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List:       gentoo-dev
Subject:    Re: [gentoo-dev]  Re: USB disks - idea/question
From:       Raymond Lewis Rebbeck <dystopianray () gmail ! com>
Date:       2006-12-22 23:56:44
Message-ID: 200612231014.44784.dystopianray () gmail ! com
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On Saturday, 23 December 2006 10:08, Sven Köhler wrote:
> Raymond Lewis Rebbeck schrieb:
> > On Saturday, 23 December 2006 2:40, Sven Köhler wrote:
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> so as you plugin a USB-disk, the kernel will recognize it, and it will
> >> be called sda, sdb, sdc or whatever ...
> >>
> >> I don't like that - why doesn't it get some more usefull device-name?
> >> Some device name, that
> >> a) indicates, that it is usb (for example put them to /dev/usb) and
> >> b) uses a numering not depending on how many harddisk there are in the
> >> system
> >>
> >> So for example /dev/usb/uda could be a symlink to /dev/sdb,
> >> /dev/usb/uda1 a symlink to /dev/sdb1 etc.
> >> (In this case, sda would be a normal harddisk, which is the reason why
> >> the usb-device is sdb)
> >>
> >>
> >> So i don't know any other distribution doing it like that. So what do
> >> you think?
> >> - is it possible?
> >> - is it a good idea?
> >> - is it such a good idea, so that gentoo becomes the first distribution
> >> doing it?
> >> - is it a bad idea to differ from all the other distros out there?
> >>
> >>
> >> Thanks,
> >>   Sven
> >
> > Take a look at the contents of /dev/disk/ or if you don't like that, read
> > up on writing your own udev rules and you can give devices whatever
> > device node you want.
>
> /dev/disk is tooo fine grained.
>
> Imagine, i would be an administrator of lots of Linux-PCs in an
> unversity. What do i know about the label, uuid, path or id of the
> usb-stick that the user plugs into an arbitrary USB-plug of the computer?
>
> Well, not enough to use /dev/disk actually:
>
> i don't know the label
> i don't know the exact path
> i don't know the id
> and i guess i also don't know the uuid.
>
> So if i wanted to create a mountpoint for the first three usb mass
> storage devices (asuming, they only have one partition, as usual), i
> wouldn't be abled to do it.
>
>
> I will write my own udev-rules then - that's alright for me.
>
>
> Thanks for the hints/suggestions to all who answered!
>
>
> Greetings,
>   Sven

If you're using KDE or Gnome use dbus and hal to allow users to mount 
removeable drives without fstab entries or if you're not using KDE or Gnome 
you can use pmount to the same effect. These will allow users to mount any 
removeable drives they insert into the computer without anyone having to care 
what device node the device is using.

-- 
Raymond Lewis Rebbeck

-- 
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