How to automount automatically ALL UNITS ?

fkervin · 2014-12-31 15:01:06

Hi all,

I have a quite annoying problem with xubuntu, it is, it doesn't automount units and i have to double click on them in thunar to make them usable.

I've enable "mount external devices when connect", "mount external devices when inserted" and "mount external support when connect" in section "External devices and supports" but it doesn't work.

I want the system to automount all units, USB ones and also internal ones (SATA), how can I enable this feature?

Many thanks in advance

sixsixfive · 2014-12-31 16:34:21

depends on your system either add "auto" as mount option to /etc/fstab or create a udev rule or use udisks there are probably even more ways...

just google for it:

https://encrypted.google.com/search?hl= … nt%20fstab
https://encrypted.google.com/search?hl= … dev%20rule
https://encrypted.google.com/search?hl= … t%20udisks

or have a look @ the ubuntu wiki

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Autom … omatically

Last edited by sixsixfive (2014-12-31 16:37:26)

ToZ · 2014-12-31 17:07:09

In addition to having the gvfs and thunar-volman packages installed, I find that Thunar needs to be running for the automount to work. Either have a Thunar window open or run thunar in daemon mode at startup:

Thunar --daemon

fkervin · 2015-01-01 18:47:51

Many thanks to both for the answers,

If I understand you correctly, sixsixfife, those are three different ways to make what I need, but I apologyze since I don't understand you, could you tell a bit more in detail how to? I only find information about automounting a given unit includind it in /etc/fstab, but I want to boot the computer and that any connected drive in this moment will be automounted on startup, and when I say ANY i mean not to having to add manually.

Toz, can you give more details about it? I don't know how to make thunar works in daemon mode when boot computer and don't know if I have to do anyting else.

Regards and thaks in advance.

ToZ · 2015-01-01 21:12:32

fkervin wrote:

Toz, can you give more details about it? I don't know how to make thunar works in daemon mode when boot computer and don't know if I have to do anyting else..

Try testing it like this:

1. Unplug your memory key/usb device.

2. Kill all thunar instances by running this command in a terminal window:

Thunar -q

3. In the same terminal window, run:

Thunar --daemon

4. Plug in your key/usb device and see if it automounts.

If this works, then go to Settings Manager >> Session and Startup >> Application Autostart and add a new entry with the following information:
Name = Thunar Daemon
Description = Thunar Daemon
Command = Thunar --daemon

Now on every login, this command will auto run.

EDIT: Just remembered that I also set /sys/module/block/parameters/events_dfl_poll_msecs to 2000 as per this bug report to make it work.

EDIT2: And now I remembered that I had to create the /usr/local/bin/thunar-volman file as per https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour … ug/1210898. Seems like this is a bug with udisks/udev/glib rather than a thunar bug.

Last edited by ToZ (2015-01-01 21:54:01)

Morbius1 · 2015-01-02 00:30:55

We may be answering the wrong question. It's not that an inserted usb device doesn't automount. It's not that you can force an automount at boot through fstab or other means. The user wants this all to happen automatically without any user intervention when he logs in.

Let's say I have a usb storage device plugged into my machine and boot into Lubuntu. When I log in that device is already mounted to /media/$USER/LABEL. Lubuntu can do that without my intervention. It's my understanding that KDE can either do that by default or be made to do that. XFCE doesn't do that.

Furthermore I think the OP wants this to happen with internal partitions as well. That Lubuntu cannot do.

Then again there is an excellent chance I've completely misread the original post.

Last edited by Morbius1 (2015-01-02 00:31:41)

sixsixfive · 2015-01-02 01:42:03

fkervin wrote:

If I understand you correctly, sixsixfife, those are three different ways to make what I need, but I apologyze since I don't understand you, could you tell a bit more in detail how to?

it really depends on what your system is using as default solution but an fstab entry should work always

eg: if you want all drives automount do something like:

fdisk -l

this will list all your current drives (eg on my laptop)

ssf@debtop:~$ su -c "fdisk -l"
Password: 

Disk /dev/sda: 465.8 GiB, 500107862016 bytes, 976773168 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x9ff78445

Device     Boot  Start       End   Sectors   Size Id Type
/dev/sda1  *      2048    718847    716800   350M  7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2       718848 976771071 976052224 465.4G  7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

Disk /dev/sdb: 55.9 GiB, 60022480896 bytes, 117231408 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x63a2a7f3

Device     Boot    Start       End  Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/sdb1  *        2048  19531775 19529728  9.3G 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2       19531776 117229567 97697792 46.6G 83 Linux

Disk /dev/mmcblk0: 15 GiB, 16138633216 bytes, 31520768 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x00024d81

Device         Boot Start      End  Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/mmcblk0p1       2048 31520767 31518720  15G  b W95 FAT32

Disk /dev/sdc: 14.5 GiB, 15512174592 bytes, 30297216 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x0138126f

Device     Boot Start      End  Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/sdc1  *       63 30282524 30282462 14.5G  b W95 FAT32

ssf@debtop:~$

as you can see there are 2 hard drives(sda and sdb) installed and both have 2 partitions(sd[ab]X), then there is an sdcard reader(mmcblk0pX) and a usb stick(sdcX)

so to automount all those additional drives(sdb is my linux ssd) i would add the following lines to the /etc/fstab

#i don't add sda1 because its the efi/bootloader/systemconfig partition
/dev/sda2		/media/sda2			ntfs-3g		uid=ssf,gid=users,umask=0022,auto	0	0 #this settings make them writeable for me!
/dev/sdc1		/media/usb01		auto		rw,user,auto,noatime,flush,umask=000	0	0 #note umask=000 makes theme writeable for all!
/dev/mmcblk0p1	/media/sdcard01		auto		rw,user,auto,noatime,flush,umask=000	0	0

the main disadvantage with the fstab is that you need to add all possible stuff (eg: 2,3 or 4 usb drives at the same time:

/dev/sdc1		/media/usb01		auto		<options>	0	0 #first stick
/dev/sdd1		/media/usb11		auto		<options>	0	0 #second stick
/dev/sde1		/media/usb21		auto		<options>	0	0 #third stick
/dev/sdX1 and so on...

or what if a usb drive contains more than one partition? (i would at least add 4 for every stick)

/dev/sdc2		/media/usb02		auto		<options>	0	0 #1st stick 2nd partition
/dev/sdc3		/media/usb03		auto		<options>	0	0 #1st stick 3rd partition
/dev/sd[a-z][0-....] and so on the same goes also for the sdcard
/dev/mmcblk0p1	/media/sdcard01		auto		<options>	0	0 #1st reader 1st partition
/dev/mmcblk0p2	/media/sdcard02		auto		<options>	0	0 #1st reader 2nd partition

also after you set everything up try to remount all partions with "mount -a" and if you get something like:

 root@debtop:/media# mount -a
mount: mount point /media/usb01 does not exist

create the mount dirs/points eg: "mkdir -p /media/usb0"

MountainDewManiac · 2015-01-02 03:28:13

So the "mount ALL partitions of EVERY internal hard drive at boot" part is easy, then, because that's going to be (relatively) static and the user will know how many of them there are, it's just the external devices that are possibly going to give errors? Seems like the easy thing to do is to just set the system up to automount all internal drives/partitions at boot (or login, whichever is best) and then plug in external USB drives and memory cards after logging in. I suppose the user might forget and power up the computer when the external device is already connected - easy again, just unplug it and then plug it back in. I know that works because I've done it.

Now... Admittedly, that presupposes that the user has at least one more or less fully functioning arm and hand (apologies if this is not the case) and is not too lazy to plug it in (if that's the case, well... no apology will be forthcoming lol ).

In the case of the physically-challenged user... I guess the best solution would be to use the methods in post #7. Presumably, the user can count up the number of partitions on each device and make the necessary modifications when copying/pasting. If I'm understanding the post correctly, it would then be stable (work with no errors) unless/until the number of devices and/or partitions changed, at which point the user could just redo the work with the new device configuration?

Going to bookmark this thread. I do know someone who uses linux who is physically challenged (muscular dystrophy), and while she is still able to plug her USB drive in at present, it's a progressive disease and the last time I visited, she was having trouble using her fork with only one hand to eat, so I guess she'll have need of something like this before too long. Right now, though, you know... She wants to do what she can, while she can, because she knows that one day she'll wake up and will no longer have the option. It's already been a few years since she was able to transfer from her bed to her wheelchair on her own in the morning (and vice versa in the evening). So thanks for the information!

Regards,
MDM

fkervin · 2015-01-02 09:42:52

Hi all and thanks for the answers, I'm going to read them again carefully and try what you told,

MountainDexManiac, it's not a matter of physically-challenged or lazy user, the fact that the operative system doesn't mount connected units automatically is a BIG FAIL, it makes no sense having to unplug and plug again all disks on every boot or having to enter manually on it via thunar. Can anyone tell me whose are the benefits of this?.

If I configure my computer to be used as a video server and I want to boot it using WOL and that just after boot Plex can serve video from those disks, can you explain me how to unplug and plug disks if I'm not physically here? Have I to connect with some remote desktop application and then enter on the disks in thunar on every boot to have disks ready? Oh, yes, it's very comfortable. Then you'll tell me "add those disks to /etc/fstab" file, then I ask you "what if I have 20 different external hard drives?, what if the user is an user and doesn't want to bother with editing files and adding code?"

Or Imagine I'm using a multimedia center that boots automatically on the OS boot. If I use external disks I need to unplug/plug them if I want it to be readable for this multimedia center software, and if I've just add a new internal hard drive I've to configure /etc/fstab.

Following this reasoning... why televisions have remote controllers? is it you can't move your botton from the seat and change the channel with be button in the own TV? are you physically-challenged?

It's a clear example of something that Windows makes automatically and it's sawn as the most natural and obvious behaviour, but in linux it seems to be the most difficult and weird thing on the world. Those are the stupid reasons why people hates linux and use Windows, stupid things that I'm sure that could be easily fixed, in this case with a procedure that on boot analyze connected units and mount all of them.

Please, MountainDewManiac, don't take this comment as something personal, I really thank you your comment, it's only that many times when I ask about something like this, something that I consider a limitation or that would suppose an improvement for the user, there is someone who answer "Linux is like this" and I feel stupid for answering such a nonsense question.

I want to use linux, and I want other people to do also, but an operative system in my opinion must be user-friendly and make common things without having to recompile kernels or editing a filesystem with sudo and adding lines to it. It's not a matter of physically challenge or lazy, it's a matter of that the OS must serve the user, not the user serve the OS.

When an user tell me "Hey, my external disks are not available on boot" and I answer him "oh, yes, it's the normal way of working, you have to unplug and plug the disk again" his answer is going to be "What? you can't be talking seriuosly". In my modest opinion, if we want linux to be a real alternative to Windows we shouldn't justify those things, we should ask community to improve functionality of Linux and have the user in mind at every moment. Users wants things to work out of the box, not becoming programmers or system administrators in order to make the most simple tasks.

I don't say Linux is bad, of course, and in the last times I think it has become much better and for a final user can be even better that Windows, but I still see some things that means a barrier, a problem to this final user that could be fixed.

Regards

Last edited by fkervin (2015-01-02 09:44:37)

sixsixfive · 2015-01-02 10:49:57

>the fact that the operative system doesn't mount connected units automatically is a BIG FAIL, it makes no sense having to unplug and plug again

it makes a lot of sense if you want to save as much energy as possibe(eg laptops), it also saves your ssd ond other flash memory drives (as long you don't mount them the system can't read it see also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_memory#Memory_wear )

fkervin · 2015-01-02 10:55:10

sixsixfive wrote:

>the fact that the operative system doesn't mount connected units automatically is a BIG FAIL, it makes no sense having to unplug and plug again
it makes a lot of sense if you want to save as much energy as possibe(eg laptops), it also saves your ssd ond other flash memory drives (as long you don't mount them the system can't read it see also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_memory#Memory_wear )

Ok, in this case I agree, but why can't we choose if we want it to be automounted or not? In kubuntu we have this option and works perfectly, I don't understand why it is not in xubuntu. I could say here that when I don't want a disk to be used and spent energy I simply unplug it.

I suppose you'll agree that, at least, for some users is good.

Regards

Last edited by fkervin (2015-01-02 10:56:14)

fkervin · 2015-01-02 11:33:48

ToZ wrote:

fkervin wrote:
Toz, can you give more details about it? I don't know how to make thunar works in daemon mode when boot computer and don't know if I have to do anyting else..
Try testing it like this:
1. Unplug your memory key/usb device.
2. Kill all thunar instances by running this command in a terminal window:
Thunar -q
3. In the same terminal window, run:
Thunar --daemon
4. Plug in your key/usb device and see if it automounts.
If this works, then go to Settings Manager >> Session and Startup >> Application Autostart and add a new entry with the following information:
Name = Thunar Daemon
Description = Thunar Daemon
Command = Thunar --daemon
Now on every login, this command will auto run.
EDIT: Just remembered that I also set /sys/module/block/parameters/events_dfl_poll_msecs to 2000 as per this bug report to make it work.
EDIT2: And now I remembered that I had to create the /usr/local/bin/thunar-volman file as per https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour … ug/1210898. Seems like this is a bug with udisks/udev/glib rather than a thunar bug.

Hi Toz,

I'd really thank you if you can help me with this, I've spent a lot hours looking for information and trying thinks but I can't make units be mounted on boot.

I've follow your procedure in this way:

1 -Unplug USB drive

2 - Create application autostart just like you told

3 - Edit file /etc/rc.local, it was like this:

#!/bin/sh -e
#
# rc.local
#
# This script is executed at the end of each multiuser runlevel.
# Make sure that the script will "exit 0" on success or any other
# value on error.
#
# In order to enable or disable this script just change the execution
# bits.
#
# By default this script does nothing.

exit 0

I've modify to this:

#!/bin/sh -e
#
# rc.local
#
# This script is executed at the end of each multiuser runlevel.
# Make sure that the script will "exit 0" on success or any other
# value on error.
#
# In order to enable or disable this script just change the execution
# bits.
#
# By default this script does nothing.

echo 2000 > /sys/module/block/parameters/events_dfl_poll_msecs
exit 0

I have also try to remove the "exit 0" line and restart, it doesn't work

4 - create thunar-volman in the /usr/local/bin folder:

#!/bin/sh
sleep 1
exec /usr/bin/thunar-volman $@ >/tmp/thunar-volman.log 2>&1

After restart everything is the same way, USB drive is not mounted automatically sad

Regards and thanks in advance.

Last edited by fkervin (2015-01-02 11:57:19)

ToZ · 2015-01-02 12:59:27

fkervin wrote:

After restart everything is the same way, USB drive is not mounted automatically.

Can we double-check a few things:

1. That the executable permissions are set on /usr/local/bin/thunar-volman:

ls -l /usr/local/bin/thunar-volman

2. That /sys/module/block/parameters/events_dfl_poll_msecs contains the value 2000 after login:

cat /sys/module/block/parameters/events_dfl_poll_msecs

3. That Thunar --daemon is running on restart after login before you plugin the USB drive:

ps -ef | grep -i Thunar

4. The contents of /tmp/thunar-volman.log after you plugin a USB drive:

cat /tmp/thunar-volman.log

Note: I don't currently have a Xubuntu install available to test this on and these steps are what I followed to get automounting to work on my Arch Linux with Xfce 4.10 install. Which version of Xubuntu and/or Xfce are you running?

Morbius1 · 2015-01-02 13:19:56

ToZ wrote:

fkervin wrote:
After restart everything is the same way, USB drive is not mounted automatically.
Can we double-check a few things:
...
...
3. That Thunar --daemon is running on restart after login before you plugin the USB drive:
ps -ef | grep -i Thunar

His usb drive when inserted already automounts. This is not the problem.

The problem as I read his posts is that before he boots his machine all of his USB drives are already inserted. After he boots and logs into his machine the drives are not mounted.

That's to be expected because XFCE does not automount already attached USB devices at boot or login.

Last edited by Morbius1 (2015-01-02 13:21:24)

fkervin · 2015-01-02 13:32:04

Many thanks for your help, ToZ

1. That the executable permissions are set on /usr/local/bin/thunar-volman:

ls -l /usr/local/bin/thunar-volman

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 77 ene 2 12:22 /usr/local/bin/thunar-volman

2. That /sys/module/block/parameters/events_dfl_poll_msecs contains the value 2000 after login:

cat /sys/module/block/parameters/events_dfl_poll_msecs

2000

3. That Thunar --daemon is running on restart after login before you plugin the USB drive:

ps -ef | grep -i Thunar

fkervin 1402 1287 0 14:20 ? 00:00:00 Thunar --daemon
fkervin 1406 1287 0 14:20 ? 00:00:00 Thunar --daemon
fkervin 2287 2239 0 14:28 pts/0 00:00:00 grep --color=auto -i Thunar

4. The contents of /tmp/thunar-volman.log after you plugin a USB drive:

cat /tmp/thunar-volman.log

The file doesn't exist

Note: I don't currently have a Xubuntu install available to test this on and these steps are what I followed to get automounting to work on my Arch Linux with Xfce 4.10 install. Which version of Xubuntu and/or Xfce are you running?

14.04 x64, the xfce version is the one that comes by default.

As Morbius1 says, my problem is that I want disks to be mounted on boot, the disks that are connected in the moment of boot.

Regards and thanks again

ToZ · 2015-01-02 13:51:12

fkervin wrote:

1. That the executable permissions are set on /usr/local/bin/thunar-volman:
ls -l /usr/local/bin/thunar-volman
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 77 ene 2 12:22 /usr/local/bin/thunar-volman

Executable permissions are not set. You need to:

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/thunar-volman

...However...

As Morbius1 says, my problem is that I want disks to be mounted on boot, the disks that are connected in the moment of boot.

Then this won't help you to achieve this goal. You need to follow sixsixfive's suggestions from post #7.

fkervin · 2015-01-02 14:29:14

Many thanks again, Toz,

If I follow the suggestions from post #7 I'll have to configure if manually for every new disk I use, and further this I've read that I can have problems if I configure one disk and then remove it leaving the entry in the /etc/fstab file.

I want to be able to leave the computer working to another person and that new disks inserted works on boot without having to configure a file for every used disk, I'm starting to think that it's something impossible, but in kubuntu/dolphin it's possible, and according to some comments I've read, also in lubuntu/pcmanfm, not to menction of course Windows, where if you boot having a disk coneected, the disk is mounted and works by default.

Am I asking something impossible? for me it's a big problem, I've spend the last days looking for a Linux distro that fits what I need, and after trying a few ones I've found that xubuntu works great, but for mi this is a real problem sad

Regards

MountainDewManiac · 2015-01-02 22:45:25

sixsixfive wrote:

>the fact that the operative system doesn't mount connected units automatically is a BIG FAIL, it makes no sense having to unplug and plug again
it makes a lot of sense if you want to save as much energy as possibe(eg laptops), it also saves your ssd ond other flash memory drives (as long you don't mount them the system can't read it see also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_memory#Memory_wear )

Might there be a security aspect to it, as well? Not every system is a "one user" system, and many people might not want one user to be able to access another user's (or another OS') partitions/drives - this is an assumption on my part, but it seems reasonable.

fkervin: I found three more threads about this question (two at linuxquestions.org and one at the Arch Linux forum) that may offer more information, different viewpoints, et cetera. Perhaps something will be helpful, IDK.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/xfce-automount-usb-drive-at-startup-779440/
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/xfce4-10-automount-disk-on-desktop-on-login-947198/
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=133315

Regards,
MDM

sixsixfive · 2015-01-03 22:59:56

fkervin wrote:

Many thanks again, Toz,
for every new disk I use

thats not the case for example if you have 4 usb ports(you just need to add 16 entries(it's uncommon that an usb stick has more than 4 partitions)

if you start the system it checks for those devices an if they exist, it mounts them if not, it will skip them(well except with poetterware then you need to add "nofail" as mount option to make the computer boot.) if you change a stick it doesn't matter because the kernel will always create the same device files and since you created fixed mountpoints they will always mounted to the same folders) if you want a specific folders for volumes you can mount them by their UUID ( blkid " )

>Might there be a security aspect to it, as well?

for this reason you can set user & group masks and whole bunch of other options smile

PS: if you absolutely do not care about permissions you can add yourself or a group to the disk group...

Morbius1 · 2015-01-04 12:30:45

You folks might be interested in the solution offered in the Ubuntu forums by this post: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php? … st13199176

I tested this myself and it does work. In my particular case I don't know why I would need this but it is an interesting solution to having usb devices mounted automatically at login.

Xfce Forum

Sub domains

#1 2014-12-31 15:01:06

How to automount automatically ALL UNITS ?

#2 2014-12-31 16:34:21

Re: How to automount automatically ALL UNITS ?

#3 2014-12-31 17:07:09

Re: How to automount automatically ALL UNITS ?

#4 2015-01-01 18:47:51

Re: How to automount automatically ALL UNITS ?

#5 2015-01-01 21:12:32

Re: How to automount automatically ALL UNITS ?

#6 2015-01-02 00:30:55

Re: How to automount automatically ALL UNITS ?

#7 2015-01-02 01:42:03

Re: How to automount automatically ALL UNITS ?

#8 2015-01-02 03:28:13

Re: How to automount automatically ALL UNITS ?

#9 2015-01-02 09:42:52

Re: How to automount automatically ALL UNITS ?

#10 2015-01-02 10:49:57

Re: How to automount automatically ALL UNITS ?

#11 2015-01-02 10:55:10

Re: How to automount automatically ALL UNITS ?

#12 2015-01-02 11:33:48

Re: How to automount automatically ALL UNITS ?

#13 2015-01-02 12:59:27

Re: How to automount automatically ALL UNITS ?

#14 2015-01-02 13:19:56

Re: How to automount automatically ALL UNITS ?

#15 2015-01-02 13:32:04

Re: How to automount automatically ALL UNITS ?

#16 2015-01-02 13:51:12

Re: How to automount automatically ALL UNITS ?

#17 2015-01-02 14:29:14

Re: How to automount automatically ALL UNITS ?

#18 2015-01-02 22:45:25

Re: How to automount automatically ALL UNITS ?

#19 2015-01-03 22:59:56

Re: How to automount automatically ALL UNITS ?

#20 2015-01-04 12:30:45

Re: How to automount automatically ALL UNITS ?

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