Auto-Mounting and Unmounting CDs, DVDs, USB drives etc.

[Florian Friedrich]

Dear Fedora List,

When I show off my brand new FC3 system to Windows-centric friends, we 
invariably get to a point where they'd like to see me open a Windows Media 
File, or a MS Word Document. I'm proud that Xine and OpenOffice can do that, 
only to be embarassed when my computer won't return the CD they've given me 
the files on. I am not a friend of manually mounting and unmounting drives on 
my home PC (I do know the arguments about security, etc), and to my dismay I 
have found that FC3 continues a long tradition of Linux systems I have used 
in that automounting still does not work properly.
Please Help!!
I'm using KDE, and the system has been upgraded from FC2 (where I also had to 
mount manually, and possibly messed up the setup through installing both 
autofs and am-utils), so maybe that's why I still can't get it to work.
Is it too much to ask for Linux/KDE to do what Windows 95 could do almost 10 
years ago? (sorry ...)
I find the layers of complexity surrounding UDEV and HAL quite disturbing, 
and, frankly, I hope there is a way to get things to work simply and nicely 
without manually editing HAL's XML config files.
So, can somebody please explain to me how to get the following to work as 
non-root user:
1) insert CD
2) find CD mounted somewhere (eg /media/cdrom)
3) browse the directory with konqueror
4) press the eject button on the drive
5) get the CD back a couple of seconds later
6) possibly have the Konqueror window close automatically, or react in some 
way (that's not really important; after all, I know the directory is not 
accessible any more)
with gnome-device-manager (under KDE) the mounting seemed to work fine, but it 
did not unmount (I had to do it manually as root)

I've found in earlier versions of Fedora I always had to kill FAM after 
accessing a CD in KDE, otherwise the CD would still be considered in use. 
Apparently FAM does not exist any more in FC3. Is this correct?

If the above procedure is in fact the standard behaviour of FC3 anyway, I 
guess my setup is to blame. Then I'd ask you to give me some indication of 
what FC3's default setup for handling CDs is. Is am-utils installed? Is 
autofs installed?

Sorry for the rant. I'm simply quite frustrated.

Many thanks,

Florian

[Robert P. J. Day]

On Thu, 2 Dec 2004 [e-mail] wrote:
> Dear Fedora List,
>
> When I show off my brand new FC3 system to Windows-centric friends, we
> invariably get to a point where they'd like to see me open a Windows Media
> File, or a MS Word Document. I'm proud that Xine and OpenOffice can do that,
> only to be embarassed when my computer won't return the CD they've given me
> the files on.

just use the "eject" command, as long as no program is currently
tying up the CD.

rday

[Florian Friedrich]

On Thursday 02 December 2004 22:03, Robert P. J. Day wrote:
> On Thu, 2 Dec 2004 [e-mail] wrote:
> > Dear Fedora List,
> >
> > When I show off my brand new FC3 system to Windows-centric friends, we
> > invariably get to a point where they'd like to see me open a Windows
> > Media File, or a MS Word Document. I'm proud that Xine and OpenOffice can
> > do that, only to be embarassed when my computer won't return the CD
> > they've given me the files on.
>
> just use the "eject" command, as long as no program is currently
> tying up the CD.
>
> rday

Thanks for the quick reply!
But that's my point! I don't want to use "eject"; after all, the drive has an 
eject button which I'd like to use. It looks strange for a modern system to 
have to type "eject" in a terminal window to get the CD out ;-)
Maybe I'm missing something very simple.
Also, I'd like to avoid using the gnome-volume-manager, if there's a 
counterpart that's better integrated with KDE. Does such a thing exist?

Thanks,

Florian

[Rahul Sundaram]

Hi
> Also, I'd like to avoid using the gnome-volume-manager, if there's a
> counterpart that's better integrated with KDE. Does such a thing exist?

there is a version in kde cvs but thats not very usable. so for what
you want to do. two choices

1) put a eject link
2) switch to gnome

[Michael A. Peters]

On 12/02/2004 01:17:19 PM, Rahul Sundaram wrote:
> put a eject link
> switch to gnome

Does not always work in gnome though.
When I eject (right click and choose eject), it unmounts the volume but  
says it was unable to eject it.

I can manually eject it, though, after it has unmounted.

This is with a DVD drive at /dev/hdc and dvd data media.

Never was a problem (for me) with a cdr drive at /dev/hdc and cd media.  
I'll have to try with cd media and do some checking etc.

[Rahul Sundaram]

On Fri, 03 Dec 2004 00:00:53 +0000, Michael A. Peters  wrote:
> On 12/02/2004 01:17:19 PM, Rahul Sundaram wrote:
> > put a eject link
> > switch to gnome
>
> Does not always work in gnome though.
> When I eject (right click and choose eject), it unmounts the volume but
> says it was unable to eject it.
>
> I can manually eject it, though, after it has unmounted.

I believe this has something to do with prelink glitches. try
disabling it and check

[William Lovaton]

El vie, 03-12-2004 a las 05:34 +0530, Rahul Sundaram escribió:
> On Fri, 03 Dec 2004 00:00:53 +0000, Michael A. Peters  wrote:
> > On 12/02/2004 01:17:19 PM, Rahul Sundaram wrote:
> > > put a eject link
> > > switch to gnome
> >
> > Does not always work in gnome though.
> > When I eject (right click and choose eject), it unmounts the volume but
> > says it was unable to eject it.
> >
> > I can manually eject it, though, after it has unmounted.
>
> I believe this has something to do with prelink glitches. try
> disabling it and check

I'm suffering the same problem here.  How do I disable prelink??

-William

[Sharon Kimble]

[e-mail] wrote:
> On Thursday 02 December 2004 22:03, Robert P. J. Day wrote:
> > On Thu, 2 Dec 2004 [e-mail] wrote:
> > > Dear Fedora List,
> > >
> > > When I show off my brand new FC3 system to Windows-centric friends, we
> > > invariably get to a point where they'd like to see me open a Windows
> > > Media File, or a MS Word Document. I'm proud that Xine and OpenOffice
> > > can do that, only to be embarassed when my computer won't return the CD
> > > they've given me the files on.
> >
> > just use the "eject" command, as long as no program is currently
> > tying up the CD.
> >
> > rday
>
> Thanks for the quick reply!
> But that's my point! I don't want to use "eject"; after all, the drive has
> an eject button which I'd like to use. It looks strange for a modern
> system to have to type "eject" in a terminal window to get the CD out ;-)
> Maybe I'm missing something very simple.
> Also, I'd like to avoid using the gnome-volume-manager, if there's a
> counterpart that's better integrated with KDE. Does such a thing exist?

Under KDE I close the konqueror window and then right-click on the icon of
the cd drive on the desktop, and on there you have the option of ejecting
the cd. Easy, providing no other program is using the cd in the drive.

Sharon.

[Rahul Sundaram]

On Thu, 2 Dec 2004 22:01:02 +0100, [e-mail]
 wrote:
> Dear Fedora List,
>
> When I show off my brand new FC3 system to Windows-centric friends, we
> invariably get to a point where they'd like to see me open a Windows Media
> File, or a MS Word Document. I'm proud that Xine and OpenOffice can do that,
> only to be embarassed when my computer won't return the CD they've given me
> the files on. I am not a friend of manually mounting and unmounting drives on
> my home PC (I do know the arguments about security, etc), and to my dismay I
> have found that FC3 continues a long tradition of Linux systems I have used
> in that automounting still does not work properly.

try switching to gnome which includes gnome-volume-manager accessible
through preferences  menu.

FAM has been replaced with a ABI compatible gamin

[Gustavo Seabra]

[e-mail] wrote:
> Dear Fedora List,
>
> When I show off my brand new FC3 system to Windows-centric friends, we 
> invariably get to a point where they'd like to see me open a Windows Media 
> File, or a MS Word Document. I'm proud that Xine and OpenOffice can do that, 
> only to be embarassed when my computer won't return the CD they've given me 
> the files on. I am not a friend of manually mounting and unmounting drives on 
> my home PC (I do know the arguments about security, etc), and to my dismay I 
> have found that FC3 continues a long tradition of Linux systems I have used 
> in that automounting still does not work properly.
> Please Help!!
> I'm using KDE, and the system has been upgraded from FC2 (where I also had to 
> mount manually, and possibly messed up the setup through installing both 
> autofs and am-utils), so maybe that's why I still can't get it to work.
> Is it too much to ask for Linux/KDE to do what Windows 95 could do almost 10 
> years ago? (sorry ...)
> I find the layers of complexity surrounding UDEV and HAL quite disturbing, 
> and, frankly, I hope there is a way to get things to work simply and nicely 
> without manually editing HAL's XML config files.
> So, can somebody please explain to me how to get the following to work as 
> non-root user:
> insert CD
> find CD mounted somewhere (eg /media/cdrom)
> browse the directory with konqueror
> press the eject button on the drive
> get the CD back a couple of seconds later
> possibly have the Konqueror window close automatically, or react in some
>
> way (that's not really important; after all, I know the directory is not 
> accessible any more)
> with gnome-device-manager (under KDE) the mounting seemed to work fine, but it 
> did not unmount (I had to do it manually as root)
>
> I've found in earlier versions of Fedora I always had to kill FAM after 
> accessing a CD in KDE, otherwise the CD would still be considered in use. 
> Apparently FAM does not exist any more in FC3. Is this correct?
>
> If the above procedure is in fact the standard behaviour of FC3 anyway, I 
> guess my setup is to blame. Then I'd ask you to give me some indication of 
> what FC3's default setup for handling CDs is. Is am-utils installed? Is 
> autofs installed?
>
> Sorry for the rant. I'm simply quite frustrated.
>
> Many thanks,
>
> Florian

I'd have to check (my FC3 machine is at home), but I think that, in KDE, 
if you right-click on the CD icon on the desktop, you'll have the option 
to eject. Click there and the CD comes... isn't it even fancier (for the 
show-and-tell) than mechanically having to push-a-button? (which isn't 
too different than sticking a paper clip into that little hole in the 
front :-)

[John Summerfield]

On Friday 03 December 2004 05:01, [e-mail] wrote:
> browse the directory with konqueror
> press the eject button on the drive
> get the CD back a couple of seconds later
> possibly have the Konqueror window close automatically, or react in some
>
> way (that's not really important; after all, I know the directory is not
> accessible any more)
> with gnome-device-manager (under KDE) the mounting seemed to work fine, but
> it did not unmount (I had to do it manually as root)

I am sure this will not happen. Itis wrong to remove a CD while files on it 
are open, and CD drives have a software lock for a reason.

You _should_ though be able to eject the disk from the desktop.

Note that this last is a little problematic because Linux is a multiuser 
system and people use it that way. Who gets to control the CD drive? If you, 
then what happens if I'm using it too?

[Ernie McCracken]

On Thu, Dec 02, 2004 at 10:01:02PM +0100, [e-mail] wrote:
> So, can somebody please explain to me how to get the following to work as 
> non-root user:
> insert CD
> find CD mounted somewhere (eg /media/cdrom)
> browse the directory with konqueror
> press the eject button on the drive
> get the CD back a couple of seconds later
> possibly have the Konqueror window close automatically, or react in some
>
> way (that's not really important; after all, I know the directory is not 
> accessible any more)
> with gnome-device-manager (under KDE) the mounting seemed to work fine, but it 
> did not unmount (I had to do it manually as root)

The steps listed above are exactly what I do anytime I need to access
something on CD.

In /etc/auto.master, I put this:
/media /etc/auto.misc --timeout=10

In /etc/auto.misc, I put this:
cd -fstype=iso9660,ro,nosuid,nodev :/dev/cdrom

As root, I turned on autofs:  # service autofs start

And now anytime I need to use a CD, I put it in and I can browse its
contents at /media/cd.

When I'm done, I push the button on the CD drive and it pops out.

I don't use KDE so I can't help you with having Konqueror close
automatically at unmount time.

[Robin Laing]

[e-mail] wrote:
> Dear Fedora List,
>
> If the above procedure is in fact the standard behaviour of FC3 anyway, I 
> guess my setup is to blame. Then I'd ask you to give me some indication of 
> what FC3's default setup for handling CDs is. Is am-utils installed? Is 
> autofs installed?
>
> Sorry for the rant. I'm simply quite frustrated.
>
> Many thanks,
>
> Florian

Windows does it wrong.  :)

I cannot think of the number of screwed up floppies I have had in my 
Windows days.  Even a few screwed up CDr's in XP because of a pause 
while writing and I removed the CD.  Oops.  I am so glad I toasted my XP.

A simple demonstration is with a USB stick.  Even on Windows, a USB 
stick needs to be "unmounted".  This is the same idea.  Explain this 
to them as the default method of ensuring data and filesystem or 
programs don't get corrupted data.

Of course a CD or DVD is normally read only but it isn't the best 
option.  The one suggestion using auto.fs is a great idea.  I will 
have to try it at home.  Removing a CD or DVD while it is being used 
may crash another program or corrupt data reads.

[Guy Fraser]

Robin Laing wrote:
> [e-mail] wrote:
> > Dear Fedora List,
> >
> > If the above procedure is in fact the standard behaviour of FC3 
> > anyway, I guess my setup is to blame. Then I'd ask you to give me 
> > some indication of what FC3's default setup for handling CDs is. Is 
> > am-utils installed? Is autofs installed?
> >
> > Sorry for the rant. I'm simply quite frustrated.
> >
> > Many thanks,
> >
> > Florian
>
> Windows does it wrong.  :)
>
> I cannot think of the number of screwed up floppies I have had in my 
> Windows days.  Even a few screwed up CDr's in XP because of a pause 
> while writing and I removed the CD.  Oops.  I am so glad I toasted my XP.
>
> A simple demonstration is with a USB stick.  Even on Windows, a USB 
> stick needs to be "unmounted".  This is the same idea.  Explain this 
> to them as the default method of ensuring data and filesystem or 
> programs don't get corrupted data.
>
> Of course a CD or DVD is normally read only but it isn't the best 
> option.  The one suggestion using auto.fs is a great idea.  I will 
> have to try it at home.  Removing a CD or DVD while it is being used 
> may crash another program or corrupt data reads.

Actually not just USB sticks, but USB drives and Firewire drives as well.

I just got a Firewire/USB2 external case and hooked it up last night. 
Seconds after I plugged it in,
an Icon popped up on the desktop, right clicking on the icon gives an 
option to unmount. I moved
a bunch of files off the external drive, unmounted it then repartitioned 
and formatted it, and when
I unplugged it then plugged it back in, the icon came back with the new 
label I assigned to the
file system.

I will try using USB this weekend, but from what I can tell there have 
been major improvements
with support for external drives and removable media in FC3.

On the same note as this thread, I used to show off Linux and Solaris by 
using "eject -t <device>"
I could close the drive from the keyboard, many people thought that was 
way too cool.

On Mac's they actually hide the eject button on the cd/dvd drives, so you
are forced to put the cdrom icon in the trash to eject the disc.

The other problem that is risked by not "locking" the cd tray is that if 
the drive is spinning and you
poke the eject button you will almost certainly get radial scratches on 
your cd, and we all know
they are the worst kind of scratch on cd/dvd media. I have actually seen 
cd media damaged by a
windows machines from someone poking the eject button while copying 
files off a cd.

[William Lovaton]

Hi Guy,

El vie, 03-12-2004 a las 09:14 -0700, Guy Fraser escribió:
> I just got a Firewire/USB2 external case and hooked it up last night. 
> Seconds after I plugged it in,
> an Icon popped up on the desktop, right clicking on the icon gives an 
> option to unmount. I moved
> a bunch of files off the external drive, unmounted it then repartitioned 
> and formatted it, and when
> I unplugged it then plugged it back in, the icon came back with the new 
> label I assigned to the
> file system.
>
> I will try using USB this weekend, but from what I can tell there have 
> been major improvements
> with support for external drives and removable media in FC3.

I agree with you,there have been major improvements with UDEV, HAL and
hotplug.  Everything usually works as expected, however I have seen some
problems while unmounting USB drives.  It seems that gam_server (located
in /usr/libexec) sometimes blocks some file in the USB drive and I can't
unmount it saying that the device is busy.  The only way to solve the
problem is killing the process.

Have you experienced this problem?

-William

[Scott]

[e-mail] wrote:
> Dear Fedora List,
>
> When I show off my brand new FC3 system to Windows-centric friends, we 
> invariably get to a point where they'd like to see me open a Windows Media 
> File, or a MS Word Document. I'm proud that Xine and OpenOffice can do that, 
> only to be embarassed when my computer won't return the CD they've given me 
> the files on. ....

This isn't limited to Linux.  I've had the same "problem" occasionally 
in Windows.    The solution there was the same as it is in Linux.  Use 
software to eject the CD.  The eject command or context-menu option in a 
GUI.

Personally, I've always found that way more convenient anyway.