On Sunday 13 August 2006 08:06, PerfectReign wrote:
M Harris wrote:
hi, I have two questions regarding hot-plugging usb flash devices:
1) May I unplug the device without unmounting it, and not have a problem... or must it be unmounted first?
That depends on who you ask. I've been doing just that for well over a year and have not had an issue. Other will tell you that an unmount is the only way to go.
2) When I right click on the usb drive icon in 'my computer' and click on the entry to 'safely remove' the drive, I receive a message that says only root may unmount the device. How do I setup the hotplug so that any user my unmount the device?
AFAIK, only root can mount/unmount items. However, about a second and a half with google, got me this:
http://sinewalker.wordpress.com/2006/07/31/safely-remove-a-usb-fob-under-su sekde/
(Okay, well it was actually 0.45 seconds - but who's counting?
BTW, unless you're on 9.x, it isn't called "hotplug" anymore. IIRC, it is some other function now.
Thanks very much for the responses. I will play with the recommend from the link above... I tried that approach before--- and I believe it did not work because I did not have the fstab entry specified correctly... so I will try it again. As far as the memory sticks I'm ok with unplugging them... and it doesn't seem to hurt... but I also have a 60BG external drive (usb attached) that I am not comfortable just unplugging without an umount. However, the kernel doesn't complain, and I never receive a message about the drive being shut down uncleanly... so I am a little confused about the difference between unplugging a usb attached file system (reiserfs) without an umount and say powering down a real scsi drive uncleanly.... Also, I would like to know if running the 'sync' command is a safe precaution vs the umount... as long as the drive is in 'sync' is everything ok? Are there still memory control blocks open in the kernel that might cause a lockup? Thanks again guys. -- Kind regards, M Harris <><