Hello forum,

Is anybody out there savvy enough to show me how to write my own custom fdi rule to put in the /usr/share/hal/fdi directory (Mandriva 2006) so that HAL's fstab-sync will not auto generate a new line in fstab for a USB device (after editing the line) whenever the USB device is plugged in or when the computer is rebooted?

Fstab-sync is supposed to be a feature for convenience but it works against me whenever I want to edit a line if fstab for my USB hard drive. Fstab-sync will erase the line I edited and auto generate the original line back in its place.

Typing "man fstab-sync" in a terminal window will explain all of this better than I can.

There are some sample policys (rules) in the /use/share/doc/hal-0.4.8/config directory but none of these seem to do what I want done because I have tried them.

I would like to be able to add "unmask=0022" in the line (in fstab) for the USB hard drive so that it will be readable. The USB hard drive has a ntfs file system and fstab-sync will always mount it as root by default, meaning I can't open it unless I am in root.

I know I am asking a lot but I certainly would appreciate it greatly if somebody would take some time to help me with this problem.

Thanks in advance,
Roy