Wireless and USB Flash Drive mounting.

Aldrenean · 04-22-2008, 02:49 AM

I've got a couple issues with my fresh 12.0 installation. One is that I'm having trouble getting my Intel PRO Wireless 2200BG card to be recognized. I had to work at it on Fedora as well, but got it by downloading driver packages on my Windows box and transferring them over. However, I can't do that because of the other problem; when I insert my USB Flash Drive it shows up, but I can't mount it. I get the following error:

Code:

A security policy in place prevents this sender from 
sending this message to this recipient, see message bus 
configuration file (rejected message had interface 
"org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.Volume" member "Mount" error 
name "(unset)" destination "org.freedesktop.Hal")

I read the HAL Sticky thread, and added myself to both cdrom and plugdev groups, but that didn't fix anything, and I couldn't find any other applicable practical advice in the thread.

So, I can't get online, and I can't download what I need from other computers either.

I could schlep my stuff over to my friend's house and use his wired connection, but I would prefer not to, and regardless I would like USB drives to mount correctly.
As far as the wireless goes, I tried modprobe ipw2200, but it says that the module doesn't exist, even though after that it shows up in lsmod. I haven't been able to find a coherent howto on this, so it's mostly guesswork on my part.

I almost gave up and downloaded Ubuntu because of this, but I resisted. For now. :P

stu_mueller · 04-22-2008, 04:30 AM

I may be way off here, but I have a ipw2100 and I needed to download the firmware for it and extract it to /lib/firmware

the link for the ipw2200 is here

http://ipw2200.sourceforge.net/firmware.php

maybe you need the firmware for yours too!

I also found this in another thread. The guy in question added himself to the cdrom and plugdev groups, restarted HAL and still had the same problem.

Quote:

...restarting hald won't solve it. No, in that restarting dbus will. That's documented in CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT, by the way

so maybe a reboot of your PC will solve the issue

Stuart

Alien Bob · 04-22-2008, 06:46 AM

Have you ever heard of the "console"? You do not need KDE, HAL, DBUS or being member of various groups to mount a USB flash drive...

In a console or Xterm, become root (run "su -"), and type "mount -o umask=000 /dev/sda1 /mnt/hd" (assuming your flashdrive is /dev/sda1). Then, you can access the content of your flashdrive below /mnt/hd .

Like stu_mueller said, you probably had to reboot in order to see the effect of adding yourself to plugdev group. And likewise, the firmware for the IPW2200 has to be downloaded separately and installed to /lib/firmware .
Slackware 12.1 (out soon) installs the IPW2200 firmware on your system together with firmware for several other wireless cards.

Eric

Travst · 04-22-2008, 08:05 AM

I had the same problem. This command line fixed it:

usermod -G plugdev,cdrom <username>

The post for the entire thread is:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=636823

Alien Bob · 04-22-2008, 08:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Travst

I had the same problem. This command line fixed it:

Code:

usermod -G plugdev,cdrom <username>

That is a dangerous command to just execute like that. If the user was a member of any other groups than plugdev and cdrom (like wheel, audio, video, kmem and other groups that people often have), she will be removed from those groups by running the above command!

The correct commands to use are:

Code:

gpasswd -a <username> plugdev
gpasswd -a <username> cdrom

Eric

Travst · 04-22-2008, 01:15 PM

Thanks for the info, Eric. I picked that line up through a Google search. It was my understanding that the small g parameter performed as you described while capital G parameter added the user to the group.

BCarey · 04-22-2008, 02:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Travst

Thanks for the info, Eric. I picked that line up through a Google search. It was my understanding that the small g parameter performed as you described while capital G parameter added the user to the group.

I believe it would work the way you want if you also use the -a (append) option, eg. "usermod -a -G plugdev,cdrom <username>"

Brian

Alien Bob · 04-22-2008, 02:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BCarey

I believe it would work the way you want if you also use the -a (append) option, eg. "usermod -a -G plugdev,cdrom <username>"

Brian

My usermod does not have the "-a" switch - it never had.

Eric

shadowsnipes · 04-22-2008, 06:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alien Bob

My usermod does not have the "-a" switch - it never had.

Eric

Mine either. My machine does have man pages, though

BCarey · 04-22-2008, 10:42 PM

Oh, I get it. I was using a system with Slack12.0/DroplineGnome. It replaces the shadow package which contains usermod, and the DLG version contains the -a switch.

Sorry for the confusion.

Brian