Udisks2: Another Loss For Linux
 

With Udisks2 being added to Slackware to I wanted to know what this new package brings. It looks like another gnome POS tainting my system.



http://igurublog.wordpress.com/2012/...oss-for-linux/

In short: I haven't tried it yet but it *should* be bad.

IMNSHO, it would be more constructive to try it yourself on a system which is not running Gnome, as for instance Slackware-current, and tell us about your own experience than quote people who didn't even dare to try it.

The focus has been mainly to get Gnome literally a required component of a Linux distribution since so many distributions have either eradicated it or have started using it as their primary desktop environment.

Not only that but to wipe out any traces of any ability to work with BSD based or UNIX based components and recreate all tools to be specifically Linux.

I wouldn't be surprised if Red Hat wants to takeover Linux and recreate it not as a kernel for GNU based distributions, but as a true Linux OS.

Patrick has however stated Slackware has some options to avoid the inevitable, but exactly what they are is still under lock and key, but it deals with BSD based system tools.

Perhaps I'm a bit naive on this, but who died and made David Zeuthen god for this type of technology in Linux? Can there be another alternative than udisks2 that can be used for those that don't want gnome running on their system? Or is that exactly what the BSD system mentioned in another post will do?

That was simply an offhand comment after perhaps one too many Pabst Blue Ribbons. If I knew anything, I'd tell you. The plan is as it always has been -- try to keep forging a path ahead, and don't build bridges until we've arrived at a river.

Let's just hope they didn't shorten the road on things. God forbid we take a good breath, turn around, and the inevitable nightmare is starring us in the face.

I've been reading on various package websites that hardly anyone is in favor of udisks2's implementation.

For those interested here's a good read into how bad things with udisks2 are:

http://www.pappp.net/?p=948

Always interesting to see how much Linux developers will screw around with simple and easy to use systems just to mess up as much as possible and over-complicate the system.

You'd think these guys worked for Microsoft or something.

Wow! Did you catch the *next* post on Mr Zeuthen's blog? For his next trick -- get this -- he's now embedded Javascript into Polkit :eek:

yes, there is one, from Ignorant Guru himself: it's called udevil and, besides being still in alpha stage, I'm using it happily together with Spacefm on my laptop. :)

Thanks Ponce, both of those look like they might go well with my dwm/dmenu setup. Will give 'em a try.

And they keep saying Slackware development process isn't transparent :D

I think the author of udevil does say his software is not an udisks replacement.

To made things easier for anybody who wants to try it, I have the slackbuilds (also one for an updated spacefm) available on my repository for -current ;)

I have understood exactly the opposite, even the syntax is compatible (also with udisks2).

To play devil's advocate, which is probably foolish given I don't really get what's happening under the hood, Zeuthen talks about problems with scripts:

http://davidz25.blogspot.co.uk/2012/...in-polkit.html

I think I'll just disable udisks if possible, just like I disabled polkit and consolekit, etc.

Now that's an interesting idea. But what is the effect of disabling them to the average end user?

I'm assuming it will just prevent auto-mounting, which I have no need of anyway. I use Rox-Filer and it will mount things in fstab when you click on the mount points. It's exactly what I need, because I don't always want it to auto-mount. Sometimes I want to read a disk raw without mounting it.

So disabling all such things only affects auto-mounting, but not manual mounting as an unpriveleged user without write access to "/etc/fstab", nor other things like restart/hibernating the system as an unpriveleged user from the console ... Did I understand it right?

I don't know about restarting or hibernating as I don't use these. I would have to test it. As long as you are in the power group I think you should be able to restart and hibernate as user.

Thank you! I didn't know of the power group before. -- Always thought I was able to shutdown because I was directly in front of the console; not even tried remotely.

There's this article about GNOME losing relevance:
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...tem&px=MTE0ODI

Maybe GNOME will disappear and spare us their bad code and dependency hell.

It looks like they're planning to conquer the world instead.

From my limited perspective, I would say the World Domination Plan is actually wet paper.

... wet and sticky.

LMAO.

More traditional desktops like Xfce and KDE are really easier to migrate into from other operating systems. The problem of GNOME is, it's getting too heavy handed against it's own software and pulling further and further into the system rather than being modular.

Now GNOME's libraries and programs that can be used on non-GNOME environments work very well often even in KDE and Xfce and dependencies now are just a fact of life. I don't see the programs themselves going away per-say, but I do see a time when the actual GNOME desktop environment will not be around.

In another part of LQ I suggested a vanilla linux sans KDE or GNOME libraries. That didn't fly well.

Looks like FVWM and mc for me.

Sure, why not? That's what I do (well, fvwm anyway .. never got in the habit of using mc, tend to use bash instead for file management).

Eschewing with the kdei and/or kde directories are a nice way to slim down an already slim distribution, though with how massive even thumbdrives have gotten there's not much point.

If all you need is a no-frills window manager with oodles of configurability and all the virtual desktops you can eat, with no need for a "desktop environment", fvwm is just fine. And unlike kde and gnome, fvwm is pretty much guaranteed to remain sane and solid forever.

Xfce is still fairly lightweight compared to KDE and GNOME in spite of it's dependencies that keep getting added. I've installed Xfce onto systems and don't have anywhere near the same level of tools and software KDE and GNOME include.

I'll stick to Xfce anyways. Even if it's growing as a desktop environment and taking more stuff into it, it's still faster, more compact, and more featured as a complete environment.

Is udisks2 really necessary ?

For Xfce, then yes...

LXDE also, for the file manager, I believe.

pcmanfm (the official LXDE file manager) uses udisks (not udisks2), but I'm planning to check if it works with udevil ;)

I used your LXDE install without a hitch on 13.37 vanilla and have been playing with spaceFM also. I've been following the IgnorantGuru to see
how udevil works out.

We could all ways go back to the CLI !

\o/