Whack-a-mole device assignments

[Robert]

James Mckenzie wrote:
> -----Original Message-----
> From: William Hooper <whooperhsd3 at earthlink.net>
> Sent: Jan 20, 2005 8:12 AM
> To: fedora-list at redhat.com
> Subject: Re: Whack-a-mole device assignments
> 
> 
> Robert said:
> 
>>I'm running FC3, kernel 2.6.9-1.667 and thoroughly confused by hal &
>>friends. I have a USB disk drive (a real drive) and a 256MB flash drive.
>>Consider  this snippet from /var/log/messages, with comments inserted:
>>
>>
>># First, I insert the flash "drive", followed by the Maxtor drive
> 
> [snip]
> 
>>Jan 20 07:32:27 mavis fstab-sync[3532]: added mount point
>>/media/LEXAR_MEDIA for /dev/sda1
> 
> [snip]
> 
>>fstab-sync[3722]: added mount point /media/NO_NAME for /dev/sdb1
>>Jan 20 07:32:51 mavis fstab-sync[3726]: added mount point /media/OTOT
>>for /dev/sdb2
> 
> [snip]
> 
>># Then re-insert, but in reverse order:
>>Jan 20 07:35:05 mavis fstab-sync[4225]: added mount point /media/NO_NAME
> 
> for /dev/sda1
> 
>>Jan 20 07:35:05 mavis fstab-sync[4229]: added mount point /media/OTOT
>>for /dev/sda2
> 
> [snip]
> 
>>Jan 20 07:35:23 mavis fstab-sync[4405]: added mount point
>>/media/LEXAR_MEDIA for /dev/sdb1
> 
> [snip]
> 
>>This doesn't really matter when I manually mount the drive(s) from a
>>terminal 'cause it all gets worked out with /etc/fstab: [rj at mavis ~]$ mount
>>/media/LEX*
> 
> 
> Because the mountpoints are consistent.
> 
> 
>>...but it sure plays hell with trying to use device icons on the KDE
>>desktop because apparently a snapshot of the fstab is taken when the
>>desktop device is created and that's that. Perhaps someone else has
>>already fought this battle and won?
> 
> 
> Sounds like a KDE bug to me.  The mount points are consistent so that is
> what KDE should be using.
> 
> -------James' reply:
> 
> William:
> 
> Looks like it is working 'as designed'.  You should not be mounting /dev/sda or /dev/sdb but rather the /media extensions.  Actually, they should be automounting as they do on my system.  However, I'm using GNOME rather than KDE and the icons 'automagically' appear on my desktop with the ability to unmount them from the right click menu.  Also, the devices appear in /etc/fstab.  I think he wants persistance through this file.  That requires that he connect the drives in the SAME order each and every time.  I think this is not possible if the devices are connected at boot time.  It may be time to look at the /media directory and not /dev.
> 
> 

Correct.  The reason that it DOES work correctly from a terminal is that 
  I specify /media/OTOT or media/LEX* as I indicated in the original 
post. The problem is that KDE doesn't *allow* the mount to be sorted out 
according to fstab because *both* the device name and mount point are 
specified. I hope this doesn't degenerate into a phone company style 
finger-pointing discussion but I can certainly see how it can be called 
a KDE bug -- especially if the mounting works properly in Gnome. OTOH, 
KDE was there first. (Before udev).  In any event, this is the KDE that 
is part of Fedora Core.

Whatever component winds up being the "goat" doesn't really matter and 
for *my* purposes, I can live with it indefinitely.