New to Kubuntu - automount usb thumb drive quirk

[Guest]

I hope my totally un-leet searching skills didn't miss this, if I did please tell me which post the answer is in.

I plug in a USB thumb drive (I've tried several: kingstone, cruzer, etc). The HAL sees it, says and assigns it a device (say /dev/sdh1). KDE pops up a nifty little window with the volume name of the device I just plugged in.

Why do I have to access the drive in Dolphin or Konquerer for the system to actually mount it? Once I click on it, it mounts to /media/MyUSBDrive just fine.

I know the Ubuntu team has moved on to using the HAL so my other workaround using /dev/usb obviously will not work anymore.

Any suggestions?

Kubuntu 8.10, updated (no pending updates)

Output from /var/log/syslog:
Dec 31 13:00:36 arkdesk kernel: [59471.116029] usb 2-6: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 18
Dec 31 13:00:36 arkdesk kernel: [59471.250753] usb 2-6: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Dec 31 13:00:36 arkdesk kernel: [59471.251333] scsi17 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Dec 31 13:00:36 arkdesk kernel: [59471.252706] usb-storage: device found at 18
Dec 31 13:00:36 arkdesk kernel: [59471.252716] usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
Dec 31 13:00:36 arkdesk udevd-event[13069]: run_program: exec of program '/usr/local/bin/usbdrive.sh' failed
Dec 31 13:00:37 arkdesk udevd-event[13073]: run_program: exec of program '/usr/local/bin/usbdrive.sh' failed
Dec 31 13:00:41 arkdesk kernel: [59476.252204] usb-storage: device scan complete
Dec 31 13:00:41 arkdesk kernel: [59476.252787] scsi 17:0:0:0: Direct-Access Kingston DataTraveler 2.0 PMAP PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS
Dec 31 13:00:42 arkdesk kernel: [59476.821528] sd 17:0:0:0: [sdh] 7936000 512-byte hardware sectors (4063 MB)
Dec 31 13:00:42 arkdesk kernel: [59476.822018] sd 17:0:0:0: [sdh] Write Protect is off
Dec 31 13:00:42 arkdesk kernel: [59476.822026] sd 17:0:0:0: [sdh] Mode Sense: 23 00 00 00
Dec 31 13:00:42 arkdesk kernel: [59476.822030] sd 17:0:0:0: [sdh] Assuming drive cache: write through
Dec 31 13:00:42 arkdesk kernel: [59476.824146] sd 17:0:0:0: [sdh] 7936000 512-byte hardware sectors (4063 MB)
Dec 31 13:00:42 arkdesk kernel: [59476.824910] sd 17:0:0:0: [sdh] Write Protect is off
Dec 31 13:00:42 arkdesk kernel: [59476.824916] sd 17:0:0:0: [sdh] Mode Sense: 23 00 00 00
Dec 31 13:00:42 arkdesk kernel: [59476.824921] sd 17:0:0:0: [sdh] Assuming drive cache: write through
Dec 31 13:00:42 arkdesk kernel: [59476.824930] sdh: sdh1
Dec 31 13:00:42 arkdesk kernel: [59476.871853] sd 17:0:0:0: [sdh] Attached SCSI removable disk
Dec 31 13:00:42 arkdesk kernel: [59476.872055] sd 17:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg8 type 0

Nothing shows up in /media until I go into "File Manager" (Dolphin, right?) and click on it. Then the stupid thing mounts.

[kbunt]

Re: New to Kubuntu - automount usb thumb drive quirk

I welcome any corrections but I thought you have to mount it in fstab for 'automatic' mounting or sometimes Dolphin File Manager can automount when you get the option of opening it up in that method. I think the GUI manager is just doing what you could do in Terminal. The Dolphin File Manager decides on some default mounting point and then assigns it to the device node that your usb device gets.

E.g. I have an mp3 player and external drive that is connected via usb. My mp3 player is often dev/sdd1 or sde1. My external drive gets assigned device node /dev/sdf1 often.

Edit: Linux recognizes that mp3 devices are 'split' into "2 partitions' or sections and as such are assigned two different device nodes. It's the type of file structure of the devices often to do with blocks. This is difficult to explain and you probably don't care at this point.

If you run 'fdisk -l', you might get /dev/sdd1 and /dev/sde1 (and /dev/sdd1 will display the main or most of the storage area/space)

But, you need a mounting point so Dolphin File Manager uses /media/Sansa (e260) (which is my mp3 player). I have usually used /media/externaldrive for my External Drive. Sometimes they will mount automatically from first plugging it in (if you choose to open when the 'what do you want to do' message comes up) and basically File Manager is saving you the trouble of doing it manually - like in, in a command terminal window.

E.G. Change to root...
$ sudo mount /dev/sdh1 /media/MyUSBDrive

If you edit fstab you can have it done without the message coming up or starting a command terminal console (in which you would change to root and manually mount it by mounting the device. )

If you do it manually, it helps to know what device node it is assigned (it looks like you already found out: /dev/sdh1).

I probably didn't explain it very well so maybe someone more knowledgeable can add or correct me with a better explanation.

P.S. have your usb thumb drive plugged in and type:
lsusb

and

sudo fdisk -l

to obtain the device node for the usb drive

[Guest]

Re: New to Kubuntu - automount usb thumb drive quirk

Maybe I am just too used to Windows where if I see the OS sees the device, I expect it to mount for me.

Update: I have a friend with Xubuntu 8.10 and when I plug my device it it automatically mounts to /media/MyUSBDrive (MyUSBDrive is the volume name on that device). I didn't have to add a /etc/fstab entry for that.

If I plug a different thumb drive in to his Xubuntu machine, that one auto-mounts with it's volume name as well.


Maybe I just want functionality the developers haven't had time to add yet. *shrug*

Also, I am on kernel 2.6.27-11-generic

[Rog131]

Re: New to Kubuntu - automount usb thumb drive quirk

Standard KDE device notifier plasmoid just informs you that there is a new device. Then you can mount it, if you want to.

From the KDE-look.org > New Device Notifier with Automount

Description:
An extended version of the original devicenotifier-applet which mounts the new media after it was inserted.

and for the KDE 4.2 > New Device Notifier with Automount (kde4.2)


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