USB "Mount Failed" - wondering why

[Peter Pearson]

When I attempt to mount a thumbdrive, a small window entitled "Mount
Failed" pops up on my desktop, saying "Failed to mount 'USB20FD'" and
"Not Authorized". What authorization is missing?

Here's what I'm doing:

1. Insert the thumdrive. An icon appears on the desktop.
Pursue either of these paths:

2A. Right-click on the icon, select "Mount Volume". A small window
entitled "Mount Failed" pops up, saying "Failed to mount 'USB20FD'"
and "Not Authorized".

or

2B. Run the Thunar file manager (1.2.3) and click on the icon labelled
USB20FD underneath Desktop and Trash. A small un-titled window
pops up saying "Failed to mount 'USB20FD'" and "Not Authorized".

I'm running Debian Wheezy and Xfce.

This started happening after my hard drive failed, and I bought a
new hard drive and built a Debian Wheezy system that might be slightly
more up-do-date than its predecessor.

Maybe I could fix it by randomly re-installing Wheezy until it magically
gets better, but I'd much rather learn enough to understand the problem.
Googling around, I learned that I need to be in the "plugdev" group (I
am), and I saw a suggestion of doing "sudo chmod peter.peter /media",
which doesn't seem like a good general solution and didn't work anyway.
I tried running Thunar under "strace -f", hoping to see what Thunar
was doing when the authorization failure occurred, but the result is
94,000 lines in which I can't find any landmarks.

Meanwhile, I'm using "sudo mount /dev/sdf1 -t auto /mnt/thumbdrive",
which doesn't seem like a good long-term solution.

tl;dr: (a) How can I remedy "Not Authorized" mount failures?
(b) How can I learn more about diagnosing problems like this?

[William Unruh]

Post by Peter Pearson
When I attempt to mount a thumbdrive, a small window entitled "Mount
Failed" pops up on my desktop, saying "Failed to mount 'USB20FD'" and
"Not Authorized". What authorization is missing?

You could try to make /media rwx for everyone.
You could look at /dev/sd* to see whether a new device pops up and then
as root to
mkdir /media/usb
mount /dev/sdd1 /media/usb
where you replace sdd1 with the correct device.

Post by Peter Pearson
1. Insert the thumdrive. An icon appears on the desktop.
2A. Right-click on the icon, select "Mount Volume". A small window
entitled "Mount Failed" pops up, saying "Failed to mount 'USB20FD'"
and "Not Authorized".
or
2B. Run the Thunar file manager (1.2.3) and click on the icon labelled
USB20FD underneath Desktop and Trash. A small un-titled window
pops up saying "Failed to mount 'USB20FD'" and "Not Authorized".
I'm running Debian Wheezy and Xfce.
This started happening after my hard drive failed, and I bought a
new hard drive and built a Debian Wheezy system that might be slightly
more up-do-date than its predecessor.
Maybe I could fix it by randomly re-installing Wheezy until it magically
gets better, but I'd much rather learn enough to understand the problem.
Googling around, I learned that I need to be in the "plugdev" group (I
am), and I saw a suggestion of doing "sudo chmod peter.peter /media",
which doesn't seem like a good general solution and didn't work anyway.
I tried running Thunar under "strace -f", hoping to see what Thunar
was doing when the authorization failure occurred, but the result is
94,000 lines in which I can't find any landmarks.
Meanwhile, I'm using "sudo mount /dev/sdf1 -t auto /mnt/thumbdrive",
which doesn't seem like a good long-term solution.
tl;dr: (a) How can I remedy "Not Authorized" mount failures?
(b) How can I learn more about diagnosing problems like this?

[mrr]

Post by William Unruh

Post by Peter Pearson
When I attempt to mount a thumbdrive, a small window entitled "Mount
Failed" pops up on my desktop, saying "Failed to mount 'USB20FD'" and
"Not Authorized". What authorization is missing?

You could try to make /media rwx for everyone.
You could look at /dev/sd* to see whether a new device pops up and then
as root to
mkdir /media/usb
mount /dev/sdd1 /media/usb
where you replace sdd1 with the correct device.

And then don't forget to add a line in /etc/fstab in the form:
/dev/sdd1 /media/MyThumbDrive ext4 defaults 0 0
Well, that line can be tweaked, you can find all the info in the man
page of mount or fstab.
If the special block device (/dev/sdd1) can vary from one boot to
another or just for good practice you would replace /dev/sdd1 in the
line by UUID=heregoestheuuid (/sbin/blkid /dev/sdd1 to find the uuid).

[William Unruh]

Post by mrr

Post by William Unruh

Post by Peter Pearson
When I attempt to mount a thumbdrive, a small window entitled "Mount
Failed" pops up on my desktop, saying "Failed to mount 'USB20FD'" and
"Not Authorized". What authorization is missing?

You could try to make /media rwx for everyone.
You could look at /dev/sd* to see whether a new device pops up and then
as root to
mkdir /media/usb
mount /dev/sdd1 /media/usb
where you replace sdd1 with the correct device.

/dev/sdd1 /media/MyThumbDrive ext4 defaults 0 0

Well assuming it is sdd1 and is ext4 and you probably want to add
defaults,user,nofail
to the options, since without the nofail, the boot under systemd will
not work at all, and you will either be dumped into the systemd recovery
mode, or will be left with a blank page to stare at. And without the
user, only root will be able to mount it. And if it is a vfat usb
thumbdrive, it will not work, and if it gets labeled as something other
than sdd1 then it also will not help.

It is much nicer if that junk is all handled automatically rather that
through fstab.

Post by mrr
Well, that line can be tweaked, you can find all the info in the man
page of mount or fstab.
If the special block device (/dev/sdd1) can vary from one boot to
another or just for good practice you would replace /dev/sdd1 in the
line by UUID=heregoestheuuid (/sbin/blkid /dev/sdd1 to find the uuid).

[Peter Pearson]

Post by William Unruh

Post by mrr

Post by William Unruh

Post by Peter Pearson
When I attempt to mount a thumbdrive, a small window entitled "Mount
Failed" pops up on my desktop, saying "Failed to mount 'USB20FD'" and
"Not Authorized". What authorization is missing?

You could try to make /media rwx for everyone.
You could look at /dev/sd* to see whether a new device pops up and then
as root to
mkdir /media/usb
mount /dev/sdd1 /media/usb
where you replace sdd1 with the correct device.

/dev/sdd1 /media/MyThumbDrive ext4 defaults 0 0

Well assuming it is sdd1 and is ext4 and you probably want to add
defaults,user,nofail
to the options, since without the nofail, the boot under systemd will
not work at all, and you will either be dumped into the systemd recovery
mode, or will be left with a blank page to stare at. And without the
user, only root will be able to mount it. And if it is a vfat usb
thumbdrive, it will not work, and if it gets labeled as something other
than sdd1 then it also will not help.

Thank you both, mrr and William Unruh. I've learned some stuff and
improved the situation to a state that I consider quite usable, if
slightly quirky.

I now have these files:

drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 Dec 15 16:13 /media
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Dec 15 16:13 /media/usb

... and this line in /etc/fstab:

/dev/sdf1 /media/usb auto user,noauto,nosuid,nodev,noexec,rw,nofail 0 0

I didn't specify the "defaults" option because it appears to
contradict several options that I think I want: noauto, nosuid,
and nodev.

Things that work:
* $ mount /media/usb
* Files on the thumbdrive belong to peter.root.
* Regular user peter can write to the thumbdrive.
* $ umount /media/usb
* Right-clicking on the desktop icon and selecting "Mount volume".

Things that kinda work:
* Thunar File Manager: right-clicking USB20FD and selecting "Mount volume"
mounts the volume, but the File Manager refuses to show its contents
until I click the triangular "expand" icon to the left of the name.

Things that don't work:
* Thunar File Manager: right-clicking USB20FD and selecting "Eject volume"
causes a popup to appear saying "Failed to eject 'USB20FD'." However,
as far as I can see, the device *has* been ejected.
* Right-clicking on the desktop icon and selecting "Eject volume" also
causes a popup to appear saying "Failed to eject 'USB20FD'." Again,
as far as I can see, the device has been ejected.

I tried setting the permissions on /media and /media/usb to drwxrwxrwx,
but that didn't fix anything in the "don't work" column.

Post by William Unruh
It is much nicer if that junk is all handled automatically rather that
through fstab.

Am I passing up some option for automatic handling like that?

Thanks again.

[Vuk Vujovic]

Post by Peter Pearson
/dev/sdf1 /media/usb auto user,noauto,nosuid,nodev,noexec,rw,nofail 0 0

Hello Peter,

Assuming that you have working Linux distribution and working USB port
and everything that is needed to connect device it is very simple solution.

All you need is package called autofs-some-version.

On my distribution Mandriva 2010.2 x86_64 Free I am logged in to XFCE
and tried the same as you and USB drive mounted without problems even
that there is no definition for it in /etc/fstab.

That is because autofs package is installed and service autofs is
started which starts process /usr/bin/automount

Then that process is started under root priviledges and automatic
mounting of CD/DVD mediums or USB mediums is possible.

I think one:

apt-get install autofs

and configuring autofs service to start at boot will resolve the problem.

Best Regards,
Vuk Vujovic

[Peter Pearson]

On Tue, 16 Dec 2014 03:32:45 +0100, Vuk Vujovic <***@gmail.com> wrote:
[snip]

Post by Vuk Vujovic
apt-get install autofs
and configuring autofs service to start at boot will resolve the problem.

Thanks. This is probably the path that would get me to where I was
before my hard drive crashed and I had to re-build Debian Wheezy, so
it's the Right Answer.

However, I'm a devoted fan of the old Unix philosophy of tools that do
one thing well. When the out-of-the-box autofs configuration didn't
happen to mount my thumbdrive, and I started reading man pages for
configuration guidance, I realized that autofs's ambitions are so much
broader than my humble thumbdrive that just learning the new language
needed to understand the configuration documentation was going to take
more time than all the "mount" commands I'll type for the rest of my
life. This triggered a relapse of the unsightly Linux-is-becoming-Windows
funk where you see me now.

This thread has taught me several useful things. I hope others have
profited too.

[William Unruh]

Post by Peter Pearson

Post by William Unruh

Post by mrr

Post by William Unruh

Post by Peter Pearson
When I attempt to mount a thumbdrive, a small window entitled "Mount
Failed" pops up on my desktop, saying "Failed to mount 'USB20FD'" and
"Not Authorized". What authorization is missing?

You could try to make /media rwx for everyone.
You could look at /dev/sd* to see whether a new device pops up and then
as root to
mkdir /media/usb
mount /dev/sdd1 /media/usb
where you replace sdd1 with the correct device.

/dev/sdd1 /media/MyThumbDrive ext4 defaults 0 0

Well assuming it is sdd1 and is ext4 and you probably want to add
defaults,user,nofail
to the options, since without the nofail, the boot under systemd will
not work at all, and you will either be dumped into the systemd recovery
mode, or will be left with a blank page to stare at. And without the
user, only root will be able to mount it. And if it is a vfat usb
thumbdrive, it will not work, and if it gets labeled as something other
than sdd1 then it also will not help.

Thank you both, mrr and William Unruh. I've learned some stuff and
improved the situation to a state that I consider quite usable, if
slightly quirky.
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 Dec 15 16:13 /media
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Dec 15 16:13 /media/usb
/dev/sdf1 /media/usb auto user,noauto,nosuid,nodev,noexec,rw,nofail 0 0
I didn't specify the "defaults" option because it appears to
contradict several options that I think I want: noauto, nosuid,
and nodev.
* $ mount /media/usb
* Files on the thumbdrive belong to peter.root.
* Regular user peter can write to the thumbdrive.
* $ umount /media/usb
* Right-clicking on the desktop icon and selecting "Mount volume".
* Thunar File Manager: right-clicking USB20FD and selecting "Mount volume"
mounts the volume, but the File Manager refuses to show its contents
until I click the triangular "expand" icon to the left of the name.
* Thunar File Manager: right-clicking USB20FD and selecting "Eject volume"
causes a popup to appear saying "Failed to eject 'USB20FD'." However,
as far as I can see, the device *has* been ejected.
* Right-clicking on the desktop icon and selecting "Eject volume" also
causes a popup to appear saying "Failed to eject 'USB20FD'." Again,
as far as I can see, the device has been ejected.
I tried setting the permissions on /media and /media/usb to drwxrwxrwx,
but that didn't fix anything in the "don't work" column.

Post by William Unruh
It is much nicer if that junk is all handled automatically rather that
through fstab.

Am I passing up some option for automatic handling like that?

I have never understood why, sometimes, when I plug in a thumbdrive, it
is automatically mounted into /media Something perhaps in udev does it,
if it recognizes the thumbdrive as a storage medium.

Post by Peter Pearson
Thanks again.

[Wildman]

On Tue, 16 Dec 2014 03:36:39 +0000 (UTC)

Post by William Unruh
I have never understood why, sometimes, when I plug in a thumbdrive,
it is automatically mounted into /media Something perhaps in udev
does it, if it recognizes the thumbdrive as a storage medium.

That has always been my experience. Never had a mounting problem
with any usb storage device. Just plug it in and it mounts.

It is possible the OP has a permissions problem on the thumb drive.

[blind Pete]

Post by William Unruh

Post by mrr

Post by William Unruh

Post by Peter Pearson
When I attempt to mount a thumbdrive, a small window entitled "Mount
Failed" pops up on my desktop, saying "Failed to mount 'USB20FD'" and
"Not Authorized". What authorization is missing?

You could try to make /media rwx for everyone.
You could look at /dev/sd* to see whether a new device pops up and then
as root to
mkdir /media/usb
mount /dev/sdd1 /media/usb
where you replace sdd1 with the correct device.

/dev/sdd1 /media/MyThumbDrive ext4 defaults 0 0

Well assuming it is sdd1 and is ext4 and you probably want to add
defaults,user,nofail
to the options, since without the nofail, the boot under systemd will
not work at all, and you will either be dumped into the systemd recovery
mode, or will be left with a blank page to stare at. And without the
user, only root will be able to mount it. And if it is a vfat usb
thumbdrive, it will not work, and if it gets labeled as something other
than sdd1 then it also will not help.

/dev/sdd1 is far too unpredictable for multiple devices in multiple
USB ports. UUID is good for computer generated stuff. LABEL is the
human friendly way to go - if you are smart enough not to use the
same LABEL for two different devices.

"Defaults" is only a place holder if no other options are specified.
"Users" plural is generally better than "user" singular on a desktop
machine. I prefer "noauto" to "nofail" for thumb drives. See the
man pages for details.

Post by William Unruh
It is much nicer if that junk is all handled automatically rather that
through fstab.

Yes, as long as the system architect agrees with you about a few
little details.

Post by William Unruh

Post by mrr
Well, that line can be tweaked, you can find all the info in the man
page of mount or fstab.
If the special block device (/dev/sdd1) can vary from one boot to
another or just for good practice you would replace /dev/sdd1 in the
line by UUID=heregoestheuuid (/sbin/blkid /dev/sdd1 to find the uuid).

[Peter Pearson]

On Tue, 16 Dec 2014 12:30:06 +1100, blind Pete <***@gmail.com> wrote:
[snip]

Post by blind Pete
/dev/sdd1 is far too unpredictable for multiple devices in multiple
USB ports. UUID is good for computer generated stuff. LABEL is the
human friendly way to go - if you are smart enough not to use the
same LABEL for two different devices.

There's something I don't understand about using UUID and LABEL. I
think I see why you might want a particular thumbdrive to show up at a
particular point in the filesystem, but does using UUID or LABEL mean
that every time I get a new thumbdrive, I have to edit fstab?

Post by blind Pete
"Defaults" is only a place holder if no other options are specified.
"Users" plural is generally better than "user" singular on a desktop
machine. I prefer "noauto" to "nofail" for thumb drives. See the
man pages for details.

Noted. Thanks.

[mrr]

Post by Peter Pearson
[snip]

Post by blind Pete
/dev/sdd1 is far too unpredictable for multiple devices in multiple
USB ports. UUID is good for computer generated stuff. LABEL is the
human friendly way to go - if you are smart enough not to use the
same LABEL for two different devices.

There's something I don't understand about using UUID and LABEL. I
think I see why you might want a particular thumbdrive to show up at a
particular point in the filesystem, but does using UUID or LABEL mean
that every time I get a new thumbdrive, I have to edit fstab?

Yes!

The uuid is unique for every block device (well, the chance of getting 2
identical uuid is negligible).
Eventually (i do not recommend that!) you could give the same label to 2
different thumbdrives so as to get the same comportment. But you
couldn't plug both at the same time (well couldn't _use_ both is more
precise).

In my case (debian wheezy), as far as the file system is recognized, I
just have to click on a folder in nautilus to mount a key.

Post by Peter Pearson

Post by blind Pete
"Defaults" is only a place holder if no other options are specified.
"Users" plural is generally better than "user" singular on a desktop
machine. I prefer "noauto" to "nofail" for thumb drives. See the
man pages for details.

Noted. Thanks.

----
mrr

[Aragorn]

On Tuesday 16 December 2014 06:21, Peter Pearson conveyed the following
to alt.os.linux...

Post by Peter Pearson

Post by blind Pete
/dev/sdd1 is far too unpredictable for multiple devices in multiple
USB ports. UUID is good for computer generated stuff. LABEL is the
human friendly way to go - if you are smart enough not to use the
same LABEL for two different devices.

There's something I don't understand about using UUID and LABEL. I
think I see why you might want a particular thumbdrive to show up at a
particular point in the filesystem, but does using UUID or LABEL mean
that every time I get a new thumbdrive, I have to edit fstab?

That depends on what you want to accomplish. If you want to assign
different mountpoints for different thumb drives and you like manual
mounting, then it is best to record a line for each of the different
thumb drives in /etc/fstab, using their UUID or a LABEL.

If on the other hand, you like the whole automounting stuff, then you
don't even need to have the device listed in /etc/fstab, because then
udisks will take care of mounting the device, but then it will of course
always be mounted on some mountpoint chosen by udisks. In theory,
removable storage devices should be mounted at some directory under
/media, but I've already seen GNU/Linux distributions which have systemd
as the init system mount thumb drives under /run/media or some other
bizarre location in the tree.


P.S.: I haven't read through the entire thread, but from my own
experience, I know that thumb drives often come with a misaligned
partition, which is why the operating system may refuse to
mount said partition.

I had it happen here only about two weeks ago or so. I wasn't
trying to mount the thumb drive but I wanted to create an ext2
filesystem on it as I have no use for any variant of FAT or NTFS
and I wanted a filesystem which respects and preserves POSIX file
ownerships and permissions. However, as it turned out, the FAT32
partition on the device was misaligned, both front and end. Even
cfdisk wouldn't touch it, so I had to use good old fdisk to clear
the partition table and then I created a new partition, leaving
more room at the front and at the rear, and then I created an ext2
filesystem on it, and now it's usable.

[Bit Twister]

Post by Peter Pearson
There's something I don't understand about using UUID and LABEL. I
think I see why you might want a particular thumbdrive to show up at a
particular point in the filesystem, but does using UUID or LABEL mean
that every time I get a new thumbdrive, I have to edit fstab?

Depends. Using UUID in fstab will always mount that media at desired
mount point given in fstab.

Every time you wipe that drive and reformat it, you get a new UUID and
you have to go back and edit fstab. :(

If you always label your thumb drive with same label, no extra editing
of fstab is required when using labels.

I don't have problems with my mounts. Then again, it may depend on
distribution and in my case, all the different groups I have added to
my account is probably keeping me out of that particular ditch.
You know, adm, disk, cdrom, usb, ....

$ id
uid=1500(bittwister) gid=1500(bittwister) groups=1500(bittwister),4(adm),
6(disk),7(lp),19(floppy),20(games),22(cdrom),43(usb),80(cdwriter),
81(audio),82(video),83(dialout),92(pulse-access),413(wireshark),
414(mlocate),415(ctools),416(ntools),419(scanner),998(systemd-journal),
1599(vboxusers)

[crankypuss]

Post by Bit Twister

Post by Peter Pearson
There's something I don't understand about using UUID and LABEL. I
think I see why you might want a particular thumbdrive to show up at a
particular point in the filesystem, but does using UUID or LABEL mean
that every time I get a new thumbdrive, I have to edit fstab?

Depends. Using UUID in fstab will always mount that media at desired
mount point given in fstab.
Every time you wipe that drive and reformat it, you get a new UUID and
you have to go back and edit fstab. :(

Just FYI, you don't really /have/ to go back and edit fstab for ext2,
ext3, or ext4 filesystem; if you write down the old UUID before
formatting the partition, you can set the UUID to whatever it used to be
that is listed in fstab. See "man tune2fs", in particular the -U
option. For other filesystem types I don't know of any way to set the
UUID, but some might exist.

[William Unruh]

Post by Peter Pearson
[snip]

Post by blind Pete
/dev/sdd1 is far too unpredictable for multiple devices in multiple
USB ports. UUID is good for computer generated stuff. LABEL is the
human friendly way to go - if you are smart enough not to use the
same LABEL for two different devices.

There's something I don't understand about using UUID and LABEL. I
think I see why you might want a particular thumbdrive to show up at a
particular point in the filesystem, but does using UUID or LABEL mean
that every time I get a new thumbdrive, I have to edit fstab?

Yes. Or label all thumbdrives the same.

Post by Peter Pearson

Post by blind Pete
"Defaults" is only a place holder if no other options are specified.
"Users" plural is generally better than "user" singular on a desktop
machine. I prefer "noauto" to "nofail" for thumb drives. See the
man pages for details.

Noted. Thanks.

[crankypuss]

Post by blind Pete

Post by William Unruh

Post by mrr

Post by William Unruh

Post by Peter Pearson
When I attempt to mount a thumbdrive, a small window entitled "Mount
Failed" pops up on my desktop, saying "Failed to mount 'USB20FD'" and
"Not Authorized". What authorization is missing?

You could try to make /media rwx for everyone.
You could look at /dev/sd* to see whether a new device pops up and then
as root to
mkdir /media/usb
mount /dev/sdd1 /media/usb
where you replace sdd1 with the correct device.

/dev/sdd1 /media/MyThumbDrive ext4 defaults 0 0

Well assuming it is sdd1 and is ext4 and you probably want to add
defaults,user,nofail
to the options, since without the nofail, the boot under systemd will
not work at all, and you will either be dumped into the systemd recovery
mode, or will be left with a blank page to stare at. And without the
user, only root will be able to mount it. And if it is a vfat usb
thumbdrive, it will not work, and if it gets labeled as something other
than sdd1 then it also will not help.

/dev/sdd1 is far too unpredictable for multiple devices in multiple
USB ports. UUID is good for computer generated stuff. LABEL is the
human friendly way to go - if you are smart enough not to use the
same LABEL for two different devices.
"Defaults" is only a place holder if no other options are specified.
"Users" plural is generally better than "user" singular on a desktop
machine. I prefer "noauto" to "nofail" for thumb drives. See the
man pages for details.

Post by William Unruh
It is much nicer if that junk is all handled automatically rather that
through fstab.

Yes, as long as the system architect agrees with you about a few
little details.

Post by William Unruh

Post by mrr
Well, that line can be tweaked, you can find all the info in the man
page of mount or fstab.
If the special block device (/dev/sdd1) can vary from one boot to
another or just for good practice you would replace /dev/sdd1 in the
line by UUID=heregoestheuuid (/sbin/blkid /dev/sdd1 to find the uuid).

Sorry to be "negative" but all that (though offhand it looks correct) is
kind of brute-force imo; the OP is (as I read it) expecting the
thumb-drive in question to be auto-mounted just like any other thumb-drive.

The problem is the authorization failure. The first thing I would try
is some other thumb-drive. Lots of cheap (crummy) thumb-drives out
there these days. jmo.

[mrr]

Post by crankypuss

Post by blind Pete
Yes, as long as the system architect agrees with you about a few
little details.

Post by mrr
Well, that line can be tweaked, you can find all the info in the man
page of mount or fstab.
If the special block device (/dev/sdd1) can vary from one boot to
another or just for good practice you would replace /dev/sdd1 in the
line by UUID=heregoestheuuid (/sbin/blkid /dev/sdd1 to find the uuid).

Sorry to be "negative" but all that (though offhand it looks correct) is
kind of brute-force imo; the OP is (as I read it) expecting the
thumb-drive in question to be auto-mounted just like any other thumb-drive.
The problem is the authorization failure. The first thing I would try
is some other thumb-drive. Lots of cheap (crummy) thumb-drives out
there these days. jmo.

I would largely agree with you if the automounting feature was reliable
which i have to admit is usually the case. Also I have sometime keys
mounted with root:root permissions which is disagreeable.

But more importantly is the "passing" of options like nodev, noexec,
relatime..., how can one achieve this without fstab (some kind of hack
of udev?). Well I guess you can usually go with the defaults the system
gives you.
For automounting of ntfs volumes to work in debian wheezy you need to
recompile fuse with set-uid root permission.

I kept the 1st sentence of this reply (thanks to blind Pete) which I
feel is important to state.

And you're not negative, you're constructive, if you agree completely
with me there is no fun :)

--
mrr

[crankypuss]

Post by mrr

Post by crankypuss

Post by blind Pete
Yes, as long as the system architect agrees with you about a few
little details.

Post by mrr
Well, that line can be tweaked, you can find all the info in the man
page of mount or fstab.
If the special block device (/dev/sdd1) can vary from one boot to
another or just for good practice you would replace /dev/sdd1 in the
line by UUID=heregoestheuuid (/sbin/blkid /dev/sdd1 to find the uuid).

Sorry to be "negative" but all that (though offhand it looks correct) is
kind of brute-force imo; the OP is (as I read it) expecting the
thumb-drive in question to be auto-mounted just like any other thumb-drive.
The problem is the authorization failure. The first thing I would try
is some other thumb-drive. Lots of cheap (crummy) thumb-drives out
there these days. jmo.

I would largely agree with you if the automounting feature was reliable
which i have to admit is usually the case. Also I have sometime keys
mounted with root:root permissions which is disagreeable.
But more importantly is the "passing" of options like nodev, noexec,
relatime..., how can one achieve this without fstab (some kind of hack
of udev?). Well I guess you can usually go with the defaults the system
gives you.
For automounting of ntfs volumes to work in debian wheezy you need to
recompile fuse with set-uid root permission.
I kept the 1st sentence of this reply (thanks to blind Pete) which I
feel is important to state.
And you're not negative, you're constructive, if you agree completely
with me there is no fun :)
--
mrr

I wouldn't want you to run short on fun, but there's not much more I can
offer. I'm still (after 2 years using linux) a linux bozo, if I
couldn't figure out how to get the default automount stuff working
properly, I'd sit down and write a PHP script to watch for new block
devices and mount them the way I wanted them mounted, maybe popping up a
screen to ask the user. But I'm running Ubuntu 11.10 at the moment and
I haven't had any problems with the automount functionality so it hasn't
been necessary for me to learn as much as most of the other posters
know. Good luck figuring it all out. <g>

[Peter Pearson]

. . . I'm still (after 2 years using linux) a linux bozo, if I
couldn't figure out how to get the default automount stuff working
properly, I'd sit down and write a PHP script to watch for new block
devices and mount them the way I wanted them mounted, maybe popping up a
screen to ask the user.

Yes, as my eyes lost focus trying to find an intelligible starting
point in the autofs documentation, that's exactly the thought that
invaded my mind, except that it was Python.