Nautilus refuses to mount as normal user.

prushik · 03-22-2009, 03:56 PM

I actually haven't tried as root yet, but as a normal user, whenever I try to mount something I get an error message "You are not privileged to mount this volume".
This is a brand new linux system.
I have not modified anything, just installed gnome and gdm.
In my previous linux installation (Ubuntu Intrepid) when I tried to mount a volume, gksu would pop up and ask me for my password. I can mount from command line (with sudo), but I would like to be able to mount from nautilus too.

snowman81 · 03-22-2009, 04:06 PM

Which distro are you using now?

prushik · 03-22-2009, 04:08 PM

oh sorry, its Debian Lenny

manwithaplan · 03-22-2009, 04:27 PM

Its a Hal user policy issue. Either your user is not added to the correct group, or you need to edit the hal policy that allows you to mount the drives.

Check out this website and see if it helps out. Its about adding policies to HAL. Also audit your user's groups. Too see if your added to storage or whatever Debian's defaults is.

prushik · 03-22-2009, 05:02 PM

Nope, no good. I changed it to allow, restarted hal and still no luck.
I'd rather not allow a regular user to mount, I would like Nautilus to ask me for the password and mount as root.

TITiAN · 03-22-2009, 06:11 PM

Debian's default group for HDD's is plugdev I think

prushik · 03-22-2009, 06:25 PM

I may not have installed pmount at all. Could that be the issue?

TITiAN · 03-23-2009, 12:24 PM

AFAIK pmount isn't needed since the mounting works over HAL and DBus.

buccaneere · 03-23-2009, 01:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by prushik

I actually haven't tried as root yet, but as a normal user, whenever I try to mount something I get an error message "You are not privileged to mount this volume".
This is a brand new linux system.
I have not modified anything, just installed gnome and gdm.
In my previous linux installation (Ubuntu Intrepid) when I tried to mount a volume, gksu would pop up and ask me for my password. I can mount from command line (with sudo), but I would like to be able to mount from nautilus too.

I get this message occasionally when I execute some configuration changes.

I have found that when I get this message after doing these changes, that I can fix this by going into /etc/fstab:

Code:

sudo gedit /etc/fstab

highlight the entry for the device (or partition),
'cut' the line for the device,
'save' config file,
then mount (or unmount) the device,
then 'paste' the line back into /etc/fstab (it should still be on the clipboard)
'save' the file, and close.

It never seems in my case to be a permission issue; rather a somehow improper mount/dismount...

TITiAN · 03-23-2009, 01:26 PM

sudo isn't preconfigured on Debian, like it is on Ubuntu, so "sudo gedit fstab" should be replaced by

Code:

user@pc ~ $     su
(Enter 'root' password)
pc /home/user # gedit /etc/fstab

And Gnome usually doesn't need the fstab.

farslayer · 03-23-2009, 02:01 PM

Are all the necessary packages installed for auto-mount to work ?

aptitude update
aptitude install gnome-volume-manager

go to System>Preferences>Sessions>Startup Programs and make sure Volume Manager is present with a check in the box.

I also like adding disk mounter to the panel. quick access to mounting/unmounting all your removable media