usb-creator does not work with usb/ide disk enclosure

[Zygmunt Krynicki]

Binary package hint: usb-creator

(everything here was running under vmware fusion on a mac)

This issue affects intrepid-beta and usb-creator version 0.1.9

I have a generic ide-to-usb disk enclosure attached to my virtual machine. The disk shows up in nautilus and works as expected. The relevant lsusb entry is:
Bus 002 Device 011: ID 058f:6391 Alcor Micro Corp.

I manually formatted that disk to have one vfat partition. I would expect it to show up in usb-creator but it did not.
After inspecting the code the issue was caused by the fact that usb-creator requires removable devices.

The following patch makes it possible to use usb-creator in my case:

root@intrepid-beta:~# diff -u /usr/share/pyshared/usbcreator/backend.py backend.py
--- /usr/share/pyshared/usbcreator/backend.py 2008-10-09 17:19:40.000000000 +0200
+++ backend.py 2008-10-26 20:06:20.000000000 +0100
@@ -353,8 +353,7 @@
             d = dbus.Interface(dev_obj, 'org.freedesktop.Hal.Device')
             if d.GetProperty('storage.drive_type') != 'disk':
                 continue
- if d.GetProperty('storage.bus') == 'usb' and \
- d.GetProperty('storage.removable'):
+ if d.GetProperty('storage.bus') == 'usb':
                 if d.GetProperty('block.is_volume'):
                     if d.GetProperty('volume.fstype') == 'vfat':
                         self.add_device(d)

The person called Persia had this insight on #ubuntu-devel:

(20:03:21) persia: zyga, Surely that's a HAL bug though, rather than a usb-creator bug.

[Zygmunt Krynicki (zyga)]

This is the output of hal-device for that particular drive *after* patching usb-creator and installing ubuntu onto it:

0: udi = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/volume_uuid_C7E3_1AF8'
  volume.fsversion = 'FAT32' (string)
  volume.uuid = 'C7E3-1AF8' (string)
  volume.label = 'UBUNTU' (string)
  volume.mount_point = '/media/UBUNTU' (string)
  volume.is_mounted = true (bool)
  linux.hotplug_type = 3 (0x3) (int)
  volume.is_mounted_read_only = false (bool)
  info.product = 'UBUNTU' (string)
  volume.linux.is_device_mapper = false (bool)
  info.capabilities = { 'volume', 'block' } (string list)
  volume.is_disc = false (bool)
  info.udi = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/volume_uuid_C7E3_1AF8' (string)
  block.device = '/dev/sdb1' (string)
  volume.is_partition = true (bool)
  block.major = 8 (0x8) (int)
  volume.partition.number = 1 (0x1) (int)
  block.minor = 17 (0x11) (int)
  volume.block_size = 512 (0x200) (int)
  block.is_volume = true (bool)
  volume.num_blocks = 78242913 (0x4a9e461) (uint64)
  volume.size = 40060371456 (0x953c8c200) (uint64)
  volume.partition.start = 32256 (0x7e00) (uint64)
  info.category = 'volume' (string)
  volume.partition.media_size = 40060403712 (0x953c94000) (uint64)
  volume.partition.scheme = 'mbr' (string)
  volume.partition.type = '0x0b' (string)
  storage.model = '' (string)
  volume.partition.label = '' (string)
  volume.partition.uuid = '' (string)
  volume.partition.flags = { } (string list)
  volume.ignore = false (bool)
  org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.Volume.method_names = { 'Mount', 'Unmount', 'Eject' } (string list)
  org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.Volume.method_signatures = { 'ssas', 'as', 'as' } (string list)
  org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.Volume.method_argnames = { 'mount_point fstype extra_options', 'extra_options', 'extra_options' } (string list)
  org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.Volume.method_execpaths = { 'hal-storage-mount', 'hal-storage-unmount', 'hal-storage-eject' } (string list)
  volume.mount.valid_options = { 'ro', 'sync', 'dirsync', 'noatime', 'nodiratime', 'noexec', 'quiet', 'remount', 'exec', 'utf8', 'shortname=', 'codepage=', 'iocharset=', 'umask=', 'dmask=', 'fmask=', 'uid=', 'flush' } (string list)
  volume.unmount.valid_options = { 'lazy' } (string list)
  linux.sysfs_path = '/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:11.0/0000:02:03.0/usb2/2-1/2-1:1.0/host12/target12:0:0/12:0:0:0/block/sdb/sdb1' (string)
  block.storage_device = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/storage_serial_Generic_USB_Disk_0_0' (string)
  info.parent = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/storage_serial_Generic_USB_Disk_0_0' (string)
  info.interfaces = { 'org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.Volume' } (string list)
  volume.fstype = 'vfat' (string)
  volume.fsusage = 'filesystem' (string)

[Zygmunt Krynicki (zyga)]

More hal-device output, it's clearly visible that storage.removable is false

1: udi = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/storage_serial_Generic_USB_Disk_0_0'
  storage.no_partitions_hint = false (bool)
  storage.media_check_enabled = false (bool)
  storage.hotpluggable = true (bool)
  linux.sysfs_path = '/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:11.0/0000:02:03.0/usb2/2-1/2-1:1.0/host12/target12:0:0/12:0:0:0/block/sdb' (string)
  storage.automount_enabled_hint = true (bool)
  storage.requires_eject = false (bool)
  info.parent = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/usb_device_58f_6391_noserial_if0_scsi_host_0_scsi_device_lun0' (string)
  storage.drive_type = 'disk' (string)
  info.vendor = 'Generic' (string)
  info.product = 'USB Disk' (string)
  info.category = 'storage' (string)
  storage.partitioning_scheme = 'mbr' (string)
  storage.model = 'USB Disk' (string)
  info.udi = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/storage_serial_Generic_USB_Disk_0_0' (string)
  storage.vendor = 'Generic' (string)
  linux.hotplug_type = 3 (0x3) (int)
  block.device = '/dev/sdb' (string)
  storage.serial = 'Generic_USB_Disk-0:0' (string)
  storage.lun = 0 (0x0) (int)
  block.major = 8 (0x8) (int)
  storage.firmware_version = '9.02' (string)
  storage.originating_device = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/usb_device_58f_6391_noserial_if0' (string)
  storage.removable.media_size = 40060403712 (0x953c94000) (uint64)
  block.minor = 16 (0x10) (int)
  storage.removable.media_available = true (bool)
  info.capabilities = { 'storage', 'block' } (string list)
  block.storage_device = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/storage_serial_Generic_USB_Disk_0_0' (string)
  block.is_volume = false (bool)
  storage.removable = false (bool)
  storage.bus = 'usb' (string)
  storage.size = 40060403712 (0x953c94000) (uint64)

[Sune Keller (sune-keller)]

I can confirm this on jaunty. Patching usb-creator makes it add my usb/ide enclosure disk to the list of possible install destinations.
storage.removable is likewise false for my device.

lsusb gives:
"Bus 004 Device 004: ID 067b:3507 Prolific Technology, Inc. PL3507 ATAPI6 Bridge"

[Evan (ev)]

This is fixed in karmic with the switch to a devicekit-disks backend.