From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Mar 28 12:55:05 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A82E516A4CE for ; Sun, 28 Mar 2004 12:55:05 -0800 (PST) Received: from cromagnon.cullmail.com (cromagnon.cullmail.com [67.33.58.202]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3C95E43D3F for ; Sun, 28 Mar 2004 12:55:05 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from jamoore@cromagnon.cullmail.com) Received: from cromagnon.cullmail.com (localhost.cullmail.com [127.0.0.1]) i2SKw37x002312; Sun, 28 Mar 2004 14:58:03 -0600 (CST) (envelope-from jamoore@cromagnon.cullmail.com) Received: from localhost (localhost [[UNIX: localhost]]) by cromagnon.cullmail.com (8.12.10/8.12.10/Submit) id i2SKw3V2002311; Sun, 28 Mar 2004 14:58:03 -0600 (CST) (envelope-from jamoore) From: Jay Moore To: Malcolm Kay Date: Sun, 28 Mar 2004 14:58:01 -0600 User-Agent: KMail/1.5.4 References: <200403272013.40447.jaymo@cromagnon.cullmail.com> <200403281614.53868.malcolm.kay@internode.on.net> In-Reply-To: <200403281614.53868.malcolm.kay@internode.on.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Message-Id: <200403281458.02053.jaymo@cromagnon.cullmail.com> cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: automounting cd-rom & cd-rw devices X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list Reply-To: jaymo@cromagnon.cullmail.com List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 28 Mar 2004 20:55:05 -0000 On Sunday 28 March 2004 12:44 am, Malcolm Kay wrote: > On Sunday 28 March 2004 11:43, Jay Moore wrote: > > I have a FreeBSD 4.9 system; I am also running KDE... > > > > I'm building this system for my son (college student) ... > > ................... how to make the cd-rw & cd-rom devices > > usable without requiring him to start a root shell and mount/umount these > > devices. > > 1) Should I automount cd's? > > Depends what you mean by auto-mount Good point... I guess what I'd really meant is automount in the Windoze sense of the word; i.e. if I put a music cd in I can play music, if I put a data cd in I can read the files. I (regular joe user) don't have to su, or sudo to mount the device, and if I put a music cd in I don't cause a panic by trying to mount the device as a file system. In short, I want an automount that can figure out whether I've got a music cd or a file system, and "do the right thing". > > 2) What is the "best way" to allow ordinary users to mount cd's? > > The best way is inevitably a matter of opinion. > But it can be done without installing any additional ports. I found a fairly complete (although slightly dated) recipe for using the amd and sysctl functions to handle automounting for regular users at this URL: http://www.daemonnews.org/200202/automounting.html But there are two things that concern me: 1) once the file system cd is mounted, a fixed amount of "no activity" time must pass before it is umount'd 2) security implications ?!! Item 1) is a concern mostly 'cause it's just kind of kludge ("oh yeah, I have to wait for 60 seconds before I can eject my data cd"). Item 2) is a concern 'cause college campuses are the most hostile network environments I've ever seen. I don't mean to sound critical (really)... maybe there's just no good way to do this in FreeBSD. If that's the case, maybe WinXP is the best route for the "average user". Thanks, Jay