Thunar - Safely "ejecting" hard drives

dollyp · 2014-04-05 15:16:07

I use a large usb hard drive to keep backups and other stuff. The partitions on this drive automatically mount when I plug the usb in. This seems to be the default and is the logical thing. However when I come to unplug the drive I go to Thunar, right click on 'eject', Thunar then unmounts the partitions and then automatically remounts them before I have time to unplug the drive.

Is there a way to have automount when I plug the drive in but for partitions to be unmounted AND STAY UNMOUNTED when I want to unplug.

To save having to run Thunar in order to unplug the drive, is there a way to have some sort of button on the panel sort of like Windows' "Safely remove" icon?

David

ozjd · 2014-04-06 02:19:29

You don't say what distro you are using but this could be a system thing as I've similar behaviour on other desktops too.

If you have an icon on the desktop for the partition you can unmount it there by right clicking.

vasa1 · 2014-04-06 05:24:27

Also please mention the version of Thunar. I see "Unmount" but no "Eject" in Thunar 1.6.3.

PaperNick · 2014-04-06 12:20:47

I use palimpsest (Disk Utility) to unmount my USB's safely.
Click to view the screenshot

I remember proposing the safely remove feature to be implemented in Thunar last year, but the devs obviously didn't put it in their TODO list... Hopefully we will see this feature in future releases...

Jerry3904 · 2014-04-06 12:38:58

What about the plugin "Mount Devices" (RC Panel > Panel > Add New Items), would that do what you want?

dollyp · 2014-04-06 14:44:49

ozjd - I'm using Mint 16 Xfce (sorry I should have said this and have now put it in my profile). Yes I can unmount each partition in turn from the desktop but it's a lot of steps when a single button could do the trick (and I'm rather forgetful anyway).

vasa1 - Thunar 1.6.3, same as you. When I right-click on a partition located on a usb drive in Thunar I get 'eject' just below 'unmount'.

PaperNick - Interesting suggestion. It turns out that I already have this program, namely gnome-disk-utility and called 'Disks' in Mint. Mint have presumably cleaned up/simplified the interface whilst also hiding the functionality.

Jerry3904 - I don't have this plugin in the Mint version of Xfce. I've found it on Xfce's website and will download and check it out.
http://goodies.xfce.org/projects/panel- … unt-plugin

Many thanks for your replies.

David

EDIT: For Mint the xfce goodies package is in the repositories but not installed by default

Last edited by dollyp (2014-04-06 16:50:23)

julian · 2021-01-01 12:31:29

Howdy folks from 2014,

I'm time warping almost 7 years into the future to ask how things are going with this.

Today I received a complaint from someone that I have on-boarded to Xfce Manjaro. They are annoyed that a USB icon doesn't appear in the panel like it does in Windows. Yes, I know they can eject from the Thundar (File Manager) but this person is really struggling with that. They just want it to behave similarly to Windows in that regard. Is there something that I can do for this person?

ToZ · 2021-01-01 14:19:59

As per Jerry's post above, have you had a look at xfce4-mount-plugin? Setting a unmount command of "gio mount -e %m" should perform the function.

julian · 2021-01-21 06:45:40

Thanks ToZ,

I just followed Jerry's instructions and was testing out this interface. It scares the bejesus out of me, I had a handful of devices in the list, I right-clicked on one to see what options I might have for them and it DISAPPEARED FROM THE LIST INSTANTLY.

I shudder to think what might happen if I right-clicked the "/" filesystem with the entire operating system on it.

If I am petrified of this thing, I'm not sure how a non-power user is supposed to feel.

When I go into the 'Properties' and exclude filesystems "/" and "/*" from the list the icon is still shown in the Panel, but clicking it shows nothing but a big heading in italics. The expectation would be for it to go away (when there is no USB connected).

Our basic user feedback:
a) It doesn't pop up *****only***** when a USB drive is connected,
b) It features every partition known on the entire hard-drive (and more?), until you accidentally click (or right-click) one and then it disappears instantly,
c) From the UI, it is not clear what clicking (or right-clicking) on a device actually does,
d) Plugging in a smart device has not resulted in the device appearing in the list (yes, I removed the 'exclude "/*"'),
e) The icon doesn't look like a USB icon but more like a hard drive. Similarly the icon doesn't match the simple NetworkManager Applet, Package Manager or Clipman icons I know that I can change the icon manually if needed, but in reality don't like instructing people to fiddle with icons.
f) Hovering over the icon in the Panel a tooltip pops up, 'devices'. It should be 'Devices'.
g) When you click the icon in the panel, the popup heading that reads, "Xfce 4 Mount Plugin - Devices and Mount Points " cannot be changed. Firstly, "Xfce 4 Mount Plugin" is redundant and gets in the way, such information is in the About dialog. The text should not be so large either, nor does it need to be in italics. Bold text (that is maybe grey to imply that it cannot be selected) would probably be enough in this instance, and would be more consistent with the look and feel of other popup menus (see the NetworkManager Applet as a good quality example),
h) The heading mentioned in g) appears clickable but clicking it does nothing,

I'm not yet brave enough to use the command that you mentioned above ToZ, and I'm unsure it can address the above points.

Is there a fork of this project aimed at non-power-users? Maybe I'm missing something super-obvious, if not, the plugin is not really for people who need something described in my previous comment.

Last edited by julian (2021-01-21 06:48:24)

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#1 2014-04-05 15:16:07

Thunar - Safely "ejecting" hard drives

#2 2014-04-06 02:19:29

Re: Thunar - Safely "ejecting" hard drives

#3 2014-04-06 05:24:27

Re: Thunar - Safely "ejecting" hard drives

#4 2014-04-06 12:20:47

Re: Thunar - Safely "ejecting" hard drives

#5 2014-04-06 12:38:58

Re: Thunar - Safely "ejecting" hard drives

#6 2014-04-06 14:44:49

Re: Thunar - Safely "ejecting" hard drives

#7 2021-01-01 12:31:29

Re: Thunar - Safely "ejecting" hard drives

#8 2021-01-01 14:19:59

Re: Thunar - Safely "ejecting" hard drives

#9 2021-01-21 06:45:40

Re: Thunar - Safely "ejecting" hard drives

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