better than the "competition".
>
>
> Input would be appreciated.
>
>
> Good day!
>
>
> --
> ____________________________________
> Christopher R. Carlen
> Principal Laser/Optical Technologist
> Sandia National Laboratories CA USA
> crcarle@sandia.gov
>

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• Previous message: Michael Satterwhite: "[SLE] Documents icon"
• In reply to: Chris Carlen: "[SLE] How would you like hotplugged USB drive mounting to work?"
• Next in thread: Tims Suse List: "Re: [SLE] How would you like hotplugged USB drive mounting to work?"
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