Re: Of removable devices

[Jeff Garzik]

Horst von Brand wrote:
> 
> Jeff Garzik <[e-mail]> said:
> > Dominik Kubla wrote:
> > > First:  There is something called vold (SUN haters please keep quiet)
> > >         for Linux too for management of removable media.  No need to
> > >         patch the kernel as far as i know (i don't use this stuff).
> 
> > I like the Sun method... at least a lot better than supermount.  :)
> >
> > CD insert -> automount
> > CD eject -> command "eject cd"
> 
> OK. But AFAIR Sun just hangs when you insert an audio CD...

audiofs

> > Floppy insert -> 'volcheck' causes mount
> 
> And hangs hard (or screams at you) if it happens not to be formatted, or
> part of a multivolume tarball, or a non-MSDOS diskette. At least some
> versions of SunOS got wedged and the floppy drive became unusable until the
> next reboot.

I never had a hang, maybe you should apply patches.  :)

One expects an unformatted disk or unrecognizable format to fail in some
way.

> > Floppy eject -> command "eject floppy" (and mechanically eject if
> > necessary)
> 
> Mechanically retaining the floppy is not there for PCs, sorry.

ya think?

> This idea sounds nice, but is _extremly_ hard to get to work right. How do
> you format a diskette with this kind of setup? Do a rawrite? Create/use
> multivolume tarballs? Handle different (perhaps even alien) filesystems,
> esp. one that is handled by userlevel programs (something like mtools(1))?

if mounted by vold: use as mounted fs
if not mounted: use device directly, 'fdformat /dev/fd0' etc.

How difficult is that?

vold, volcheck and other Solaris tools are really minimal extensions to
automount.  No big deal or rocket science, and not hard to get right. 
The toughest thing is training the users...

-- 
Jeff Garzik         | Writing software is
Building 1024       | more fun than working.
MandrakeSoft, Inc.  | 	-Anon