Yet another usb key problem [solved]

Question

i recently purchased 2 apacer 2GB usb flash drives so i could transfer my files between computers with ease and speed. i have the computer, using udev rules, recognizing the drives as i put them in, and automounting them to a /mnt directory.
couple questions about it though
1. the drives are read only, and cannot be changed from (using chmod or chown) root
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 16384 Nov 14 11:18 usb1
how can i fix this?
[root@creech ~]# ls -l /mnt
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 16384 Nov 14 11:18 usb1
[root@creech ~]# chown spookshow /mnt/usb1
chown: changing ownership of `/mnt/usb1': Operation not permitted
[root@creech ~]# chmod 777 /mnt/usb1
[root@creech ~]# ls -l /mnt
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 16384 Nov 14 11:18 usb1
[root@creech ~]#
is this possibly because it is fat16? and if so, what format should i use to make it readable across windows and linux machines?
fdisk -l
xxxx
Disk /dev/sdi: 2063 MB, 2063597568 bytes
16 heads, 32 sectors/track, 7872 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 512 * 512 = 262144 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdi1 * 1 7872 2015216 e W95 FAT16 (LBA)
2. i want to create links on the desktop automatically so that i could  easily access the drives when i plug them in, how can i do this?
udev rules file i created below (and by created i mean stole from the wiki)
KERNEL=="sd[h-z]", NAME="%k", SYMLINK+="usb%m", GROUP="users", OPTIONS="last_rule"
ACTION=="add", KERNEL=="sd[h-z][0-9]", SYMLINK+="usb%n", GROUP="users", NAME="%k"
ACTION=="add", KERNEL=="sd[h-z][0-9]", RUN+="/bin/mkdir -p /mnt/usb%n"
ACTION=="add", KERNEL=="sd[h-z][0-9]", PROGRAM=="/lib/udev/vol_id -t %N", RESULT=="vfat", RUN+="/bin/mount -t vfat -o
rw,noauto,sync,dirsync,noexec,nodev,noatime,dmask=000,fmask=111 /dev/%k /mnt/usb%n", OPTIONS="last_rule"
ACTION=="add", KERNEL=="sd[h-z][0-9]", RUN+="/bin/mount -t auto -o rw,noauto,sync,dirsync,noexec,nodev,noatime /dev/%k /mnt/usb%n", OPTIONS="last_rule"
ACTION=="remove", KERNEL=="sd[h-z][0-9]", RUN+="/bin/umount -l /mnt/usb%n"
ACTION=="remove", KERNEL=="sd[h-z][0-9]", RUN+="/bin/rmdir /mnt/usb%n", OPTIONS="last_rule"
thanks in advance
solution = hal + dbus (actually running) + gnome-volume-manager + small script

Answer 1

broch wrote:
I have geil 2GB transfer rate 26MB/s
assuming that you are running KDE or Gnome there is no need to modify /mnt or create any extra folders. KDE and Gnome will handle removable devices automatically
conditions:
1) running dbus/hal
2) slight changes to /etc/fstab
usbfs                  /proc/bus/usb usbfs     noauto              0      0
proc                   /proc         proc      defaults            0      0
sysfs                  /sys          sysfs     noauto              0      0
upon inserting usb key system will  automatically mount it in
/media/sdbX
where X is connected device number (if you connect more than one at a time)
in case that you close window, go to system -> storage media -> your_usb_stick
3) user added to storage group
if you are using xfce or less then get ivman it is easy to configure and works very well.
hope this will help
thanks, i will try it tonight, i had no power at my house last night due to a windstorm, hopefully this will work (i would ssh to my computer from here and set it up, but i guess i forgot to turn on ssh at home )