Many modern GNU/Linux distribution has an auto mounting feature, which behaves like Microsoft's Windows operating system. It will detect a new devices on the fly as the drives is plugged in (for removable device) or when a CD/DVD is inserted into a CD/DVD ROM drive. Unfortunately, Slackware doesn't provide this kind of feature, until recently, Patrick Volkerding, the Slackware Linux maintainer agreed to include HAL in the -Current Changelog (per 28 May 2007) and compile KDE and XFCE with support to HAL, which makes them able to use Auto Mounting feature in Slackware (only in -Current for now, but it will soon be official when next Slackware is being released).
This article will help you configure your system in order to work with HAL. Please note that i use KDE for this article, even though XFCE is also recompiled with HAL support.
Note : This article assumes that you have used Slackware-Current on your system. If you haven't used Slackware-Current before, you have two options: Upgrade to Slackware-Current or Wait until the next final Slackware released. If you failed to read this note, i don't take any responsibility if your system ends up unusable which force you to reinstall the whole operating system.As stated above, you should have used Slackware-Current up to this point. If that's so, that's good. If not, then please read above notes. OK, let's just continue with the preparation steps. First, it's best to grab the latest batch updates from -Current (at least 30 May 2007, since Pat had released some updates to KDEUTILS, HAL, and D-BUS packages). After finishing the download process, you can continue with installation steps.
Let's start by installing/upgrading all the packages. Make sure you have installed the following packages: etc, kde/*, arts, dbus, dbus-glib, dbus-qt3, hal, hal-info, and qt. Since you are going to upgrade KDE, please do so in text mode or in other window manager (as long as KDE is not running, or even better X Window is not running). For etc, you might want to verify the changes, since it brings new entry in /etc/group and /etc/passwd file. Please make sure you don't delete the old entry, but merged it into the new file or you will lost your account. Are you done? Good, let's continue with configuration steps.
First thing you need is to add your user into some groups (plugdev, video, and power). You can edit your /etc/group password using your favorite text editor and add your username in the last column of the entry (after the last colon). IMHO, only plugdev is required, but since it's been stated in the CHANGES_AND_HINTS, i think it will not hurt also if we add our username in the video and power (you can add more, for example in sound, audio, etc). After saving the changes, run /etc/rc.d/rc.messagebus reload to force D-BUS re-read the configuration file.
Next part is configuring your /etc/fstab file. In normal condition, you would use /etc/fstab to state which devices gets mounted and what options should be used for that particular devices, but since HAL is already here for us, we have two options here:
At this point, Auto Mounting is already turned on. You can start your new KDE by issuing startx from the terminal (assuming you are running on text mode) and try to login with your username. Next, try to insert a CD into your CD/DVD ROM drive or plug a USB Flash Drive into a USB port and see what happened (You might need to wait a few seconds for initializations). By default, all devices will be mounted on /media (not in /mnt anymore). For example, my portable HD is mounted on /media/WD Passport and my flash drive is mounted on /media/kingston.
OK, auto mounting is enabled, but how about unmounting? I don't see any device icons on my desktop!!! How can i unmount the devices? Relax... We will solve that in a moment.
By default, KDE doesn't show a device icons on the desktop, but you can change that in the preferences. Go to your desktop, right click, and choose Configure Desktops > Behaviour. Check the Show Device Icons option. Next, go to Device Icons tab and select Mounted Removable Medium and Unmounted Removable Medium. Press OK and you will see the icons on your desktop. If you want to unmount, you can right click on the icons, and select Safely Remove. That solves your unmount problems
Slackware is getting easier and i think with this features, many people will like the next Slackware release, as auto mounting is one of the lack features in Slackware currently. People wants automation, and Slackware answered it finally.
Last Update : 18 June 2007 :: 23:44:08
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