Re: Procedure on mounting USB/hotplug devices

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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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