nfs and smb mount points do not appear in the unity launcher and there is no way to add them manually

[Twig]

Binary package hint: unity

I have several nfs mounts listed in my /etc/fstab and would expect them to appear in the Unity launcher. My local drives appear here and any drives I add after boot such as CDs or external hard drives appear correctly. It does not appear to be possible to add the mount points manually by for example dragging them from the desktop to the launcher (as I would expect to be possible).

Thanks,
Twig.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: unity 3.8.8-0ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-8.42-generic-pae 2.6.38.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-8-generic-pae i686
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Architecture: i386
CompizPlugins: [core,bailer,detection,composite,opengl,decor,mousepoll,vpswitch,regex,animation,snap,expo,move,compiztoolbox,place,grid,imgpng,gnomecompat,wall,ezoom,workarounds,staticswitcher,resize,fade,unitymtgrabhandles,scale,session,unityshell]
Date: Tue Apr 19 22:54:08 2011
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_GB:en
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: unity
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to natty on 2011-04-18 (1 days ago)

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

added ayatana-design as affects to get insight from the people involved in the Unity design.

[Mark Shuttleworth (sabdfl)]

Would the mount points have actual functionality, or are they
effectively "bookmarks for Nautilus"? If the latter, I'd prefer we
handle them as such, by improving the presentation of Places in Nautilus.

Mark

[Twig (pfirth)]

From my point of view, I would be happy if such mount points were "bookmarks for Nautilus" and appeared in Unity as other mount points, CDs and external drives currently do.

It may be that there needs to be a distinction between local and network drives in order to avoid clutter. SMB shares don't display in Unity either but this isn't as important to me as I use such shares on a temporary basis. However, it would be nice to be able to manually pin (frequently used) items to the launcher.

Thanks,
Twig

[tankdriver (stoneraider-deactivatedaccount)]

I came across this bug while testing oneiric, and something changed:

x) With natty, everything mounted in /media appeared on the desktop.
   (does not matter if automounted or in fstab/manual)

x) With oneiric, generally nothing mounted appears on the desktop. (I think this is by design)
  - USB-Sticks, external drives, other partitions [auto]mounted in /media appear in the launcher and inside a nautilus window in section "Devices"
  - SMB or NFS Shares mounted in /media via fstab appear inside nautilus in section "Computer" BUT NOT in the launcher
  - SMB Shares mounted via "Browse Network" inside appear in section "Network", nothing in the Launcher.

I like the old behaviour more. (one click instead of opening nautilus and selecting shortcut)
Keep in mind: This behaviour is for users who edit their /etc/fstab files and expect, when the mountpoint is on /media, a icon somewhere on the left side of their Desktop appears, representing(and pointing) to that mount. If the mount should be hidden, they can use /mnt anyway.
I think the user should be able to decide if there is a icon of a "manual mount" on the launcher or not.
The default setting of the launcher is "Show Devices: Only Mounted", so I does not think that we have a problem with clutter

Even in GNOME SHELL, SMB shares mounted via fstab appear directly on the "Desktop" in the right bottom. (label: "Removable device")

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

still not confirmed by design so incomplete/

[forumscollective (forumscollective)]

wonder which power users Mark was referring to when punting Unity. It's really disappointing that basic functionality like this isn't in place whilst being force-fed Unity. Another release goes by without the basics in place, but hey, we have HUD...whoopee!

[Mark Shuttleworth (sabdfl)]

@forumscollective - I was referring to power users who work with many
monitors, many windows, and many tabs, and who need to be able to move
between them all very efficiently. Most developers do not use SMB or NFS
mount points, so this is a less important bug overall. It may be
important to those who do - if so, those developers are in a good
position to fix this bug.