Of course, and I realize that this can be a completely different issue than the other ones posted in this thread. Still the title "Slackware 14.2 RC1 asks for root password, but didn't ("previously" for me as I didn't check exactly when that occurred) apply to my case, so I didn't think that I was off topic posting it here. I am sorry if it is.

But there can be several issues and mine may be related to the specific way the USB stick was formatted (that's why I gave the details in post #7). To make sure I will install anew 14.2 up to today, use an USB stick formatted in a more common way and post the findings elsewhere if the issue persists.

In a freshly installed Slackware64-current in a VirtualBox VM I can mount the same USB stick as regular user just typing "mount /mnt". I don't know what happened in the the other VM, anyway sorry for the noise.

Same here: Fresh install == works like before 25th/26th March, 2016.
Something broke during that upgrade in my system, whatever it was that I did wrong. Doesn't matter anymore, as it works now.

I'd like to do a few more tests with encrypted and not encrypted external USB hard disks over the weekend, but at the moment everything looks plausible.

gargamel

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That's interesting. I suppose the other important question then is whether an upgrade from 14.1 to -current/soon-to-be-14.2 causes the same breakage you experienced, or whether that was isolated to some artifact of an upgrade between those particular -current snapshots.

I'd bet on the latter, as in a fresh install the issues are gone. Therefore I don't attribute the highest probability on the changes in Slackware as the root cause of my issues, but on something I did wrong when I upgraded my system.

Although there can never be any guarantees, I have learned to trust in Pat and "the crew". No other Linux distro gets better quality assurance and no other Linux distro is checked more for consistency of virtually *all* components with each other than Slackware before a release. I have the highest degree of respect, admiration and gratefulness for this small team of highly skilled persons and their relentless efforts to the benefit of all of us.

Plus, as you can see here in this very thread, they are very patient with eternally less knowledgeable guys like me. I really appreciate this. Thanks once again, you guys!!!

gargamel

Current status: I could not yet complete all my intended tests, but up to now things look good.

What I did
I tested several old and new external and internal drives with and without LUKS encryption and different file systems on them with a fresh install of Slackware64-current (with all updates up to 19th April, 2016.

Results with the internal harddisk
After adding a line to /etc/fstab for mounting the internal LUKS encrypted and LVM controlled drive, it works almost as intended, no root password request anymore. Of course, I had to create a mountpoint for it, first.

[Side note] Although I may recall it wrongly after such a long time, however, I think this is where the behaviour is changed. While it may well be the case that I had a line in /etc/fstab for that harddisk before, I didn't create a dedicated mountpoint for it manually before, as far as I remember. But I may be wrong, here.
Doesn't matter too much, anyway, as the relevant point is that it works now, and that I can follow the logic behind the current behaviour, which makes sense.

Results with external disks
Mint! Everything works as expected on the fresh Slackware64-current system.

What I intend to do
Perform a couple of tests with external USB disks on a laptop equipped with Slackware64-current installed out of Liveslak. I just haven't had the time to this up to now, but will report the results once I have completed these tests. Based on the results with my main system I don't expect issues.

Main result up to now
There appear to be no show stoppers or issues in Slacwkware64-current. All issues turn out to be either gone or only local.

gargamel

Sorry for the "cliff hanger", but high workload in my daytime job prevented me from completing a few more tests. At least, the news is good:

I can connect an external USB harddisk to my laptop, wich is running Slaklive installed to the internal harddisk, and mount it as a normal user. For encrypted disks I am asked for the LUKS passphrase, before I can mount them. But I am not asked for the root password, anymore.

So this seems to be fixed. I'll close that thread again and mark it as SOLVED. If anyone still has the problem described here, please open an new thread. Thanks to all of you for your patience and support!

gargamel

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