[NBLUG/talk] Hotplug for Linux novices

[Lincoln Peters]

On Fri, 2005-07-29 at 14:59 -0700, Troy Arnold wrote:
> On Fri, Jul 29, 2005 at 02:27:36PM -0700, Lincoln Peters wrote:
> > I'd like to set up a Linux box (Debian/Sarge) so that it automatically
> > creates and removes mount points, fstab entries, and desktop shortcuts
> > (using KDE) for storage devices as they become available.  Thus, if I
> > was to plug in a USB flash drive:
> 
> Using autofs, you can fairly easily script pretty much any behaviour
> that you want.  There's an autofs fanboy at greenfly.org that has some
> helpful stuff online ;-)

I see.  However, it looks like this is just a solution to using
removable media without having to mount/umount it manually, which is not
necessarily what I'm looking for.  What I'm actually looking for is a
way to easily handle removable (esp. USB and/or FireWire) drives
WITHOUT having to modify the fstab or manually mount them.  

For example, if I was to plug in the memory card reader for my digital
camera, I'd expect an icon to appear on the KDE desktop, even if there
is no media in the reader (the creation of a mount point and fstab entry
would occur in the background, out of sight of the user).  I could then
use the icon to mount a card I would later insert, and umount it prior
to removing it.


Of course, if I could set up autofs as described on greenfly.org, make
the icon instead appear when media was inserted into the reader, and
only disappear when the media had been removed, that would also fit my
needs.  However, I suspect that such a solution would be more
complicated than my current goal, so I'm not inclined to try it just
yet.

---
Lincoln Peters
<sampln at sbcglobal.net>

Oh, love is real enough, you will find it some day, but it has one
arch-enemy -- and that is life.
		-- Jean Anouilh, "Ardele"