From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Apr 15 13:50:43 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0B3021065670 for ; Wed, 15 Apr 2009 13:50:43 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from sonic2000gr@gmail.com) Received: from mail-bw0-f164.google.com (mail-bw0-f164.google.com [209.85.218.164]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 54D5F8FC0A for ; Wed, 15 Apr 2009 13:50:42 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from sonic2000gr@gmail.com) Received: by bwz8 with SMTP id 8so2967867bwz.43 for ; Wed, 15 Apr 2009 06:50:41 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from :user-agent:mime-version:to:cc:subject:references:in-reply-to :content-type:content-transfer-encoding; bh=p47O3oj9tv76P4485Ov4w1Qbyf9TlbC/s4G+kActd/c=; b=fdxjLrN1N2lE8TDFYwCRAihCZWDtaKYLL3hVo1BBcKtrfRD5iovQFbiUFj/0/lJ3jl amcaCwmigkGOnR5uwzPkpct8G/jh5IFt+zz4quiuZ5w42pTKkYLvCQ1KlxJw5M5jL2m4 aCxv9tWlm+qRZUpkhLmYfXx7xhGPxNNtyCcSM= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=message-id:date:from:user-agent:mime-version:to:cc:subject :references:in-reply-to:content-type:content-transfer-encoding; b=wDDK36yRB6iDL6htOsmf5VtJg1J2LnSAiP1lfbiOdJFD01DLUs/qewAr02QmIsxcJJ ZXnGzjKEyEZ0aNMuvydQmnDSSXaeV82sENeisZNRIF7jfYr8sDFKnQIPOB1d55c+nSke /HFqeONk6f7z0MFulGMUk2zP9nM2KBSA7wBh4= Received: by 10.204.77.67 with SMTP id f3mr232259bkk.75.1239803441344; Wed, 15 Apr 2009 06:50:41 -0700 (PDT) Received: from atlantis.dyndns.org (athedsl-4488268.home.otenet.gr [94.71.72.84]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id d13sm8229839fka.0.2009.04.15.06.50.39 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=RC4-MD5); Wed, 15 Apr 2009 06:50:40 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <49E5E62E.3010906@gmail.com> Date: Wed, 15 Apr 2009 16:50:38 +0300 From: Manolis Kiagias User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.21 (X11/20090405) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Odhiambo Washington References: <991123400904150450p56d24ba5vcd15de8c34096ab0@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <991123400904150450p56d24ba5vcd15de8c34096ab0@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: "mail.list freebsd-questions" Subject: Re: Automounting of USB drives - Why is it a problem? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 15 Apr 2009 13:50:43 -0000 Odhiambo Washington wrote: > Hello List, > > For some time now, I have been baffled by one thing: Mac OS X somehow has > FreeBSD under the hood. When you connect a USB stick (flash disk, external > drive) to a Mac, it gets automounted, yet the same does not happen on > FreeBSD. > I have seen several questions being asked on this list about this feature, > but the answer is neither here nor there. > There is even a port (sysutils/automounter) that I believe is supposed to > help towards this, but again it's not as easy as it seems to be. > Now my question is just one: Why should it be this difficult for FreeBSD to > have the automount feature within the base system? > If OS X is doing it, Linux is doing it, FreeBSD can do it. > > FreeBSD *can* automount. The problem for the time being is pulling a USB flash drive without unmounting. To automount (assuming you are using something like GNOME or XFCE), you can use the facilities provided by hal and policykit. See this: http://www.freebsd.org/gnome/docs/halfaq.html#q3 (I have also written a complete set of steps for this - currently in Greek only, but I will translate it sooner or later)