mountpoints of removable drives or CDs/DVDs are not removed when media has been ejected

[Kai Stempfle]

Binary package hint: gnome-volume-manager

When a new removable drive or CD/DVD is inserted, mountpoints with the names of the volumes' labels are created respectively at /media/. But these folders are never removed when media has been ejected. Neither are existing mountpoints reused. This results in multiple mountpoint-creation at /media/.
For example, when you have inserted and ejected a CD with the volume label Ubuntu five times, five different mountpoints will have been created at /media/:
Ubuntu, Ubuntu_, Ubuntu__, Ubuntu___, Ubuntu____

Mountpoints for removable drives should either be reused or deleted on device disconnect / media eject.

test case:
Insert a CD with the volume label LABEL to your CD-Drive.
A mountpoint named LABEL is created at /media/.
Eject the CD and reinsert it, now a mountpoint named LABEL_ will be created at /media/.

$ lsb_release -cdr
Description: Ubuntu hardy (development branch)
Release: 8.04
Codename: hardy

$ sudo dpkg -s gnome-volume-manager
Package: gnome-volume-manager
Status: install ok installed
Priority: optional
Section: gnome
Installed-Size: 3140
Maintainer: Martin Pitt <email address hidden>
Architecture: i386
Version: 2.22.1-1ubuntu5
Depends: gconf2 (>= 2.10.1-2), gnome-mount, hal (>= 0.5.5.1), libart-2.0-2 (>= 2.3.18), libatk1.0-0 (>= 1.20.0), libbonobo2-0 (>= 2.15.0), libbonoboui2-0 (>= 2.15.1), libc6 (>= 2.4), libcairo2 (>= 1.5.14), libdbus-1-3 (>= 1.1.1), libdbus-glib-1-2 (>= 0.74), libgconf2-4 (>= 2.13.5), libglade2-0 (>= 1:2.6.1), libglib2.0-0 (>= 2.16.0), libgnome2-0 (>= 2.17.3), libgnomecanvas2-0 (>= 2.11.1), libgnomeui-0 (>= 2.17.1), libgnomevfs2-0 (>= 1:2.17.90), libgtk2.0-0 (>= 2.12.0), libhal1 (>= 0.5.8.1), libice6 (>= 1:1.0.0), libnotify1 (>= 0.4.4), libnotify1-gtk2.10, liborbit2 (>= 1:2.14.10), libpango1.0-0 (>= 1.20.0), libpopt0 (>= 1.10), libsm6, libx11-6, libxml2
Recommends: nautilus-cd-burner, sound-juicer, totem
Suggests: rhythmbox, wine, xsane
Conflicts: magicdev
Conffiles:
 /etc/xdg/autostart/gnome-volume-manager.desktop 69c88b0de8769697df812d1b1db8e67f
Description: GNOME daemon to auto-mount and manage media devices
 gnome-volume-manager is a GNOME daemon that acts as a policy agent on
 top of the kernel, udev, D-Bus and HAL. It listens to HAL events and
 reacts with user-configurable actions. Currently it supports automount
 of new media and hot-plugged devices, autorun, autoplay for CDs and
 DVDs, and automatic camera management. It is expected to be simple and
 free of polling and other evil hacks.
Original-Maintainer: Sjoerd Simons <email address hidden>

[Swuboo (swuboo)]

This problem doesn't affect optical disks for me, but it affects both my removable hard drive and my NTFS partition. I suspect that in my case, the problem is occurring whenever a partition is not unmounted cleanly--- i.e. when my housemates microwave popcorn and the breaker blows.

$ lsb_release -cdr
Description: Ubuntu hardy (development branch)
Release: 8.04
Codename: hardy

$ sudo dpkg -s gnome-volume-manager
Package: gnome-volume-manager
Status: install ok installed
Priority: optional
Section: gnome
Installed-Size: 3160
Maintainer: Martin Pitt <email address hidden>
Architecture: amd64
Version: 2.22.1-1ubuntu5
Depends: gconf2 (>= 2.10.1-2), gnome-mount, hal (>= 0.5.5.1), libart-2.0-2 (>= 2.3.18), libatk1.0-0 (>= 1.20.0), libbonobo2-0 (>= 2.15.0), libbonoboui2-0 (>= 2.15.1), libc6 (>= 2.4), libcairo2 (>= 1.5.14), libdbus-1-3 (>= 1.1.1), libdbus-glib-1-2 (>= 0.74), libgconf2-4 (>= 2.13.5), libglade2-0 (>= 1:2.6.1), libglib2.0-0 (>= 2.16.0), libgnome2-0 (>= 2.17.3), libgnomecanvas2-0 (>= 2.11.1), libgnomeui-0 (>= 2.17.1), libgnomevfs2-0 (>= 1:2.17.90), libgtk2.0-0 (>= 2.12.0), libhal1 (>= 0.5.8.1), libice6 (>= 1:1.0.0), libnotify1 (>= 0.4.4), libnotify1-gtk2.10, liborbit2 (>= 1:2.14.10), libpango1.0-0 (>= 1.20.0), libpopt0 (>= 1.10), libsm6, libx11-6, libxml2
Recommends: nautilus-cd-burner, sound-juicer, totem
Suggests: rhythmbox, wine, xsane
Conflicts: magicdev
Conffiles:
 /etc/xdg/autostart/gnome-volume-manager.desktop 69c88b0de8769697df812d1b1db8e67f
Description: GNOME daemon to auto-mount and manage media devices
 gnome-volume-manager is a GNOME daemon that acts as a policy agent on
 top of the kernel, udev, D-Bus and HAL. It listens to HAL events and
 reacts with user-configurable actions. Currently it supports automount
 of new media and hot-plugged devices, autorun, autoplay for CDs and
 DVDs, and automatic camera management. It is expected to be simple and
 free of polling and other evil hacks.
Original-Maintainer: Sjoerd Simons <email address hidden>

[Swuboo (swuboo)]

Addendum to previous comment:

While the external USB drive accumulated mountpoints with prepended underscores as in the original report, the internal NTFS partition accumulated them in the format, "disk", "disk-1", "disk-2". Cleanly unmounting the partition removed the highest numbered mountpoint, and re-mounting re-created it. The format I have there might be slightly off---I removed the redundant mountpoints earlier, and I am not presently inclined to uncleanly unmount my NTFS partition intentionally.