gnome 2.22 and mounting removable media etc

Message

juniper · Post by **juniper** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 10:59 am

pv23083 wrote:same problem here. tried removing gnome-volume-manager but didn't work.
The usb stick only appears as a drive after I do a manual mount.

mine appears under the computer:/// menu, but if I double click to mount, it says can't mount drive (my first post).

juniper · Post by **juniper** » Wed Aug 27, 2008 11:51 pm

@Naib:

this is a dumb question, does this work for you?

Clad in Sky · Post by **Clad in Sky** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 6:21 am

Another dumb question:
How do I do a complete reinstall of Gnome? Since there seem to be a lot of people who have no issues with automounting I thought there could be settings left over from a previous install of Gnome (2.20) that do not work with 2.22
So I could emerge --unmerge Gnome to get rid of the old one, but does that mean that I have to re-emerge all programs after that or would a new install automatically look in the appropriate folders and make the correct entries in the menus?

juniper · Post by **juniper** » Mon Sep 01, 2008 9:02 pm

Clad in Sky wrote:Another dumb question:
How do I do a complete reinstall of Gnome? Since there seem to be a lot of people who have no issues with automounting I thought there could be settings left over from a previous install of Gnome (2.20) that do not work with 2.22
So I could emerge --unmerge Gnome to get rid of the old one, but does that mean that I have to re-emerge all programs after that or would a new install automatically look in the appropriate folders and make the correct entries in the menus?

well, there are easy ways to uninstall gnome (others know better, you have to know all the programs it needs), but reinstalling is easy, just emerge gnome.

I sort of tried to test a similar theory (stale config files in .gnome, .gconf etc) by creating a new user, but that didn't work. you are right, it may be some weird thing like that. You could try uninstalling gnome-volume-manager, gvfs, hald, dbus and other things that would effect this (i don't know the full list) and then reinstalling them.

I just did an emerge -uDpv world to see what would be upgraded, and there is nothing that I can see that would need upgrading. one thing that would be useful from someone who has automounting working is to let us poor folk know exactly what version of hal, dbus and any other relevant programs they have installed.

one thing: did you try this with root? perhaps this is a permissions problem.

EDIT: more info.

it appears that gnome-mount works

if i type

gnome-mount -bd /dev/sdb

(that is where dmesg tells me the device is) the device is mounted in /media and shows up as mounted in computer:///. good!. also, if I type

gvfs-mount -li

i get

Code: Select all

Drive(0): CD-RW/DVD-ROM Drive
  ids:
   hal-udi: '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/storage_model_CDRW/DVD_TSL462C'
   unix-device: '/dev/sr0'
  is_media_removable=1
  has_media=0
  is_media_check_automatic=1
  can_poll_for_media=1
  can_eject=1
Drive(1): SCSI Drive
  ids:
   hal-udi: '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/storage_serial_Flash_Drive__USB20_MZXS0IE4D4DTJMVLUHG2_0_0'
   unix-device: '/dev/sdb'
  is_media_removable=1
  has_media=1
  is_media_check_automatic=1
  can_poll_for_media=1
  can_eject=0

(the second device is my usb device).

thus, it looks as if gnome-mount and gvfs are finding the usb stick. my guess is that the problem is nautilus. any other test I can do?

Mickael · Post by **Mickael** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 12:10 pm

hi

try to downgroad to udev-125-r2, udev 126 and 127 don't allow to mount an USB key or Data CD/DVD etcetc

juniper · Post by **juniper** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 11:56 pm

well, the udev I use is 119. it worked like a charm with gnome 2.20, so I don't think that is the problem. but I will upgrade, see if that helps.

Clad in Sky · Post by **Clad in Sky** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 7:41 am

I got it working now. The only thing I did was upgrading my kernel to 2.6.25-gentoo-r7. That seemed to be all.
Anyway, here's the list of the versions of stuff I've installed as requested:

Hal - sys-apps/hal-0.5.11-r1
Dbus - sys-apps/dbus-1.1.20
Gnome-volume-manager - gnome-base/gnome-volume-manager-2.22.5
Nautilus - gnome-base/nautilus-2.22.5.1-r1

I've compiled automount into g-v-m, but turned it off via System→Preferences→Removable Drives and Media
In Gconf→apps→nautilus→preferences I switched on media_automount.
Now it works quite well. The only annoying thing is, that if you want icons to show up on your desktop you really have to comment out the lines referring to your USB drives in fstab.
If you do not, the drives will be mounted where they shall be mounted according to fstab, but you'll see no icons.
+ whenever I want to open my cdrom drive I get a messagebox telling me I can't (the drive nevertheless opens)[/code]

juniper · Post by **juniper** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 11:26 am

Clad in Sky wrote:I got it working now. The only thing I did was upgrading my kernel to 2.6.25-gentoo-r7. That seemed to be all.
Anyway, here's the list of the versions of stuff I've installed as requested:

Hal - sys-apps/hal-0.5.11-r1

Dbus - sys-apps/dbus-1.1.20

Gnome-volume-manager - gnome-base/gnome-volume-manager-2.22.5

Nautilus - gnome-base/nautilus-2.22.5.1-r1

I've compiled automount into g-v-m, but turned it off via System→Preferences→Removable Drives and Media
In Gconf→apps→nautilus→preferences I switched on media_automount.
Now it works quite well. The only annoying thing is, that if you want icons to show up on your desktop you really have to comment out the lines referring to your USB drives in fstab.
If you do not, the drives will be mounted where they shall be mounted according to fstab, but you'll see no icons.
+ whenever I want to open my cdrom drive I get a messagebox telling me I can't (the drive nevertheless opens)[/code]

my nautilus is 2.22.5.1 and i have kernel 2.6.24.7. i just upgraded to udev-124-r1 and that didn't work. otherwise i have the same versions as you do. i will upgrade nautilus to your version and see if that works, and then try a kernel upgrade.

juniper · Post by **juniper** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 12:31 am

ok, i have kernel 2.6.25.14, udev 124-r1, hal 0.5.11-r1, nautilus 2.22.5-r1, dbus 1.1.20 and still no go.

Clad in Sky · Post by **Clad in Sky** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 11:29 am

strange...
Did you tell System/preferences/removable drives and media not to mount the stuff but nautilus (via gconf) to mount it?
As far as I get it you have to use g-v-m XOR nautilus for automounting.

juniper · Post by **juniper** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 4:12 pm

Clad in Sky wrote:strange...
Did you tell System/preferences/removable drives and media not to mount the stuff but nautilus (via gconf) to mount it?
As far as I get it you have to use g-v-m XOR nautilus for automounting.

i have turned everything off for gvm and media-automount on for nautilus. i don't think this is a kernel issue since the kernel does detect (dmesg says so) and I can mount from the command line,

any other ideas? Must be some program screwing things up.

Clad in Sky · Post by **Clad in Sky** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 6:39 pm

No, no other ideas. All I know is that it suddenly worked when after I had upgraded my kernel.

Of course, nvidia-drivers didn't work anymore after that, so I re-emerged those. Don't think that that caused the problems.
Sound didn't work, neither, but I solved this, too, and still my automounting works.
That's why I thought it must've been the kernel.
After all, I'm not too familiar with linux, I'm just trying things out.

juniper · Post by **juniper** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 6:49 pm

Clad: glad you got it working. this is pissing me off though. there is something going on that isn't working. oh well.

Clad in Sky · Post by **Clad in Sky** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 7:52 pm

Sorry it doesn't work for you. I was pissed off before, too, so I can imagine how you feel.
If I come up with any idea I'll post it.

juniper · Post by **juniper** » Tue Sep 09, 2008 9:37 pm

do i need to be in special group? i am in the plugdev group.

marrowhk · Post by **marrowhk** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 3:47 am

Mickael wrote:hi

try to downgroad to udev-125-r2, udev 126 and 127 don't allow to mount an USB key or Data CD/DVD etcetc

This worked for me! Thanks!!

SYSTEM: (All ~X86 GNOME + Reverted UDEV) Automounting working USB + DVD

Code: Select all

sys-fs/udev-125-r2  USE="(-selinux)" DOWNGRADED
--------------------------------------------------
gnome-base/gnome-desktop-2.22.3  USE="-debug -doc"
sys-apps/dbus-1.2.3  USE="X -debug -doc (-selinux)" 
sys-apps/hal-0.5.11-r2  USE="X acpi crypt -apm -debug -dell -disk-partition -doc -laptop (-selinux)"
gnome-base/nautilus-2.22.5.1-r1  USE="X gnome -beagle -debug -tracker"
gnome-base/gnome-volume-manager-2.22.5  USE="-automount -debug"

juniper · Post by **juniper** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 11:33 am

marrowhk wrote:
Mickael wrote:hi

try to downgroad to udev-125-r2, udev 126 and 127 don't allow to mount an USB key or Data CD/DVD etcetc
This worked for me! Thanks!!

SYSTEM: (All ~X86 GNOME + Reverted UDEV) Automounting working USB + DVD
Code: Select all
sys-fs/udev-125-r2  USE="(-selinux)" DOWNGRADED
--------------------------------------------------
gnome-base/gnome-desktop-2.22.3  USE="-debug -doc"
sys-apps/dbus-1.2.3  USE="X -debug -doc (-selinux)" 
sys-apps/hal-0.5.11-r2  USE="X acpi crypt -apm -debug -dell -disk-partition -doc -laptop (-selinux)"
gnome-base/nautilus-2.22.5.1-r1  USE="X gnome -beagle -debug -tracker"
gnome-base/gnome-volume-manager-2.22.5  USE="-automount -debug"

ok, i have udev 124-r1. I will try an upgrade.

naviathan · Post by **naviathan** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 6:56 pm

I had the same problem mounting my USB drives. All I did was rebuild gnome-volume-manager with USE="automount" and rebooted. Now everything works!

marrowhk · Post by **marrowhk** » Sun Sep 14, 2008 5:48 am

SYSTEM: (All ~X86 GNOME + Reverted UDEV) Automounting working USB + DVD

Code: Select all

sys-fs/udev-125-r2  USE="(-selinux)" DOWNGRADED
--------------------------------------------------
gnome-base/gnome-desktop-2.22.3  USE="-debug -doc"
sys-apps/dbus-1.2.3  USE="X -debug -doc (-selinux)" 
sys-apps/hal-0.5.11-r2  USE="X acpi crypt -apm -debug -dell -disk-partition -doc -laptop (-selinux)"
gnome-base/nautilus-2.22.5.1-r1  USE="X gnome -beagle -debug -tracker"
gnome-base/gnome-volume-manager-2.22.5  USE="-automount -debug"

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

EDIT: updates! (on an ~x86 system)

Code: Select all

sys-fs/udev-128  USE="(-selinux)" 
sys-apps/hal-0.5.11-r3  USE="X acpi crypt -apm -debug -dell -disk-partition -doc -laptop (-selinux)"

Once udev | hal | dbus are all working well together (by downgrading udev initially) it seems that a final upgrade to current udev | hal works well. USB+DVD auto-mounting working well.

Don't forget to run # emerge @preserved-rebuild when done!

juniper · Post by **juniper** » Sun Sep 14, 2008 7:39 pm

naviathan wrote:I had the same problem mounting my USB drives. All I did was rebuild gnome-volume-manager with USE="automount" and rebooted. Now everything works!

this has worked for me, though i can't still can't seem to double click and open a drive. i have to set gvm to automount drives. so, if i unmount the drive, i can't remount it.

yeah, i think i might be having a different problem from everyone else. i think my problem is something other than kernel/udev. it seems that double clicking won't mount the drive, it must be mounted via hotplug. this makes me think it is a nautilus/gnome issue (since throughout, dmesg has said that the kernel has found the drive).

could this be a gnome-mount issue? a gvfs issue?

EDIT: if I wait a really long time, right clicking and picking mount sometimes works. when I say really long, i mean about 2-3 minutes.

Clad in Sky · Post by **Clad in Sky** » Mon Sep 15, 2008 12:19 pm

Not so different from my problem, since this was exactly what I got.
But my solution doesn't work for you, so there's got to be something else... sorry, no idea what.

tijara · Post by **tijara** » Mon Sep 15, 2008 10:42 pm

Same problem. I fixed it, but I'm not sure how. Here is what I did:

A. Commented out the removable media from /etc/fstab
This seems to be necessary. And BTW, you can still mount by hand if your DE fails--you just have to use the mount command with full paths: "mount /dev/sdc1 /mnt/thumbdrive" or "mount /dev/hdc /mnt/cdrom" for example.

B. Made sure gnome-vfs-daemon didn't automatically start on login.
This was hard. I used gnome-session-properties and unchecked the box for "volume manager", then went to the "current session" tab and made sure gnome-vfs-daemon" wasn't there, then went to the "Session Options" tab and unchecked "Remember currently running apps" just as a precaution. Logged out and back in again and gnome-vfs-daemon was still there! Turns out that it was getting loaded by the "Disk Mounter" applet on my toolbar. So,

C. Removed the "Disk Mounter" applet from my toolbar

Then I logged out and back in again and (hurray), CD's and USB drives would automount properly. Even without gnome-vfs-daemon running. (There's something called "gvfsd" running and I have zero documentation on it, but that's probably the daemon that's taking care of things.)
But I like the "Disk Mounter" applet. So I tried putting it back on the toolbar and everything is still working the way it should. Go figure.

The annoying thing is that Gnome renames the USB drive to "disk". After my previous upgrade, I solved this problem by making udev put a symlink in /dev with a more descriptive name, and then using that symlink for an entry in /etc/fstab. But if we aren't using fstab now, I guess I'm stuck with "disk".

For reference, I have: Linux version 2.6.25-gentoo-r7 , Gnome version 2.22.3, gnome volume manager 2.22.5 (with automount option) and udev 124-r1

<rant>
I used to LIKE Gnome. Really. But this is the latest in a series of issues with Gnome that has really pissed me off. I know everything has its problems, but Gnome tries to shield you from the technical details and in doing so, makes it twice as hard to resolve problems. If we're running Gentoo, then it's a fair assumption that we aren't threatened by technical details. Honestly, if I wanted this type of annoyance I would have stuck with Windows.

If anyone has a recommendation for a better desktop, start a new thread in this forum and point me to it. I thought XFCE looked interesting, but apparently it's based on Gnome, which makes me wonder if it has the same problems.
</rant>

deathcon1 · Post by **deathcon1** » Mon Sep 15, 2008 11:04 pm

An update came out for UDEV a few days ago, fixed it for me without any other config needed.

wa1ter · Post by **wa1ter** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 1:00 am

After days of banging my head against this problem I fixed by accident, just like others here.

To make a very long story short, I enabled both the 'nautilus' and 'automount' useflags in
make.conf (in all permutatiions, at least a dozen times) and finally, for no apparent reason,
it all 'just works' again. The critical step was to recompile gnome-volume-manager and
gnome-mount with my typical debugging CFLAGS="-g3" and without any -O flag at all.

After rebooting the machine for a completely irrelevant reason, it all just worked again.
Since then I've recompiled both gnome-volume-manager and gnome-mount with my usual
-O2 flag and it still works.

The devil is clearly implicated here.

wa1ter · Post by **wa1ter** » Sun Sep 21, 2008 4:46 pm

There are some gnome settings you should check. Use gconf-editor instead of
the System::Preferences menu because there are some important settings that
don't seem to show up there.

In gconf-editor go to desktop::gnome::volume_manager and system::storage
to see if everything is the way you think it should be. I got some pleasant
surprises and maybe you will too.