hotplug/automount/autofs

Forum: Other Help Topics
Topic: hotplug/automount/autofs
started by: KarlMW

Posted by KarlMW on Sep. 26 2007,08:05

I'm trying to setup automount for arbitrary USB drives. ie. plug in a drive that I've never seen before and have it mounted somewhere intelligent (maybe on a mountpoint according to its label, maybe according to what port it's plugged into - the particular mountpoint is not important)

It appears that DSL 3.4.3 has some of the mechanism in place, but some of it is missing. There is an /etc/init.d/autofs script and various config files, but the daemon binary /usr/sbin/automount is not present, so the init script silently exits.

Is there a fix to get autofs to work, or am I merely seeing the remnants of something that was meant to be removed? (or have I done something really stupid?)

(Note: I could glue enough together to work with hotplug, but the problem that automount would nicely address is the auto-unmount after a period of inactivity. The drive needs to be removable with no warning other than the fact that no-one is using it.)

thanks,
Karl.

Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on Sep. 26 2007,15:41

This, among several threads, might be of interest: < http://damnsmalllinux.org/cgi-bin....t=18297 >
I think someone did succesfully use supermount though...

Posted by curaga on Sep. 26 2007,15:58

If you're able to compile your own kernel, look into supermount. It automounts any device when it is accessed, and umounts it the second it's not accessed, so it can be removed.

Or you could take back the automounting from a Knoppix 3.4 iso..

Posted by KarlMW on Sep. 27 2007,05:51

Thanks for the suggestions. I looked into supermount (I presume you mean supermount-ng - it appears that original supermount is not around anymore). It appears that supermount doesn't support multi-partition devices, which is something I require (and failed to mention before). From the readme (http://sourceforge.net/docman/display_doc.php?docid=16857&group_id=79609) :

Quote

Media management for multi-partition devices (like SCSI disks or, possibly, ide-floppy) is broken - it does not into account that several partitions may be opened at the same time.

As for reinstating the automount stuff from a Knoppix 3.4 iso, that leads to the question of where does one find a copy of Knoppix 3.4 these days? The earliest I can find is 3.6, although I did find a DVD iso for 3.4, (http://ftp.caliu.info/pub/distribucions/knoppix-remaster/knoppix-V3.4-dvd/) so that 2.1Gig download may be the next best bet.

Posted by curaga on Sep. 27 2007,14:53

If you google for the exact filename (eg knoppix-3.4-*insert the release date here*.iso) you will find some that are still online.. Sorry I don't remember the date right now, but that should be easy to google

Posted by KarlMW on Oct. 08 2007,23:34

thanks - I googled for KNOPPIX_V3.4-2004-05-10-EN.iso and found a few places.
eg. < http://mirror.etf.bg.ac.yu/distributions/knoppix/ >
and < http://ftp.kfki.hu/linux/knoppix/ >