HOWTO: Project Utopia (Dbus,Hal,GVM) - Automounting Solution

[ArloWhite]

The Gentoo Project Utopia Guide

Introduction
Project Utopia is a term coined by Robert Love and Joe Shaw that refers to the goal of implementing a unified solution to Linux hardware and device management. Specifically, Project Utopia is associated with the udev, hotplug,dbus, hal, and gnome-volume-manager projects. See Robert Love's post for some insight into the project. There is also a Project Utopia mailing list if you are interested. Project Utopia's primary aim is to succeed poorly implemented methods such as autofs and supermount. Freedesktop.org is an umbrella organization that hosts many of the core components of Project Utopia.

This guide should help you reach that coveted moment of inserting your usb stick and having it automatically mount.

Initial Requirements
Udev and hotplug are required for things to work correctly. Fortunately, the Gentoo Developers have already written a comprehensive doc
Note: Do make sure you emerge hotplug (Code Listing 2.2: Installing optional hotplug scripts)

Portage's Status:
Eventually you will simply be able to do:
emerge dbus hal gnome-volume-manager

Unfortunately, those ebuilds are not mature as of yet. In fact, they're all hard-masked, indicating you really shouldn't be using them. As of 8/31/2004:

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sys-apps/dbus-0.22 (masked by: package.mask)
sys-apps/hal-0.2.97 (masked by: package.mask)

package.mask: the package is listed in the package.mask file, meaning that it breaks something, crashes your system, has severe security issues or worse

Within bmg-main (Break-My-Gentoo Installation Guide)

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sys-apps/dbus-cvs-0.22-r3 (masked by: -* keyword)
sys-apps/hal-cvs-0.3-r2 (masked by: -* keyword)

-* Known not to work or being extremely dangerous on any architecture

So, for now, it's probably best to just compile from CVS. It's really not that hard and you'll probably need to do it at some point anyway.

Note on CVS installations.
I like to let packages I install manually stay in /usr/local (default for the autotool system). This keeps us from cluttering our main system and physically separates official installations from the manual ones. This means that we'll need to edit the init files for /usr/local.

Installing dbus
Dbus is an IPC (Inter Process Communication) protocol being developed by freedesktop.org. In the future, dbus will likely be a de-facto standard for many Linux systems.

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cd <your src directory>  (I use /usr/local/src)
cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@pdx.freedesktop.org:/cvs login
<enter> (Password is Blank)
cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@pdx.freedesktop.org:/cvs co dbus
cd dbus/dbus
./autogen.sh \
--enable-python \
--enable-glib \
--with-system-pid-file=/var/run/dbus.pid \
--with-system-socket=/var/lib/dbus/system_bus_socket \
--with-session-socket-dir=/tmp \
--disable-doxygen-docs \
--disable-xml-docs \
--disable-mono-docs

make 
sudo make install (If you don't have sudo then su before make install)

Configuration Notes:
The config options are loosely based on the dbus ebuild. I omitted X,gtk,qt, mono, xml, and test options as I'd rather leave things to the package default. Browse /usr/portage/sys-apps/dbus/dbus-0.22.ebuild if you're interested. The dbus dialog claims:

NOTE: building with unit tests increases the size of the installed library and renders it insecure.
NOTE: building with verbose mode increases library size, may slightly increase security risk, and decreases performance.
NOTE: building with assertions increases library size and decreases performance.

Probably not to big an issue for now, we know things are unstable.
The messagebus user:
dbus uses the messagebus user defined in etc/system.conf; you probably shouldn't change this. For some reason, dbus does not give an error when you attempt to start if the user does not exists, anyhow, we need to create the user.

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(As Root)
useradd messagebus

The init script file.
The stock init file provided in the dbus cvs tree will not work on gentoo systems (dbus/bus/messagebus)
We can simply copy the init script from the currently broken ebuild and edit it.

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(As Root)
cp /usr/portage/sys-apps/dbus/files/dbus /etc/init.d/dbus
edit the dbus file under /etc/init.d and change 
/usr/bin/dbus-daemon-1  to  /usr/local/bin/dbus-daemon-1 in this line:
start-stop-daemon --start --pidfile /var/run/dbus.pid --exec /usr/bin/dbus-daemon-1 -- --system
chmod +x /etc/init.d/dbus
mkdir /var/lib/dbus

Try starting dbus and verify that it runs; add dbus to the runlevel

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(As Root)
/etc/init.d/dbus start
ps -A|grep dbus-daemon-1
rc-update add dbus default

Installing Hal

Hal (Hardware Abstraction Layer) provides an interface to the hardware on a Linux system. The work on Hal is inspired by Havoc's article "Making Hardware Just Work" according to the author. Hal does not actually DO anything in the sense of mounting devices. Applications such as gnome-volume-manager use HAL to do this. Take a look at the Hal specifications if you are interested.

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cd <your src directory>  - I use /usr/local/src
cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@pdx.freedesktop.org:/cvs login
<enter> (Password is Blank)
cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@pdx.freedesktop.org:/cvs co hal
cd hal/hal
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig
./autogen.sh \
--disable-doxygen-docs \
--disable-docbook-docs

 make 
(As Root)
useradd haldaemon
groupadd haldaemon
make install (If you don't have sudo then su before make install)

Note:
Since you'll probably be updating cvs often you may want to add PKG_CONFIG_PATH to the environment permanently.

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(As Root)
edit /etc/env.d/99pkgconfig and add the following line
PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig
env-update
source /etc/profile

Once again, the stock init script (hal/hal/hald/haldaemon) will not work. Like dbus, we will use the broken ebuild's script.

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(As Root)
cp /usr/portage/sys-apps/hal/files/hald /etc/init.d/hald
edit the hald file under /etc/init.d and change 
/usr/sbin/hald  to  /usr/local/sbin/hald in this line:
start-stop-daemon --start -q --exec /usr/sbin/hald
chmod +x /etc/init.d/hald

Start Hal and add to runlevel

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(As Root)
/etc/init.d/hald start
rc-update add hald default

Hal-Device-Manager:
hal-device-manager is a program that comes with hal which lets you view all the information associated with your devices.

Note:
hal-device-manager may fail to start because python cannot import dbus. This is likely because you installed dbus in another prefix, probably /usr/local. Python can be told other locations to import from by setting the PYTHON_PATH variable.

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(As Root)
edit /etc/env.d/99python
Add line
PYTHON=/usr/local/lib/python2.3/site-packages
env-update
source /etc/profile

Try hal-device-manager

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hal-device-manager

Installing gnome-volume-manager

Gnome-Volume-Manager is the policy part of Project Utopia. It uses hal's information to automatically mount CDs, pendrives, run DVDs, etc.

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cd <your src directory>  - I use /usr/local/src
cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@anoncvs.gnome.org:/cvs/gnome login
<enter> (Password is Blank)
cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@anoncvs.gnome.org:/cvs/gnome co gnome-volume-manager
cd gnome-volume-manager

Quick Hack:
This option will probably appear in gnome-volume-properties soon, but for now if you want to use a file-manager other than Nautilus you may want to change this line under src/manager.c:
For myself, I changed the line to:
#define NAUTILUS_COMMAND "/usr/bin/rox %m"

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./autogen.sh && make && sudo make install

I chose to run gnome-volume-manager as a regular user and stuck gnome-volume-manager & in my .xinitrc file. I'm not sure if it'd be better to create an init-script eventually or not.

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gnome-volume-manager & 

To configure GVM, run:

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gnome-volume-properties

Installing ivman
Ivman is an alternative to gnome-volume-manager without any of the gnome stuff. I would use the break-my-gentoo ivman-cvs ebuild. There is also a guide in the forums by Redeeman, but his ebuild links are down.

Maintaining CVS (For those unfamiliar)
You may want to update from cvs often, do this

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cd <pkg_src_directory>
cvs update
make && sudo make install

Optionally, if the build fails, you may want to:

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make distclean ; ./autogen.sh && make && sudo make install

This makes sure the errors are not from complications with leftover configuration files and binaries

A few Notes:

• You need to change your /etc/fstab file to fit what hal claims your devices should be. The easiest way is to use hal-device-manager, find your device and look at the block_device string. For example, my cd-ROM is /dev/sr0
• There is a component of hal called fstab-sync that you might take a look at.
• Pressing the eject button on the cd-ROM will not work yet.
• Pulling out a pen-drive before unmounting first is dangerous. (Hence the reason windows has "Safely Remove Device")
• Dbus seems fairly stable but sometimes hald goes down for now apparent reason. If things aren't working, check that the processes exist and restart the neccesary ones.

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  ps -A | grep -e hald -e dbus-daemon -e gnome-volume
  (If hald is gone)
  /etc/init.d/hald zap start
  [*]I haven't found how to access hald's logs yet.  I'll update this guide when I do.[/list]

[seringen]

just letting you know i'm going to try out your howto right now. I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks for putting it up

[Remenic]

Very nice HOWTO! I haven't tried it out yet, but I will as soon as possible!

One thing though, the part about dbus being masked by keyword...The bmg ebuild *also* fetches a fresh copy from CVS.. You're basically doing the same, taking the same risks, but with more effort to maintain the installed files.... might as well emerge the dbus-cvs and hal-cvs ebuilds and keep it easy to uninstall!

Anyways, I'll let you know if it works for me

[Hackeron]

checking for python... /usr/bin/python
checking for python version... 2.3
checking for python platform... linux2
checking for python script directory... ${prefix}/lib/python2.3/site-packages
checking for python extension module directory... ${exec_prefix}/lib/python2.3/site-packages
checking for pyrexc... no
checking for headers required to compile python extensions... found
configure: error: Building python explicitly requested, but can't build python bindings

Now type 'make' to compile dbus.
[root@hackeron-server:/usr/local/src/dbus/dbus]# make
make: *** No targets specified and no makefile found. Stop.

Any ideas?

[Hackeron]

[RESOLVED]: emerge libcap

If I remove python from dbus, the next error I get is when trying to compile hal:

[root@hackeron-server:/usr/local/src/hal/hal]# make
cd . && /bin/sh /usr/local/src/hal/hal/missing --run autoheader
touch ./config.h.in
cd . && /bin/sh ./config.status config.h
config.status: creating config.h
config.status: config.h is unchanged
make all-recursive
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/local/src/hal/hal'
Making all in libhal
make[2]: Entering directory `/usr/local/src/hal/hal/libhal'
make[2]: Nothing to be done for `all'.
make[2]: Leaving directory `/usr/local/src/hal/hal/libhal'
Making all in hald
make[2]: Entering directory `/usr/local/src/hal/hal/hald'
make all-am
make[3]: Entering directory `/usr/local/src/hal/hal/hald'
source='hald.c' object='hald.o' libtool=no \
depfile='.deps/hald.Po' tmpdepfile='.deps/hald.TPo' \
depmode=gcc3 /bin/sh ../depcomp \
gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I. -I.. -DPACKAGE_SYSCONF_DIR=\""/usr/local/etc"\" -DPACKAGE_DAT
ACKAGE_LOCALE_DIR=\""/usr/local//locale"\" -DPACKAGE_LOCALSTATEDIR=\""/usr/local/var"\" -
usr/include/glib-2.0 -I/usr/lib/glib-2.0/include -g -O2 -Wall -Wchar-subscripts -Wmi
-compare -c `test -f 'hald.c' || echo './'`hald.c
distcc[31187] ERROR: compile on localhost failed
hald.c:42:28: sys/capability.h: No such file or directory
hald.c: In function `drop_privileges':
hald.c:254: error: `cap_t' undeclared (first use in this function)
hald.c:254: error: (Each undeclared identifier is reported only once
hald.c:254: error: for each function it appears in.)
hald.c:254: error: syntax error before "cap"
hald.c:294: error: `cap' undeclared (first use in this function)
hald.c:294: warning: implicit declaration of function `cap_from_text'
hald.c:296: warning: implicit declaration of function `cap_set_proc'
hald.c:301: warning: implicit declaration of function `cap_free'
hald.c: In function `main':
hald.c:432: warning: unused variable `buf'
distcc[31186] ERROR: compile on localhost failed
make[3]: *** [hald.o] Error 1
make[3]: Leaving directory `/usr/local/src/hal/hal/hald'
make[2]: *** [all] Error 2
make[2]: Leaving directory `/usr/local/src/hal/hal/hald'
make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/local/src/hal/hal'
make: *** [all] Error 2

[Hackeron]

[root@laptop:~]# hal-device-manager

** (hal-device-manager:7345): WARNING **: `GtkTextSearchFlags' is not an enum type
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/local/bin/hal-device-manager", line 8, in ?
import gnome
ImportError: No module named gnome



What is this? -- hal is supposed to be platform independent but depends on such monsters like gnome?

[BeFalou]

[root@laptop:~]# hal-device-manager

** (hal-device-manager:7345): WARNING **: `GtkTextSearchFlags' is not an enum type
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/local/bin/hal-device-manager", line 8, in ?
import gnome
ImportError: No module named gnome

Same here.

[ArloWhite]

hal-device-manager is a separate application that uses hal. It is bundled along with hal for the sake of convienience. If you really want a hal client that doesn't use gtk/gnome you'll have to write it yourself. The hal developers chose to do their demonstration with gnome probably because of their familiarity with it. Eventually other such clients will emerge but you'll need to be patient. I forgot to mention, but their is a terminal program called 'lshal', which spits out a bunch of hal device information.

-Arlo

[thirteen]

With respect to the import error you need to emerge gnome-python and that should clear it up.

[Hackeron]

With respect to the import error you need to emerge gnome-python and that should clear it up.

56 dependencies? -- no thanks...

[mc_03]

During the autogen I get this error:

checking for moc... /usr/qt/3/bin/moc
checking for qglobal.h... found
checking for X... libraries /usr/X11R6/lib, headers /usr/X11R6/include
checking for gethostbyname... yes
checking for connect... yes
checking for remove... yes
checking for shmat... yes
checking for IceConnectionNumber in -lICE... yes
checking for doxygen... no
checking whether to build Doxygen documentation... yes
checking for xmlto... no
checking whether to build XML documentation... yes
configure: Checking to see if we can build Python bindings
checking whether /usr/local/lib/python2.3/site-packages version >= 2.2... configure: error: too old

I have Python 2.4 installed, so...

[wickwire]

I've managed to get it working, here are the packages I've merged, messing with /etc/portage/package.keywords & /etc/portage/package.unmask:

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*  sys-apps/dbus :
        [ ~I] 0.22 (0)

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*  sys-apps/hal :
        [ ~I] 0.2.97 (0)

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*  gnome-base/gnome-volume-manager :
        [ ~I] 0.9.9 (0)

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*  dev-python/gnome-python :
        [   ] 1.4.2 (1)
        [   ] 1.4.4 (1)
        [   ] 1.4.4-r1 (1)
        [   ] 2.0.0 (2)
        [   ] 2.0.0-r1 (2)
        [ ~I] 2.0.2 (2)

I didn't alter any of the init scripts, they all ran without complaints and it works, I've tried it with my dvd burner and it automounts the discs I put in, however I can't unmount them by pressing the eject button, apart from that it's working fine I think. Maybe I've overlooked something, in case I did please feel free to let me know, I'll be reading a bit still and see if it was user-error, anyways just to let you know that over here it was all very straight-forward regarding emerges and init scripts to work.

Taken from the Project Utopia Guide Notes, just above:
"Pressing the eject button on the cd-ROM will not work yet."

Ahem, sorry - I'll wait.

[psofa]

anyone got a camera working? as theres no block.device string in hal-device-manager for my camera i dunno what to do

[LifesizeKenDoll]

It'd be really cool when they get the eject button to work.

[TazG]

Both hal-device-manager and lshal give me

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Failed to connect to socket /var/lib/dbus/system_bus_socket: No such file or directory

[UzielNZ]

checking whether /usr/local/lib/python2.3/site-packages version >= 2.2... configure: error: too old

I have Python 2.4 installed, so...

I get that same error when I try to emerge gnome-python

EDIT: Maybe it's looking for gtk 2.2 rather than python 2.2. Any thoughts?

[raaf]

checking for python... /usr/bin/python
checking for python version... 2.3
checking for python platform... linux2
checking for python script directory... ${prefix}/lib/python2.3/site-packages
checking for python extension module directory... ${exec_prefix}/lib/python2.3/site-packages
checking for pyrexc... no
checking for headers required to compile python extensions... found
configure: error: Building python explicitly requested, but can't build python bindings

Now type 'make' to compile dbus.
[root@hackeron-server:/usr/local/src/dbus/dbus]# make
make: *** No targets specified and no makefile found. Stop.

Any ideas?

the same!

[Lepaca Kliffoth]

Sorry I'm going to be [very] rude. Wouldn't it make much more sense to develop something simple with no gnome/kde/whatever dependencies? I mean, it's about mounting things... how does this fit in the "desktop env" idea?

[teutzz]

It'd be really cool when they get the eject button to work.

if you use ivaman upgrade to the latest cvs version, it's all fixed in there

[stillman]

development has reached ~x86 now, everything can be done via portage. runs fine(only tried dvd, cd - no usb), only ejecting still doesn't work , you'll have to unmount first...

[teutzz]

like i said, using the latest cvs ivman it's all ok

[stillman]

oh, in my excitment i've overlooked that one

[Chaosite]

just putting in a plug for ivman, which does the same thing as gnome-volume-manager, but without the gnome deps

It also does ejecting quite well.

Development is stalled a bit, but it still does it's job well.

[Remenic]

'Utopia' works really great in that I can plug in a USB disk and have it automount. But, the fstab entry it creates stays there forever, which is kind of Annoying. Do I need to configure something to make it remove entries?

And is this a hal issue, or a gnome-volume-manager issue?

[ahorn]

i want to use the eject button :/
why i cant use usb-sticks with ivman/hal? - system loads 100% and still no files in /mnt/usb/ :*(
is it a bug? the project page tells usb is not supported yet ,but remenic can automount usb-sticks, hmm... Tell me what to do