I want my Device Notifier choices back! Grrrrrr

[oshunluvr]

I also discovered this: If I issue the command udisks --eject /dev/sdj the drive powers down. If I use udisks --detach /dev/sdj the drive stays powered. Of course, you have to issue the unmount first.

[SteveRiley]

Mine.

1. Dolphin before drive insertion:




2. Device Notifier after insertion:




3. Device context menu in Dolphin after insertion:




4. Dolphin after selecting "Safely remove" (I called this "Eject" in my earlier post):




5. Dolphin after double-clicking drive label (under "Devices") and then clicking the appropriate folder under /media:




An alternate step 5 would be returning to Device Notifier, clicking the device, and acting on the same menu as step 2

I can do this all damn day and it keeps on keepin' on.

[Snowhog]

Steve@
Your described procedure does not work at here. I insert the USB drive and it appears and is accessible via Dolphin. Right-click and "Safely Remove", there is no entry under /media.

[SteveRiley]

The illustration for step 4 shows the state after selecting "Safely Remove." Note that the USB drive remains in the device list, as indicated by the device ID. If I click that (and one click is enough, I just noticed), the drive is remounted, and the file system label appears beneath /media. If I click that label, the contents reappear. You won't see anything under /media until you click the device to remount it.

[Snowhog]

Maybe I'm missing something in what you are describing, but after I select to Safely Remove, there is nothing within Dolphin (under Media or anywhere else) that identifies the unmounted USB device, so there is nothing to double-click on to remount it.

[SteveRiley]

After I click "Safely Remove," the volume mounted under /media disappears. But the device doesn't. Notice that it's still in the device list, as indicated by the red oval:



If the device also disappears for you, I have no explanation as to why.

[Qqmike]

I see this is under 13.04, but I tried this on my 12.04, and it doesn't work: I have to insert, safely remove, and then re-insert the thumb drive to get it recognized again, just as oshunluvr has reported in his 13.04 system. Nice, easy-to-follow graphical explanations, Steve, but my Dolphin here completely drops the thumb drive after "Safely Remove."

[oshunluvr]

Steve, it just doesn't do that for me. Only the one time I saw - which I've never seen before. Tonight when I get home, I'll try it on a "clean" user account to eliminate that possibility. Also - this is a 13.04 upgrade install from a 12.10 install as Ubiquity doesn't work with my hard drive configuration.

[SteveRiley]

What a mystery! I wonder if the kind of USB drive has any relation. I'll experiment with my collection when I'm back home, to see if I can duplicate the malfunction.

[oshunluvr]

When I was searching awhile ago, I glanced across a reference to power/control. That's why that line caught my attention in dmesg output. Of course, now I can't find it.

I just wonder if the controlling script/program that's in charge of the USB system is calling the wrong function somewhere. I'd love to fix the CD card reader issue even more than this one - but solving both would be nice.

EDIT: Also worth noting, the USB mem card reader behaves the same way - I can "safely remove" once, then after the second "safely remove" it powers off until the next reboot.

[Rog131]

A workaround with the pmount

At here

At here, the LaCie external USB drive is sometimes unmounting (so you could mount it back) sometimes it is detached and the drive is powering down (so you can't mount it back). Lukáš Tinkl - https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=293906:

...some external USB drives need to be explicitely ejected (and also) detached when you click on the "Safely remove/eject" button in the notifier...

Workaround

A workaround, at here, is to add mount and umount to the device notifier.

Ubuntu Community wiki: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Mount/USB

Using pmount

There is a program called pmount available in the repositories which allows unprivileged users to mount drives as if they were using sudo, even without an entry in /etc/fstab...

Writing ~/.kde/share/apps/solid/actions/pmount.desktop and pumount.desktop files:

pmount.desktop

[Desktop Entry]
X-KDE-Solid-Predicate=[ [ [ StorageVolume.ignored == false AND StorageVolume.usage == 'FileSystem' ] OR [ IS StorageAccess AND StorageDrive.driveType == 'Floppy' ] ] OR StorageAccess.ignored == false ]
Type=Service
Actions=open;

[Desktop Action open]
Name=Mount USB device
Exec=pmount %f
Icon=emblem-mounted

pumount.desktop

[Desktop Entry]
X-KDE-Solid-Predicate=[ [ [ StorageVolume.ignored == false AND StorageVolume.usage == 'FileSystem' ] OR [ IS StorageAccess AND StorageDrive.driveType == 'Floppy' ] ] OR StorageAccess.ignored == false ]
Type=Service
Actions=open;

[Desktop Action open]
Name=Unmount USB device
Exec=pumount %f
Icon=emblem-unmounted

The Device Notifier:



The devices are mounted to the /media/[Label] or to the /media/[UUDI].

[oshunluvr]

@Rog: Thanks for that. It's a life saver for the SD card reader especially. As always, you're a fount of knowledge!

@Steve: I tried a couple other thumb drives and they all produce the same results here. Based on the above responses from others, you may just be the lucky one. Or possibly something in your setup is different. Power Control options?

[SteveRiley]

And all my USB drives work like the one I started with.

Yes, I realize that since everything is working so perfectly on my laptop right now, I'm due for a major catastrophe Real Soon Now.