Casey Stamper wrote: > > 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. > I think that gnome-mount and HAL will give that functionality. It does it most of the time now, (except when something breaks it...) You also have the option of what action to take when the device is inserted. I think some of the options can be a security problem, but that is something the user will have to decide for themselves. In the case of file systems that do not support UIDs, defaults give control of the device to the user logged into the console. For my use, I like having USB drives auto-mount most of the time, but I do not want a window to pop up with the contents of the drive. So I have my desktop configured that way. I am undecided about what to do when a CD/DVD is inserted. Auto-mounting is nice, but it also causes problems when you are working with re-writable media, or burning a batch of disks with verification - especially if you have a window pop up with the contents of the disk - you have to close the window and unmount the disk before you can burn the next one. In any case, the current setup lets me configure things for the way I work. But I have not checked to see how well it works if you are not running Gnome or KDE. The auto-mounting does not take place if you are not running a Desktop Environment. The question is, should it work when you are using the CLI? If so, should it use the same options as the DE? What about cases where there isn't a CLI equivalent to the GUI that is called when using the GUI? Would there be enough demand for CLI auto-mount tools to be worth the time to develop them? I am guessing that if you are not going to install things like gnome-mount, that you are not going to install the cli auto-mount tools. But I may be wrong. There is an entire issue with how to handle devices that should not be shared between users when you have more then one user logged in, as well as how to handle things when the only user logged in is logged in remotely. I personally think it is a good idea to limit remote access to hardware as the default. This is even though it has made more work for me when working with headless machines. But you always have to balance between ease of use, and security. I do not see any easy answers. Mikkel -- Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with Ketchup!
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