ANTant@zimage.com wrote:

> Hello.
>
> Is there a way to have KDE v3.3.2 automatically mount USB Flash
> drives/sticks (SanDisk Cruzer 256 MB, PNY 512 MB, etc.)? I have to do it
> as root (su) and in command prompt with mount -t vfat /dev/sda1
> /mnt/. I was hoping KDE would be like Windows and MacOS X in
> automatically mounting and ready to read and write files.
>
> Also, how do I make the USB Flash drives/sticks writeable without being
> root? I cannot seem to set this. And does unmounting /mnt/
> from command line (doing it via KDE won't work due to limited access --
> not root) take a long time to complete? It seems to take a minute for my
> system.
>
> I am using Debian r3.1 (Kernel v2.6.10-K7) with all latest updates (I
> hope) from apt-get commands.
>
> I am still new to Linux world. Thank you in advance.

I've never done this before with a usb device, but look at the man page for
mount...

Normally, only the superuser can mount file systems.
However, when /etc/fstab contains the user option on a line,
then anybody can mount the corresponding system.

Thus, given a line
/dev/cdrom /cd iso9660 ro,user,noauto,unhide
any user can mount the iso9660 file system found on his
CDROM using the command
mount /dev/cdrom
or
mount /cd
For more details, see fstab(5). Only the user that
mounted a filesystem can unmount it again. If any user
should be able to unmount, then use users instead of user
in the fstab line. The owner option is similar to the
user option, with the restriction that the user must be
the owner of the special file. This may be useful e.g. for
/dev/fd if a login script makes the console user owner of
this device.
- - - - -

In comp.windows.x.kde ANTant@zimage.com wrote:
> Is there a way to have KDE v3.3.2 automatically mount USB Flash
> drives/sticks (SanDisk Cruzer 256 MB, PNY 512 MB, etc.)?

I don't see this as a function of the window manager (GUI), but more
as a function of the OS itself. I'm running debian sarge and a Lexar
"JumpDrive" flash stick. I don't know how much of what you need has been
backported to woody (r3.1), so you'll just have to try it and see.

Put this line in /etc/auto.misc (you need the automounter package,
"autofs"). Change /dev/sda1 to your flash disk's device name:

usbflash -fstype=vfat,uid=3,gid=3,umask=0,sync,noatime :/dev/sda1

and this line in /etc/auto.master:

/var/autofs/misc /etc/auto.misc --timeout=60

Then symlink /var/autofs/misc/usbflash to /usbflash:

cd / && ln -s var/autofs/misc/usbflash .

The directory for the flash device is then "/usbflash" and it will mount
and unmount automatically. (Actually, the unmount happens 60 seconds
after your last access; I've found this sufficient for my needs.)

Chris

I was asking almost the same question a few days ago with respect to
Fedora Core 3.

A simple answer I got is that you make an entry in /etc/fstab something
like

/dev/sda1 /mnt/flash vfat noauto,users,umask=000 0 0

That should allow the ordinary user to mount and umount the device.

(This was from Dances With Crows) someone else mentioned a web site
http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/doc...s/html_single/
Flash-Memory-HOWTO.html which I haven't looked at yet.

Different distributions seem to have different philosophies on this
stuff. There is the hotplug subsystem which is involved in recognizing
devices that are plugged in and doing things about them. In Fedora Core
3 it seems they automatically edit the /etc/fstab to put in a line like
the above and leave it to the user to give a mount command. In Mandrake
10.1 they seem to want to automatically mount the device for you.
--

jhhaynes at earthlink dot net

Jim Haynes wrote:
> I was asking almost the same question a few days ago with respect to
> Fedora Core 3.

> A simple answer I got is that you make an entry in /etc/fstab something
> like

> /dev/sda1 /mnt/flash vfat noauto,users,umask=000 0 0

> That should allow the ordinary user to mount and umount the device.

> (This was from Dances With Crows) someone else mentioned a web site
> http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/doc...s/html_single/
> Flash-Memory-HOWTO.html which I haven't looked at yet.

Awesome, worked perfectly! Even KDE desktop detected it and showed me
an icon for it.
--
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\ _ / Please remove ANT if replying by e-mail.
( )

ANTant@zimage.com wrote:
> Hello.
>
> Is there a way to have KDE v3.3.2 automatically mount USB Flash
> drives/sticks (SanDisk Cruzer 256 MB, PNY 512 MB, etc.)? I have to do it
> as root (su) and in command prompt with mount -t vfat /dev/sda1
> /mnt/. I was hoping KDE would be like Windows and MacOS X in
> automatically mounting and ready to read and write files.

try adding this to /etc/fstab:
/dev/sda1 /mnt/ vfat noauto,user 0 0

Look at man fstab for more information on this. Then you can just right
click on desktop, new, device, ...
This will allow you to mount/unmount device as user without having to type.


>
> Also, how do I make the USB Flash drives/sticks writeable without being
> root? I cannot seem to set this. And does unmounting /mnt/
> from command line (doing it via KDE won't work due to limited access --
> not root) take a long time to complete? It seems to take a minute for my
> system.
>

I think the ,user part from above does this.

> I am using Debian r3.1 (Kernel v2.6.10-K7) with all latest updates (I
> hope) from apt-get commands.
>
> I am still new to Linux world. Thank you in advance.

I believe it takes a long time b/c delays writing until later. This
makes the disk seem faster. You can probably do a sync to have it do the
writes sooner. Windows also does this, that's why it gives you warning
about unsafe ejection.

I'm by no means an expert, so you may want to look at the man pages
before trying stuff. The fstab line is pretty much what I have on my
computer, so I'm pretty sure it will work.

ANTant@zimage.com wrote:
> Hello.
>

Hai!

> Is there a way to have KDE v3.3.2 automatically mount USB Flash
> drives/sticks (SanDisk Cruzer 256 MB, PNY 512 MB, etc.)? I have to do it
> as root (su) and in command prompt with mount -t vfat /dev/sda1
> /mnt/. I was hoping KDE would be like Windows and MacOS X in
> automatically mounting and ready to read and write files.
>

I might be wrong, but I think the automount is primarily for
automounting existing partitions during boot - if you have several
harddrives in the system, these will automount based on the options used
in fstab. If no automount option is given, they won't mount at boot.
The automount option isn't used for the purpose of automounting
insertable media.

> Also, how do I make the USB Flash drives/sticks writeable without being
> root? I cannot seem to set this. And does unmounting /mnt/
> from command line (doing it via KDE won't work due to limited access --
> not root) take a long time to complete? It seems to take a minute for my
> system.
>

This will involve modifying your fstab in /etc.

Follow this link and it should help you in understanding mounting
partitions in Linux:
http://www.tuxfiles.org/linuxhelp/fstab.html

> I am still new to Linux world. Thank you in advance.

We were all new once... =