floppy mounting fails (gnome), please backport fix to breezy-updates

[magilus]

When mounting floppy over Places -> Computer -> Floppy it fails.

The following error appears:

Unable to mount the selected volume.
Error: given UDI is not a mountable volume

When mounting in a terminal it mounts correctly.

/etc/fstab:
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/hda4 / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
/dev/hda3 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/hdc /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 ro,user,noauto 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto 0 0

[magilus (magilus)]

I use Breezy, upgraded from Hoary with Gnome.

[Dennis Kaarsemaker (dennis)]

Thank you for your report. Can you mount the floppy wifh mount /dev/fd0? Can you
also please attach the output of fdisk -l /dev/fd0

[Patrick G (patgsp)]

The same happens to me, just as Description.
I'm using Breezy.
My floppy mounts if i use pmount /dev/fd0 or mount -t vfat /dev/fd0 /media/floppy.
BTW, I also tried using vfat instead of auto in /etc/fstab as i'd done in Hoary.
In Hoary the problem was solved but Breezy doesn't care...

[Jan Michael Ibanez (jmibanez)]

Created an attachment (id=4584)
Output of lshal

Output of lshal. This also happens on my end. Looks like it can be traced to
HAL + Project Utopia, as I understand from the error message details.

[Jan Michael Ibanez (jmibanez)]

(From update of attachment 4584)
As a comparison, on Hoary, the floppy has a different UDI. Will have to check
as soon as I get my hands on a Hoary installation.

[Jan Michael Ibanez (jmibanez)]

Created an attachment (id=4585)
Output of lshal, on Hoary (same/similar) hardware

Output of lshal on a box with the same/similar hardware specs, this time on
Hoary.

[Jan Michael Ibanez (jmibanez)]

Created an attachment (id=4586)
lshal output (floppy-only): Breezy

[Jan Michael Ibanez (jmibanez)]

Created an attachment (id=4587)
lshal output (floppy-only): Hoary

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

Already discussed in IRC, but for the records:

The floppy device does not have a volume node, only a storage node, since the
actual floppy disk is not discovered by hotplug. So if libhal_volume_from_udi(
hal_ctx, udi ) returns NULL, pmount-hal should check if it is a storage device,
and also check storage.no_partitions_hint = true.

In Hoary this works since gnome-vfs directly called pmount instead of pmount-hal
(which does not respect device labels, and such).

[Jorge Peixoto de Morais Neto (jorgepeixoto)]

I confirm, both in the sense that the exat same thing happens to me and in the
sense that I googled for it and found forums posts, with no instructions to fix
unfortunately.
In the forums, someone complained that this also happens with data cds. I have
noticed that if there is no cd in the drive or if a cd has just been put into
the drive, that message shows when you click on the cd icon on my computer.
However, the cd gets mounted automatically after some seconds and then the
fautly behaviour disappears.

I installed Hoary from the preview cd six months ago; recently I dist-upgraded
to Breezy preview and then to real Breezy, which is what I`m using.

Bug 23960 should me marked as a duplicate of this.

[Rafał Próchniak (burlap)]

Confirmed here (Breezy upgraded from Hoary)

This post http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=398755&postcount=5 gives a
temporary (current session only) solution:
1- sudo /etc/init.d/dbus restart
2 - gnome-volume-manager &
3 - killall gnome-panel
4 - killall nautilus

After doing this floppy mounts via nautilus.

Of course, it may be useless in general, but may provide some clues.

[Patrick G (patgsp)]

Perhaps the temporary solution posted in Comment # 11 and Ubuntuforums kills too
many things. For example, usb shuttles or drives no longer mount. My silly idea
is change auto to vfat in /etc/fstab and use a launcher on the desktop or top
panel to mount floppies (command: pmount /dev/fd0).

I've just done that, and I'm waiting for things to be sorted out with pmount-hal.

As Comment #9, I think pmount and pmount-hal are the bad guys. As a test, I
swapped the file names and everything (floppy, usb devices and cd) mounted via
nautilus (not auto-mount, just clicking on it)

[Diego Woitasen (diegows)]

(In reply to comment #12)
> Perhaps the temporary solution posted in Comment # 11 and Ubuntuforums kills too
> many things. For example, usb shuttles or drives no longer mount. My silly idea
> is change auto to vfat in /etc/fstab and use a launcher on the desktop or top
> panel to mount floppies (command: pmount /dev/fd0).
>
> I've just done that, and I'm waiting for things to be sorted out with pmount-hal.
>
> As Comment #9, I think pmount and pmount-hal are the bad guys. As a test, I
> swapped the file names and everything (floppy, usb devices and cd) mounted via
> nautilus (not auto-mount, just clicking on it)

yes, renaming pmount to pmount-hal solves the problem. Obviosly, i don't know is
this is the better solution.

Diego Woitasen

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

*** Bug 23960 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

(In reply to comment #13)
> > As Comment #9, I think pmount and pmount-hal are the bad guys. As a test, I
> > swapped the file names and everything (floppy, usb devices and cd) mounted via
> > nautilus (not auto-mount, just clicking on it)
>
> yes, renaming pmount to pmount-hal solves the problem. Obviosly, i don't know is
> this is the better solution.

This is really, really evil and will likely break other things. I will fix this
in pmount-hal soon. Until then, please just mount the floppy manually with

  mount /floppy

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

Fixed upstream.

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

Fixed dapper package prepared:

 pmount (0.9.6-1) dapper; urgency=low
 .
   * Same version as uploaded to Debian, thus no Ubuntu version number.
   * New upstream bugfix release.
     - Now respects hal's exec/noexec policy. (Debian #330462, Ubuntu #16844)
     - Clean up default options in pmount manpage. (Debian #330589)
     - Full support for storage devices to cleanly handle floppies and CD-ROMs
       without media (Ubuntu #17562)
   * debian/patches/01-man-plugdev.patch.patch: Adopted to new file layout.
   * debian/rules: Adapt to autotoolized source package.
   * debian/control: Add intltool build dependency.

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

uploaded

[Mantas Kriaučiūnas (mantas)]

Shouldn't we fix this bug in stable release (5.10) ?
There are several duplicates bugreport about not working floppy drives already,
I think people, who use stable version should have working floppy drives.
Please, upload updated pmount into breezy-updates, not working floppy drives
are importand bug for lots users.

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

*** Bug 25906 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

*** Bug 12393 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

*** Bug 26232 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[gmlion (gm-l)]

I don't think that resolving this bug only is Dapper is the best idea. For an
average user this bug translates into "Ubuntu can't make floppies work". Should
it be so hard to put the patch in the stable version, 5.10?

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

(In reply to comment #23)
> I don't think that resolving this bug only is Dapper is the best idea. For an
> average user this bug translates into "Ubuntu can't make floppies work". Should
> it be so hard to put the patch in the stable version, 5.10?

pmount 0.9.6, which fixes this, is in breezy-backports for quite a while now.

[Jan Obrátil (jobratil)]

(In reply to comment #24)
> (In reply to comment #23)
> > I don't think that resolving this bug only is Dapper is the best idea. For an
> > average user this bug translates into "Ubuntu can't make floppies work". Should
> > it be so hard to put the patch in the stable version, 5.10?
>
> pmount 0.9.6, which fixes this, is in breezy-backports for quite a while now.
>

Hi!
I have upgraded to the newest pmount from Dapper but it solves only floppy disk
problems. The USB pens still don't work.

I think some program is still breaking some sonfiguration because following
steps solve it for some time:
1) complete remove (with configuration) this packages: dbus-1-utils,
gnome-volume-manager, hal, hal-device-manager, hwdb-client, ivman,
ubuntu-desktop, update-notifier
2) install removed packages
3) restart gnome

[Jorge Juan (jjchico)]

(In reply to comment #24)
> (In reply to comment #23)
> > I don't think that resolving this bug only is Dapper is the best idea. For an
> > average user this bug translates into "Ubuntu can't make floppies work". Should
> > it be so hard to put the patch in the stable version, 5.10?
>
> pmount 0.9.6, which fixes this, is in breezy-backports for quite a while now.
>

In my oppinion, this bug makes floppys unusable for "regular" users (my wife,
for example). I think is should be fixed in breezy (breezy-updates maybe) since
breezy-backports is not commonly used or advisable to "regular" users.

Severity may be raised to "major" as well.

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

Ok, I'll backport the fix for breezy.

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

*** Bug 24964 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

Created an attachment (id=5586)
backported fix from dapper

pmount (0.9.5-0ubuntu6) breezy-updates; urgency=low

  * Add debian/patches/04-support-storage-devices.patch:
    - pmount-hal: Full support for mounting storage devices.
    - This will allow to mount Floppies and CD-ROMs which are not in fstab in
      Gnome.
    - Patch backported from pmount 0.9.6.
    - Ubuntu #17562

 -- Martin Pitt <email address hidden> Sat, 7 Jan 2006 12:08:00 +0100

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

OK, I backported the fix and prepared a new package. Awaiting review and
permission to upload to breezy-updates now.

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

(In reply to comment #30)
> OK, I backported the fix and prepared a new package. Awaiting review and
> permission to upload to breezy-updates now.

Done.