[Solved] Unable to mount removable devices

Grzesiek · 2012-05-23 16:43:01

Hi there.

I (more/less) successfully installed xfce-4.8 on my PLD linux machine (www.pld-linux.org) but I'm no t able to mount removable devices such as USB pen-drives or CDs. More precisely, when I insert pen-drive its icon is displayed on the desktop. I right-click on it and select "Mount Volume". Then I get the message: "Failed to mount, Not authorizes to perform the operation". Mounting works fine when logged in as root.

Note that I log in using text console and then I use startxfce4 commad to start X server.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Greg

lifeinthegrey · 2012-05-24 01:55:12

I had this problem when I was using SLiM as a login manager. Basically, you need to edit policy kit to allow the user to mount devices. In the case of most login managers, it automatically allows the active user to perform actions, but SLiM does not get recognized as an active user (for some reason) and therefore has issues.

But even if you aren't using SLiM, policy kit modification would be the way to go. I'm a debian user, so my path to it is /usr/share/polkit-1/actions, but yours may be different. Once you are in the polkit actions folder, though, you want to edit the udisks policy. If setting <allow_active>yes</allow_active> doesn't work (for SLiM it won't), then you need to create / edit <allow_any>yes</allow_any>. For ANY user to mount the device. (I don't recommend this because of security reasons, but it is the only way sometimes).

Or, if you ARE using SLiM, you could just install lightdm. Solves all problems.

Grzesiek · 2012-05-25 15:17:00

Thanks for your answer.

In my disto I found the file /usr/share/polkit-1/actions/org.freedesktop.udisks2.policy (PLD is equipped with Udisk2). Inside I found plenty of different settings and I don know which one to change. It would be nice if you could take a look at http://hermes.sojka.co/pld/org.freedesk … .policy.gz and help me to fix it.

Regards

Grzesiek · 2012-05-25 22:06:59

I managed to find the appropriate setting to change:

(was auth_admin).
The most surprising thing is that it is filesystem-mount-other-seat instead of filesystem-mount. I'm plunging USB drive directly to my own computer not some remote machine.

Regards and thanks for help.

lifeinthegrey · 2012-05-26 02:44:37

No worries, although it shouldn't be too surprising. filesystem-mount refers to local filesystems, such as your internal partitions dedicated to windows. filesystem-mount-other-seat refers to filesystems that are seated differently than the standard, always-connected internal drives, such as USB connections.

Either way, realize that the allow_any situation is a huge security risk. Better to have a manager that actually notifies the system of being an active user (lightdm, gdm, mdm, kdm, the list goes on).

Tcll · 2019-04-24 11:25:14

lifeinthegrey wrote:

No worries, although it shouldn't be too surprising. filesystem-mount refers to local filesystems, such as your internal partitions dedicated to windows. filesystem-mount-other-seat refers to filesystems that are seated differently than the standard, always-connected internal drives, such as USB connections.
Either way, realize that the allow_any situation is a huge security risk. Better to have a manager that actually notifies the system of being an active user (lightdm, gdm, mdm, kdm, the list goes on).

sorry about the massive necropost
but could you maybe perhaps provide links and references if not general information for users like me coming from their search engine who are just getting into this stuff?

it's not exactly as straight-forward as you expect us to know, and not every linux user is well versed in building distros...
and threads don't just disappear if the user's issue was (be it incorrectly) solved... it would suck if they did because there'd be no references and questions would have to be repeatedly asked.

at the very least elaborate on the context...
I'm using Void with XFCE and lightdm and it still doesn't work
and I can't find any relevant search results to let me know what to do to make it work

thanks

if it comes to the case I need to create a new thread for my issue, I will
but if we can just provide general info, then I likely won't need to.

EDIT:
I fixed my issue as I realized I was using `$ startxfce4` which wasn't using lightdm even though it was installed
running `$ sudo lightdm` got things working (I'm not sure what the service manager is on void)

Last edited by Tcll (2019-04-24 11:45:16)

Xfce Forum

Sub domains

#1 2012-05-23 16:43:01

[Solved] Unable to mount removable devices

#2 2012-05-24 01:55:12

Re: [Solved] Unable to mount removable devices

#3 2012-05-25 15:17:00

Re: [Solved] Unable to mount removable devices

#4 2012-05-25 22:06:59

Re: [Solved] Unable to mount removable devices

#5 2012-05-26 02:44:37

Re: [Solved] Unable to mount removable devices

#6 2019-04-24 11:25:14

Re: [Solved] Unable to mount removable devices

Board footer