Arch Linux

snowball

Member

Registered: 2009-05-07

Posts: 19

[SOLVED] PCManfm doesn't mount external drives

Before I installed Arch the behaviour of PCManfm (when an external drive is connected) when clicked on an external drive was to mount it and to open it. Now it gives an error, unless I use the root account.

When using PCManfm as a user it does not want to mount external usb hard drive. Error is "Directory doesn't exist!" I even chmoded the /media dir to rwxrwxrwx.

But, when I use PCManfm as root, it mounts it correctly. And, only then can I access the drives as a user.

How do I fix this?

Last edited by snowball (2009-06-05 06:35:13)

Army

Member

Registered: 2007-12-07

Posts: 1,784

Re: [SOLVED] PCManfm doesn't mount external drives

Do you start xorg via inittab? Then your .xinitrc should look like this

exec ck-launch-session openbox

The ck-launch-session is the important thing here.

Good luck

snowball

Member

Registered: 2009-05-07

Posts: 19

Re: [SOLVED] PCManfm doesn't mount external drives

What is ck-launch-session? I mean, what does it do?

Last edited by snowball (2009-06-04 08:44:33)

bernarcher

Forum Fellow

From: Germany

Registered: 2009-02-17

Posts: 2,281

Re: [SOLVED] PCManfm doesn't mount external drives

What is ck-launch-session? I mean, what does it do?

It is an integral part of ConsoleKit which in turn belongs to Hal. To quote from the ConsoleKit documentation (/usr/share/doc/consolekit/ConsoleKit_Documentation/index.html):

ConsoleKit is a framework for keeping track of the various users, sessions, and seats present on a system. It provides a mechanism for software to react to changes of any of these items or of any of the metadata associated with them.

Using ck-launch-session (read: "console kit lauch session") enables the console kit operations necessary to let Hal run properly.

---

To know or not to know ...
... the questions remain forever.

Army

Member

Registered: 2007-12-07

Posts: 1,784

Re: [SOLVED] PCManfm doesn't mount external drives

Just search for this here in the forums, it's been discussed a thousand times

Edit: Try it first with simply adding this to .xinitrc. For some people (like me) this is enough, some others have to edit the PolicyKit.conf. In case the ck-launch-session entry doesn't solve your problem, search for PolicyKit.conf here, you'll find many many suggestions or (better) consider the wiki

Last edited by Army (2009-06-04 11:22:09)

madalu

Member

Registered: 2009-05-05

Posts: 217

Re: [SOLVED] PCManfm doesn't mount external drives

I substituted gamin for fam and disks now mount fine in pcmanfm without modifying the exec openbox-session line.

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Gamin

snowball

Member

Registered: 2009-05-07

Posts: 19

Re: [SOLVED] PCManfm doesn't mount external drives

I have gamin installed. But, I guess I can give the .xinitrc method a go...

skottish

Forum Fellow

From: Here

Registered: 2006-06-16

Posts: 7,942

Re: [SOLVED] PCManfm doesn't mount external drives

I don't use ck-launch-session with openbox, I just use exec openbox-session, and pcmanfm mounts everything just fine. Well, that was after setting up policykit.

snowball

Member

Registered: 2009-05-07

Posts: 19

Re: [SOLVED] PCManfm doesn't mount external drives

skottish,
want to share the policykit lines that pertain to pcmanfm mounting everything just fine?

skottish

Forum Fellow

From: Here

Registered: 2006-06-16

Posts: 7,942

Re: [SOLVED] PCManfm doesn't mount external drives

Sure. I highly recommend changing your user name to something other than 'skottish' though

/etc/PolicyKit/PolicyKit.conf

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!-- -*- XML -*- -->

<!DOCTYPE pkconfig PUBLIC "-//freedesktop//DTD PolicyKit Configuration 1.0//EN"
"http://hal.freedesktop.org/releases/PolicyKit/1.0/config.dtd">

<!-- See the manual page PolicyKit.conf(5) for file format -->

<config version="0.1">
    <match user="skottish"> <!-- replace with your login or delete the line if you want to allow all users to manipulate devices (keep security issues in mind though) -->
        <match action="org.freedesktop.hal.storage.*">
            <return result="yes"/>
        </match>
        <match action="hal-storage-mount-fixed-extra-options"> <!-- for internal devices mounted with extra options like a wished mount point -->
            <return result="yes" />
        </match>
        <match action="hal-storage-mount-removable-extra-options"> <!-- for external devices mounted with extra options like a wished mount point -->
            <return result="yes" />
        </match>
    </match>
</config>

snowball

Member

Registered: 2009-05-07

Posts: 19

Re: [SOLVED] PCManfm doesn't mount external drives

skottish,
I saw that I actually put that in earlier. Except I didn't have "match user", I had "match group". I just deleted that line altogether and it works now, nicely.

Thanks.

skottish

Forum Fellow

From: Here

Registered: 2006-06-16

Posts: 7,942

Re: [SOLVED] PCManfm doesn't mount external drives

skottish,
I saw that I actually put that in earlier. Except I didn't have "match user", I had "match group". I just deleted that line altogether and it works now, nicely.

Thanks.

You're welcome. Please mark threads as [SOLVED] if you're done with them.