Hi all,

I want my mp3 player (a USB Mass Storage Device) to always mount to /mnt/mp3, regardless of how many other USB Mass Storage devices are already plugged in, and I want to setup fstab so that this will work even for an ordinary user with no root access.

Is this possible using Linux kernel 2.4.26? If so, how?

Thanks in advance,
Mark.

It is theoretically possible however I haven't ever tested the theory. You would need to hack the hotplug scripts to detect your mp3 player and issue a mount/umount command. I would first of all put in place a script that dumps all the environment variables available to a file when run (all the information needed is passed as environment variables). Examining the files would allow you to spot distinguishing variables (e.g. PRODUCT=xxx or VENDOR=xxx). You would then code the script to check for those values and issue a mount (if ACTION=add) or umount (if ACTION=remove) command. I hope this helps. I have no idea where slackware keeps its hotplug scripts.

Thank you for your answer.

Actually I'm mainly using Gentoo these days but I have not updated my profile yet.

OK - I will leave this for a while to consider it. I have other problems I am trying to solve too, but I will probably come back to this later, maybe next week. Is there anyone else that would be interested in a script which can recognise specific devices and always mount them in the same place? Or am I just different from everyone else?!

Mark.

OK I upgraded to Linux 2.6.6-rc1 and replaced /sbin/hotplug with this script:

http://dev.gentoo.org/~wmertens/automount.hotplug

(There is also a version for Linux 2.4 on that website.)

It does what I want, after a few modifications to mount accesible to all users, and to create an icon on my KDE desktop. But it only works sometimes - sometimes the /sbin/hotplug script is not called at all by the kernel when my USB Mass Storage Device is inserted and removed. This happens for example if I have not used the computer for a few hours. Anyone know what the problem is?

Thanks,
Mark.

--- edit ---

I have noticed that when the script is not called the /dev/sd* device file is not created either, so it seems to be some problem with the kernel detection. Usually works the first time, but not always afterwards... has anyone else seen this...?

My problem seems to have disappeared all by itself. Hmm! It's working as it should now . When I plug a device in an icon appears on my desktop, and when I remove the device, the icon disappears.

Cool!