41 replies to this topic

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Ummm... what's up with my Arch? I found that it will not auto-mount my floppy, ZIP, CD/DVD, or USB anymore? What did the change recently that would cause this?

If there was one thing that I really, really wish Arch would start doing it's that they should have some better method of notifying users of changes that may affect their systems when updating the OS. I don't know how many times I've found that an update has broken something new in Arch. It's happens pretty often to me... and some of you, I've noticed.

[alphaomega]

V.T. Eric Layton, on 28 June 2012 - 05:17 PM, said:

Ummm... what's up with my Arch? I found that it will not auto-mount my floppy, ZIP, CD/DVD, or USB anymore? What did the change recently that would cause this?

If there was one thing that I really, really wish Arch would start doing it's that they should have some better method of notifying users of changes that may affect their systems when updating the OS. I don't know how many times I've found that an update has broken something new in Arch. It's happens pretty often to me... and some of you, I've noticed.

I'm not using Arch here but are you talking about KDE?
I have had issues with auto-mounting before.
The last time it happened...
I had to remove the entries for the items in System Settings/Removable Devices
under Disconnected Devices.
The next time I would insert a device (cd for example) it worked.

HTH

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Xfce, actually. Auto-mounting is not a function of Desktop Environment/Window Manager, though. It's usually controlled by udev or hal, depending on the distro. I'm not even sure how Arch is doing it these days. I think hal is deprecated in Arch. I have it installed on my Arch, though. Udev, also. *scratching head* I need to do a bit of research, I guess. It's not a priority, though.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Hmm... I just noticed that systemd and dbus were both in Josh's update notifications for Arch today. I haven't updated yet, but will shortly. Maybe this is a systemd issue?

[alphaomega]

V.T. Eric Layton, on 28 June 2012 - 07:19 PM, said:

Xfce, actually. Auto-mounting is not a function of Desktop Environment/Window Manager, though. It's usually controlled by udev or hal, depending on the distro. I'm not even sure how Arch is doing it these days. I think hal is deprecated in Arch. I have it installed on my Arch, though. Udev, also. *scratching head* I need to do a bit of research, I guess. It's not a priority, though.

Correct. And to be honest with you, I'm not even sure how Slackware is doing it these days.

I've started to include the year in my google searches so old (no longer relevant) stuff does not litter my search results.

Anyway, what about the log files?
Are there any messages there that might help to isolate the issue?
Although I'm sure you've already looked there.

Edited by alphaomega, 28 June 2012 - 08:21 PM.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Adding the year to searches... EXCELLENT! I may have to start trying that.

I haven't done any in-depth investigation as of yet, ΑΩ. I've been kinda' busy polishing the sharp edges on my brand new online board that I just installed and set up this past weekend.

Heh! Slack still uses good ol' hal and udev. Why change what works so well?

Thanks for the input. I'll investigate this a bit more tomorrow.

[ichase]

I have never had a CD or USB drive EVER automount in Arch.  I've always mounted via the CLI.  I'm used to it and it does not take much effort on my part.  

Edited by ichase, 28 June 2012 - 11:15 PM.

[tforsman]

Maybe related to: http://www.archlinux...-replaces-udev/

[securitybreach]

ichase, on 28 June 2012 - 11:15 PM, said:

I have never had a CD or USB drive EVER automount in Arch.  I've always mounted via the CLI.  I'm used to it and it does not take much effort on my part.  

I am pretty much the same way as far as manually mounting and unmounting drives. I use pcmanfm and if I have it already have it open, I will get an automount dialog when I insert a usb key. Other than that, I always manually mount any removeable media.

You have to remember that something like automounting goes against Archlinux's KISS philosophy so this will never be included by default. You will need to manually set it up in order to get this function. As far as an update breaking your automounting function, remember that all package updates come from their upstream developer so this may be a change in the package's config file. The reason HAL is not used on Arch anymore is because HAL is depreciated:

Quote

As of 2011, GNU/Linux distributions such as Ubuntu,^[4] Debian,^[5] and Fedora,^[6] and projects such as KDE^[7], GNOME and X.org are in the process of deprecating HAL as it has "become a large monolithic unmaintainable mess"...

http://en.wikipedia....are)#Deprecated

This is an upstream (the actual developers of the packages, not Arch developers) issue and will change in Slackware as well eventually.

BTW what file manager do you use as it is probably something related to it instead of Arch as a whole.

tforsman, on 29 June 2012 - 01:57 AM, said:

Maybe related to: http://www.archlinux...-replaces-udev/

That it could...

[abarbarian]

I use spacefm on my Arch and you can choose to auto mount or not. Plug in and play and unplug with no hassle.

[amenditman]

I used automounting in Linux for a while when I first came over from the dark side. But I don't do it anymore, not since I switched over to sidux a few years ago. Arch/KDE makes manually mounting inserted media easier for me.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

tforsman, on 29 June 2012 - 01:57 AM, said:

Maybe related to: http://www.archlinux...-replaces-udev/

I remember this, Tomas. It was a few weeks ago. I did what was suggested then. It's possible I haven't needed to auto-mount anything until recently, though. I do believe this udev/systemd change is the cause. I shall have to investigate further in order to fix. Maybe work on it later today or Sunday.

Thanks for reminding me of that.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Well, I've been all over the wiki and the forums and I still can't find a solution to this issue. I'm pretty sure that it happened when the udev/systemd carp came down the line in that update a couple weeks ago. I just don't know what it broke or how to fix it. I can manually mount, but that's no fix. Arch is beginning to annoy me. I feel it coming on...

[securitybreach]

V.T. Eric Layton, on 29 June 2012 - 05:41 PM, said:

Well, I've been all over the wiki and the forums and I still can't find a solution to this issue. I'm pretty sure that it happened when the udev/systemd carp came down the line in that update a couple weeks ago. I just don't know what it broke or how to fix it. I can manually mount, but that's no fix. Arch is beginning to annoy me. I feel it coming on...

Well there are various methods to enable automounting. Have you looked at Udisks, Udiskie or Autofs?

Also, this may help as I think that you still use Thunar as your file manager:
Archwiki -- Thunar: Mounting problems after package update

Also, check this out: https://bbs.archlinu...093197#p1093197

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Yup. Read all that. I'm just aggravated. I'll get it fixed eventually. If I keep messing with it right now, I'll just NUKE IT FROM ORBIT. Better to just walk away for a while.

[LilBambi]

Could they be moving away from automount? Microsoft has moved away from that too. It asks you what you want to do now.

I had to start adding the year to searches in Google some time ago for certain types of searches too.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

No. Arch is just changing the way it automounts. They're getting away from hal and udev, it seems. They are using different methods now, as mentioned be Josh a few posts back.

No Google for me. Duck Duck Go.

[securitybreach]

V.T. Eric Layton, on 30 June 2012 - 11:55 PM, said:

No. Arch is just changing the way it automounts. They're getting away from hal and udev, it seems. They are using different methods now, as mentioned be Josh a few posts back.

Well technically Arch does not enable automounting by default. This was due to kernel changes from the upstream developers:

Quote

Systemd and udev have been merged upstream. Udev will now be part of a package called systemd-tools. This package contains several other standalone tools which can be used without systemd

https://wiki.archlin.../index.php/Udev

Quote

In April 2012, udev's source tree was merged into systemd.

http://en.wikipedia....ki/Udev#History

Quote

"Commit importing udev into systemd", systemd, retrieved 25 May 2012

http://cgit.freedesk...9490c55de06d99d

I understand your frustration but these are upstream changes and since Arch does not patch any packages, you get the vanilla package with the changes:

Quote

The Arch Linux system places precedence upon elegance of design as well as clean, correct, simple code, rather than unnecessary patching, automation, eye candy or "n*****-friendliness." Software patches are therefore kept to an absolute minimum; ideally, never. Simple design and implementation shall always trump simple user interface.

https://wiki.archlin...hp/The_Arch_Way

So you cannot just blame Archlinux for these changes as all they does is provide the latest stable (vanilla) packages from upstream and without any modifications.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Sure I can blame 'em.

[securitybreach]

V.T. Eric Layton, on 01 July 2012 - 01:37 PM, said:

Sure I can blame 'em.

Right

I guess it is Archlinux's fault that they update packages a lot faster than other distros but that is the reason we loving rolling distros so much

[LilBambi]

Actually, there are many of us that do not use automount for anything except the system partitions and home, and maybe a vfat or ntfs partition shared between oses and that in fstab.

Many prefer to mount their usb drives etc. (except maybe on some laptops) manually.

And then there are others of us that prefer to use automount for some things and others that want it all done for them automatically.

I wonder if one should actually blame a distro for taking a stand one way or another or maybe it's best to find another distro if you don't like what one does.

Or get them to give you the ability in system settings to choose how you want it handled.

vive la différence!

[sunrat]

I like the way KDE does it (in aptosid anyway). Plug in USB device, up pops Device Notifier and it shows in Dolphin sidebar. Doesn't actually mount until you click on it.

[ichase]

securitybreach, on 01 July 2012 - 01:38 PM, said:

Right

I guess it is Archlinux's fault that they update packages a lot faster than other distros but that is the reason we loving rolling distros so much

  Yeah......What Josh said.  

[V.T. Eric Layton]

securitybreach, on 01 July 2012 - 01:38 PM, said:

Right

I guess it is Archlinux's fault that they update packages a lot faster than other distros but that is the reason we loving rolling distros so much

YES! YES! Exactly right! Er, no... not exactly.

[securitybreach]

V.T. Eric Layton, on 02 July 2012 - 04:28 PM, said:

YES! YES! Exactly right! Er, no... not exactly.

Right