My laptop has a "docking station" that has a "drive bay". The bay might contain (1) DVD, (2) HDD, (3) battery. Can someone help me sort out what needs to happen?
I want to use the "drive bay" HDD as a backup device:
** insert the drive
** "udev rules" or other magic happens to release the DVD
** other things happen to prompt and install the HDD
** more "udev rules" to activate the HDD for use
** scripts run using rsync and friends loading HDD with important stuff
** other scripts run to sync the HDD with off-sight
** still other scripts run to release the HDD and prompt for DVD install
(Everything mostly automatic except for hardware remove and insert.)
Under WinXP/Pro Tablet Edition, I can do the following while running with the "docking station" attached.
1. Use the system tray tool to stop and remove the DVD drive (with or without media present)
2. Insert the HDD (it gets recognized and scanned etc like a USB or flash drive)
3. Use the HDD like any other drive
4. Use the system tray tool to stop and remove the HDD
5. Insert the DVD (drive recognized; if media present, it gets scanned etc like a USB or flash drive)
I can do this as often as I want without the need to reboot (grin) other than normal winXP reboot demands.
Linux does not let me do this. I would like to know how to get this working.
ANALYSIS
** Using dynamic device features, the DVD exists in limbo until media gets loaded. At that point, one gets asked what to do with the media or something launches automatically. I think this is controlled by
udev rules. THEREFORE Unless there is media, there is nothing to stop or unmount or eject or whatever.
** If you somehow [typically reboot] remove the DVD and load the HDD, there is a device one might stop or unmount or eject. That all seems to work.
** When you replace the DVD, various bad things happen. They range from "drive not found" to "hung system" to "software crash".
** When I un-dock the entire "docking station" the system goes to hibernate. On wake from hibernate, the "docking station" has been dealt with docked vs. undocked. WinXP behaves this same way.
It seems to me that this is just a "udev rules" problem, but there might be some black magic and dragons that are lurking below the surface.
My Hardware is:
- Lenovo Thinkpad X61-tablet
- 4 GB ram, 512 GB disk
- X6 Ultra-base
- Ubuntu Jaunty (v9.04)
Cheers,
~~~ 0;-Dan
