Fresh install of 2009.08 -> hal, dbus, PK - no mount of usb for normal user (again...)

[David C. Rankin]

Guys,

I did a fresh install of 2009.08 on a new drive for my laptop. For the past 8 months, I have never gotten the freedesktop.org -- removable policy to work. (well, maybe for a week or so before the kernel change in July). I wanted to make sure I got it right this time so I haven't monkeyed with the policies yet.

In kde4, all of my removable devices are properly recognized (usb sticks, 2.5" laptop drives connected via usb, etc.). Despite being recognized properly,

(1) the user cannot access the drives - until root has accessed them (like opening konqueror su)

(2) none of the drives are mounted for the user under /media - until root has accessed them

What makes no sense to me is that after root has accessed the drives, the user can use them (I guess the actual "mount" occurs when root access the drives, even though kde4 shows them as connected for the user through the notifier popup in the task bar)

I finally just wrote a script to mount removables under /mnt that can be called by the users (basically uses sudo to mount and case on partition name and size to mount the drives on the proper mount points)

Something has got to give. I've wiki'ed myself into a coma and still -- no joy. If one of the arch mount-removable gurus would just slip me the secret, I would be much abliged :-) It has to be simple, but simplicity has escaped me for quite some time now. However, I am determined to get it right with the new install. I know the wiki well, but where is the other document that I can use along with the wiki to make sure I have a good working system?

Thanks for any help you can give. Sincerely yours, "stumped by hal, dbus and PK. Rankin"

--
David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.
Rankin Law Firm, PLLC
510 Ochiltree Street
Nacogdoches, Texas 75961
Telephone: [phone]
Facsimile: [phone]
www.rankinlawfirm.com

[Ed Morgan]

You may have already looked at/tried this, but all I did was use the hack in
here for PK to allow non-root users to mount removable drives and it all
works fine.

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/HAL#Mounting_fails

Hope this helps...
--
Ed Morgan

[phone]                           "Every normal man must be
tempted at times
http://dontfightthefuture.com                to spit on his hands, hoist the
black flag,
http://identi.ca/mo6020                       and begin to slit throats." -
H. L. Mencken


2009/11/5 David C. Rankin <drankinatty@...>

> Guys,
>
> I did a fresh install of 2009.08 on a new drive for my laptop. For the past
> 8 months, I have never gotten the freedesktop.org -- removable policy to
> work. (well, maybe for a week or so before the kernel change in July). I
> wanted to make sure I got it right this time so I haven't monkeyed with the
> policies yet.
>
> In kde4, all of my removable devices are properly recognized (usb sticks,
> 2.5" laptop drives connected via usb, etc.). Despite being recognized
> properly,
>
> (1) the user cannot access the drives - until root has accessed them (like
> opening konqueror su)
>
> (2) none of the drives are mounted for the user under /media - until root
> has accessed them
>
> What makes no sense to me is that after root has accessed the drives, the
> user can use them (I guess the actual "mount" occurs when root access the
> drives, even though kde4 shows them as connected for the user through the
> notifier popup in the task bar)
>
> I finally just wrote a script to mount removables under /mnt that can be
> called by the users (basically uses sudo to mount and case on partition name
> and size to mount the drives on the proper mount points)
>
> Something has got to give. I've wiki'ed myself into a coma and still -- no
> joy. If one of the arch mount-removable gurus would just slip me the secret,
> I would be much abliged :-) It has to be simple, but simplicity has escaped
> me for quite some time now. However, I am determined to get it right with
> the new install. I know the wiki well, but where is the other document that
> I can use along with the wiki to make sure I have a good working system?
>
> Thanks for any help you can give. Sincerely yours, "stumped by hal, dbus
> and PK. Rankin"
>
> --
> David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.
> Rankin Law Firm, PLLC
> 510 Ochiltree Street
> Nacogdoches, Texas 75961
> Telephone: [phone]
> Facsimile: [phone]
> www.rankinlawfirm.com
>

[darose]

On 11/05/2009 01:06 AM, David C. Rankin wrote:

> Guys,
>
> I did a fresh install of 2009.08 on a new drive for my laptop. For
> the past 8 months, I have never gotten the freedesktop.org --
> removable policy to work. (well, maybe for a week or so before the
> kernel change in July). I wanted to make sure I got it right this
> time so I haven't monkeyed with the policies yet.
>
> In kde4, all of my removable devices are properly recognized (usb
> sticks, 2.5" laptop drives connected via usb, etc.). Despite being
> recognized properly,
>
> (1) the user cannot access the drives - until root has accessed them
> (like opening konqueror su)
>
> (2) none of the drives are mounted for the user under /media - until
> root has accessed them

> Thanks for any help you can give. Sincerely yours, "stumped by hal,
> dbus and PK. Rankin"

Here's what I did to get this working under KDE4 (and now Xfce):

* make sure dbus is running
* make sure hal is running
* use the stock /etc/PolicyKit/PolicyKit.conf (i.e., remove any edits
you may have made)
* if you're using a login manager (or launch script) that doesn't
automatically invoke console kit for you (e.g., slim, /etc/inittab,
etc.), then launch your window manager session using ck-launch-session
(e.g., "exec ck-launch-session startkde")

That's it.  After following these directions, if I plug in an iPod, a
thumb drive, or even insert a CD, then KDE or Xfce will automatically
get notified about the new media, alert me accordingly, and allow me to
mount/browse the new device.

If this doesn't work for you, please feel free to email back with
details as to what failed.

HTH,

DR

[Flavio Costa-2]

On Thu, Nov 5, 2009 at 1:20 PM, David Rosenstrauch <darose@...>wrote:

> On 11/05/2009 01:06 AM, David C. Rankin wrote:
>
>> Guys,
>>
>> I did a fresh install of 2009.08 on a new drive for my laptop. For
>> the past 8 months, I have never gotten the freedesktop.org --
>> removable policy to work. (well, maybe for a week or so before the
>> kernel change in July). I wanted to make sure I got it right this
>> time so I haven't monkeyed with the policies yet.
>>
>> In kde4, all of my removable devices are properly recognized (usb
>> sticks, 2.5" laptop drives connected via usb, etc.). Despite being
>> recognized properly,
>>
>> (1) the user cannot access the drives - until root has accessed them
>> (like opening konqueror su)
>>
>> (2) none of the drives are mounted for the user under /media - until
>> root has accessed them
>>
>
>  Thanks for any help you can give. Sincerely yours, "stumped by hal,
>> dbus and PK. Rankin"
>>
>
> Here's what I did to get this working under KDE4 (and now Xfce):
>
> * make sure dbus is running
> * make sure hal is running
> * use the stock /etc/PolicyKit/PolicyKit.conf (i.e., remove any edits you
> may have made)
> * if you're using a login manager (or launch script) that doesn't
> automatically invoke console kit for you (e.g., slim, /etc/inittab, etc.),
> then launch your window manager session using ck-launch-session (e.g., "exec
> ck-launch-session startkde")
>
> That's it.  After following these directions, if I plug in an iPod, a thumb
> drive, or even insert a CD, then KDE or Xfce will automatically get notified
> about the new media, alert me accordingly, and allow me to mount/browse the
> new device.
>
> If this doesn't work for you, please feel free to email back with details
> as to what failed.
>
> HTH,
>
> DR
>

I guess removable devices works (at least for me), but the problem appears
while trying to mount a fixed storage.

--
Flávio Coutinho da Costa

[darose]

On 11/05/2009 10:37 AM, Flavio Costa wrote:
> I guess removable devices works (at least for me), but the problem appears
> while trying to mount a fixed storage.

Removable devices was what the OP was asking about.

Is HAL even supposed to provide auto-mount capabilities for fixed
storage?  If so, this is the first I've heard of it.  But I was under
the impression that it just provides "hot-plug" functionality - which
would make this not actually a "problem".

DR