"eject" doesn't work with USB mass storage, "sudo eject" does, Nautilus unmount also does

I also have this problem. I have the original 40gb hard drive that came with my laptop in an external usb case. The nautilus 'eject' command reports that it cannot eject the device and remounts it. Using 'pumount /media/usbdisk' from the command line works. Now, I also use a USB multicard reader which is viewed as four seperate drives and the eject command works without a hitch on that eventhough it of course does not actually do anything but unmount the drive. As above the whole thing worked fine under edgy.

Looks like #36252

Looks like Bug #36252

No, it's not the same at all. I'll give you the fact that it has to do with unmounting USB mass storage, but there ends the similarity.
On my computer I have no Nautilus-problems at all. The only thing that doesn't work is
$ eject /some/media

Found that pmount package works, but this is not an ideal workaround, as eject is a default package, and not pmount.

- Ketil

It's true.
Then Alan doesn't have same problem that you have.
He said
"The nautilus 'eject' command reports that it cannot eject the device and remounts it."
It looks like Bug #36252

Oh, OK.
Alan might have Bug #36252 but this bug filed by me is not the same.
Just got confused because you didn't specify *what* you referred to as Bug #36252, and I was assuming you meant the issues mentioned in this bug bug description.

- Ketil

yes it is similar to Bug #36252. I've isolated the problem to the file system type. I do not have the problem with a VFAT filesystem. However, my external drive is not used with anything but linux boxes, so therefore is formatted in EXT3. When I mount a USB stick [by plugging it in], which is formatted in VFAT it 'ejects' fine. The Harddrive, formatted as EXT3, does not. Both are viewed as /dev/sdb1. I suppose I could just format the drive to VFAT and change the permissions every time I bring a file in but , should I have to? EXT3 is a native linux filesystem. It should work correctly.

Ketil , have a look to Bruno comment in Bug #36252.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nautilus/+bug/36252/comments/17

Did you install hal from backports?
Maybe it's the same problem, so two bugs are one in fact.

The bug has been present both on normal and backported hal. I remember I thought the backported hal might take care of it, but it didn't. So, no luck :(

Hello,

I got the same problem with an external USB hard drive on Ubuntu Feisty 7.04.

Most of the time all is OK : mount, copy / moving of files, unmount.

But one time (I never had that on Edgy), on the Nautilus right menu, instead of "Unmount" command, I had "Eject".

When i tried it, hard drive was not ejected but immediately re-mounted, to stop it I had to retire directly the disk without waiting the normal unmount.

I also have HAL Device Manager 0.5.9 installed.

The next time I connected the same external hard drive and also another one, I got the normal command "unmount"...

Not the same thing as this bug. This thread probably helps: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=412692

To be clear (and not intended to be harsh): This bug is NOT about problems in Nautilus. There are a gazillion reports on Nautilus mounting issues. This is about a faulty $ eject /media/someUMSmedia

- Ketil

Ok, just to clarify.
I think both bugs are about the same thing.
What you Ketil reported here is much more correct and precise.

As you reported from ubuntuforums, the PROBLEM is on EJECT command (either launched from terminal or nautilus)
In fact this problem doesn't occur with UMOUNT command (either launched from terminal or nautilus)

I think there is a bit of confusion in Bug #36252 about the way people report the problem.
I think that Valeryan_24 above here https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/eject/+bug/111541/comments/10 may clear the concept.

This bug appears to be fixed. At least, now "eject /media/E10" works on my E10 from the command line. Don't know which update handled it. Still using Feisty.