USB flash disk mount points not created [SOLVED]

Question

I am having a problem where my USB flash disk is not always being mounted after being detected by KDE. I have just installed Arch 2007.05, updated it and installed KDEmod. Here's what happens when I plug in a device.
1. I insert the device, KDE detects the device and shows the KDE Mount Daemon dialog. "Open in New Window" or "Do Nothing" are the two available options.
2. At this point, my device shows up in system:/media (in Konqueror), but it is not mounted. When I place the cursor over the device in Konqueror a popup with the device's label and the text "Unmounted Removable Medium" appears. There is no corresponding directory in the /media directory in my file system.
3. In the KDE Daemon window I select "Do Nothing" by either double-clicking it or selecting it and clicking OK.
4, My device does not get mounted. This is annoying since most of the time I just want it mounted so I can do some command-line work.
If in the KDE Daemon window if I select "Open in New Window" the device is mounted and the corresponding directory appears in my /media directory. Also, if I select "Do Nothing" but then later navigate into the contents of the device in Konqueror, at that point the device is mounted and the corresponding directory appears in my /media directory. When my device is plugged in, but not mounted there is a "Mount" option in the right-click context menu, but I want it to automatically mount.
On my other machine with openSUSE, the drive is mounted even if you choose "Do Nothing" in the KDE Daemon window. That way seems more correct, because if I plug a device in, I most likely want it mounted. (I know there are some cases where this might not be true, but those cases are certainly not the normal use casese.) Now I have to open Konqueror just to get the drive to mount. It seems that the drive should be mounted no matter what you choose in the KDE Daemon window.
Now, is this normal KDE or Arch behavior or is it something that can be adjusted or fixed?
Thanks in advance.
Last edited by jbromley (2007-10-22 07:22:08)

Answer 1

Turing - imagine that! For some reason it never occurred to me to check the properties of the unmounted volume. Well, you learn something every day.
In the meantime, I decided that maybe "Do Nothing" should do just that and I should perhaps add a service to mount the drive, but not bring up any windows. Here's what I did.
1. Create a mount_vol.sh shell script with the following contents.
#!/bin/bash
udi=$(dcop kded mediamanager properties $1 2>/dev/null | head -n 1)
if test -n "$udi"; then
dcop kded mediamanager mount "$udi" >/dev/null 2>&1
fi
2. chmod +x mount_vol.sh.
3. Move the script somewhere like /usr/local/bin.
4. Plug in some removable device, in the KDE Daemon window click "Configure..."
5. In the KDE Control Module dialog that appears click "Add"
6. Give the service a name like "Mount Removable Medium", click the X icon to select a service icon, select "Unmounted Removable Medium" under "Available medium types" and click the right arrow. For the command use "/usr/local/bin/mount_vol.sh %u.
7. Click OK.
Now when the KDE Daemon action dialog appears, there will be the option to just mount it. You can of course use this same script for other medium types.
Regards.