Automount in Gnome

Sat Aug 29 23:36:55 MST 2009

When I do startx from root or any other user, for that matter, I get 
automatically logged in as that user.  So I didn't think it possible to 
startx from root and login later as someone else.  But your explanation 
about root permissions makes sense.

Like I say, my expertese of gnome and its configurations is very weak to 
say the least.  Gnome is almost like another distribution like 
Slackware, Arch, Debian, etc.  There's a lot to learn there to fully 
understand how it works and how to fix things.  Since I started gdm from 
a root console and leave it running as a daemon, I've been able to auto 
mount stuff and the directories actually get the right permissions and 
user ownership too.  So I guess I've got as much as I can expect from 
this.  I just wondered though because I had been able to do this from a 
startx sesion on prior distros and past versions.  So maybe something 
got tightened up here or something.

On 08/29/2009 12:20 AM, Bob Elzer wrote:
> I'm reading this late, so if it was already answered sorry.
>
> I think you answered your own question. You say you are running startx as a
> normal user, and then it doesn't work unless you log in as root. Or it works
> when you start gdm in a root console.
>
> Something requires root to make automount work, so for instance if you had
> the gui start in the inittab, then root would start what it needed to.
>
> Something that needs root doesn't get it when you run startx as a regular
> user.
>
> Try running startx from root, and login as a regular user and see if that
> works.
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: plug-discuss-bounces at lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
> [mailto:plug-discuss-bounces at lists.plug.phoenix.az.us] On Behalf Of Steve
> Holmes
> Sent: Friday, August 28, 2009 1:43 AM
> To: plug-discuss at lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
> Subject: Re: Automount in Gnome
>
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: RIPEMD160
>
> I built a new "normal" user and tried it there and got the same results as I
> do with my original normal user.
>
> Now I need to provide some more details because I found a solution to the
> problem so it seems.  I usually like to get into gnome by typing 'startx'
> from a native text console.  When I do it this way, I get the problems I've
> been writing about for the past several days.  Now if I use 'gdm' by
> starting it up from a root console and then login with the normal user, I
> get automount functionality back.  I thought gnome would basically operate
> the same way once someone is logged in regardless of how they got there.
>
> Like I said before, My knowledge of gnome internal is next to none. so don't
> know much about really getting everything out of that environment yet.  It
> does seem strange to me that normal users have to have logged in via gdm to
> get this automount stuff to work but if root loggs in via startx then
> automount works strait away.
>
> Sound confusing enough?
>
> On Thu, Aug 27, 2009 at 11:18:47AM -0700, Dazed_75 wrote:
>> I apologize if you have already tried this (I deleted some of the
>> earlier messages after reading them).  But have you tried creating
>> another normal user and logging in as that user to see what happens
>> when you plug the USB device in?
>>
>> If that works, the problem is fairly certain to be in some setting or
>> conflict for your usual user only.  If it does not the problem is
>> likely something to do with how "normal" users are defined in your
>> system and their permissions to do things.  The ability for a normal
>> user to use removable [and writeable] devices which would commonly be
>> denied to normal users in some environments.
>>
>> On Wed, Aug 26, 2009 at 6:47 PM, Steve Holmes<steve at holmesgrown.com>
> wrote:
>>
>>> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>>> Hash: RIPEMD160
>>>
>>> Yes I followed the suggestions and updated hal and udev from the
>>> testing repo but still no go.  Strangely, it works fine if I login
>>> as root but from my normal user account, it just goes as far as
>>> finding and identifying the device but it won't mount to save its
>>> life.  In fact, if I go to Computer, the device shows up in the list
>>> of volume names but if I right click and attempt to mount, it just
> ignores it.
>>> Yet if root plugs in the device, it comes up in the Nautilus view
>>> without a problem.  I can then leave it plugged in and logout from
>>> root and log back in with mynormal account and the drive is still
>>> accessible but mounted under root.  I guess logging out of gnome
>>> doesn't unmount the drive; not sure what is supposed to happen there.
>>>
>>> I don't know enough about gnome internals to know where to look
>>> further.  So more help would be greately appreciated.  BTW, thanks
>>> for the link though; that gave me something to try.
>>>
>>> On Wed, Aug 26, 2009 at 06:35:41AM -0700, Eric Shubert wrote:
>>>> Have you seen this?
>>>> http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=77716
>>>>
>>>> Steve Holmes wrote:
>>>>> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>>>>> Hash: RIPEMD160
>>>>>
>>>>> I have a question and a problem here with the automounting of
>>>>> drives and media in Gnome.  Let me try and sort out what I know
>>>>> here.  On my normal user account, when I plug in a USB drive of
>>>>> any kind, the automount feature of gnome doesn't take hold.  HAL
>>>>> discovers it ok and even will build the sym links in
>>>>> /dev/disk/by-label but gnome won't pick this up and make it
>>>>> available.  All the volume and removable device options are set
> properly.
>>>>>
>>>>> Now I just tried logging into gnome this morning from my root
>>>>> account and there, the device automounted and everything seemed
>>>>> to work great.  I guess there is a difference between my normal
>>>>> user's settings and root's.  Where can I find the settings in
>>>>> conf files or whatever to possibly fix this automount problem?
>>>>>
>>>>> I'm running 2.6.30 kernel on an Arch Linux system with latest
>>>>> updates which includes Gnome 2.26 right now.
>>>>>
>>>>> Any help or ideas?
>>>>> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
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>>>>> SIGNATURE-----
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> -Eric 'shubes'
>>>>
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>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Dazed_75 a.k.a. Larry
>>
>> The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain
>> occasions, that I wish it always to be kept alive.
>>   - Thomas Jefferson
>
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