Procedure on mounting USB/hotplug devices

[Casey Stamper]

Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote:
> Casey Stamper wrote:
>> Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote:
>>> Casey Stamper wrote:
>>>> Tim wrote:
>>>>> I tend to agree.  You paint yourself into a corner trying to write
>>>>> fixed
>>>>> rules for non-fixed media.
>>>>>
>>>> Especially when you write in those fixed rules and boot the system w/out
>>>> the device in there and it hangs for a good long while chewing on that
>>>> line in fstab.
>>>>
>>> That is why you use the noauto option in the fstab entry. You have
>>> to run mount manually after plugging in the drive, but you can set
>>> it so the user can do that.
>>>
>>> If you do not want to use gnome-mount, then you could always fall
>>> back on an older method. I used to have udev rules that created
>>> meaningful symlinks when plugging in a USB drive. The fstab rules
>>> would then use the symlink instead of a specific SCSI drive. (You
>>> can also have udev run a command to mount the device when it is
>>> deetected, but I didn't bother with that.)  The thing is, you can
>>> have udev create entrys like /dev/pny128 /dev/pny1281 when you plug
>>> in your PNY 128M pen drive, and have a fstab entry that lats a user
>>> mount /dev/pny1281. The user runs mount /mnt/pny128 or mount
>>> /media/pny128 and the device gets mounted.
>>>
>>> Mikkel
>>>
>> Still a bit cumbersome for the "normal" user, yes? I know it's trivial
>> for most of us on the list as is the whole manual mount process but if
>> we're ever to have a wider user base, there should be a more
>> user-friendly technique.
>>
> I guess I don't figure the "normal" user is not going to be trying
> to mount removable devices from the cli without having tools like
> gnome-mount installed. Will a "normal" user be trying to manage the
> system from the cli in the first place? Lets face it, the entire cli
> is a bit cumbersome for the "normal" user...
> 
> Mikkel
> 

I think that I was looking at the issue from the wrong point of view. 
While *I* don't need things to be necessarily user-friendly, I've been 
in the support business for so long that I can't help but be affected by 
the end-user point of view. I think it skewed my whole perception of the 
mount issue. For an end-user, inserting a thumb/usb drive should be 
painless. It should auto-mount and maybe even a new window pop up w/the 
contents of the drive.
p.s. BTW, always liked your sig.
-- 
Casey Stamper
http://www.stampersite.com/wordpress