I agree with the other commenters that this _is_ a nice feature to have,
but the introduction of it seems to introduce a few problems that need
to be fixed in order not to adversely affect the user experience. I will
try to sum up my thoughts on this below.
1. Notification.
First and foremost, the user needs to be notified that a file system
check is in progress. This should happen (in order of importance):
a) when the user tries to use (mount) the file system (via the
Places-menu or in Nautilus). As of now, the message that the
user receives is "mount: only root can mount <dev> on
<folder>" (I've attached a screenshot). This leaves the user
wondering what is going on, unless he tries to mount the file
system via the command line (which _still_, unless the user uses
the "fuser" command, leaves the user not knowing that fsck is
what is keeping the file system busy).
b) (in addition to the above) when the user logs in, via
notify-osd. A notification could appear saying: <dev> is being
checked and is not mountable until this has finished. Then, when
the file system check finishes, a notification could appear
saying: the file system check of <dev> has finished and it is
now accessible.
2. Choice.
The (non-advanced) user should be able to cancel the file system check.
This is currently only possible by killing the fsck-process (which, IMO,
will only be done by relatively advanced Linux users).
This, of course, requires the user to know that fsck is what is
preventing him from mounting the file system in the first place (and
probably some command line knowledge as well).
I agree with the other commenters that this _is_ a nice feature to have,
but the introduction of it seems to introduce a few problems that need
to be fixed in order not to adversely affect the user experience. I will
try to sum up my thoughts on this below.
1. Notification.
First and foremost, the user needs to be notified that a file system
check is in progress. This should happen (in order of importance):
a) when the user tries to use (mount) the file system (via the
Places-menu or in Nautilus). As of now, the message that the
user receives is "mount: only root can mount <dev> on
<folder>" (I've attached a screenshot). This leaves the user
wondering what is going on, unless he tries to mount the file
system via the command line (which _still_, unless the user uses
the "fuser" command, leaves the user not knowing that fsck is
what is keeping the file system busy).
b) (in addition to the above) when the user logs in, via
notify-osd. A notification could appear saying: <dev> is being
checked and is not mountable until this has finished. Then, when
the file system check finishes, a notification could appear
saying: the file system check of <dev> has finished and it is
now accessible.
2. Choice.
The (non-advanced) user should be able to cancel the file system check.
This is currently only possible by killing the fsck-process (which, IMO,
will only be done by relatively advanced Linux users).
This, of course, requires the user to know that fsck is what is
preventing him from mounting the file system in the first place (and
probably some command line knowledge as well).