media:/ does not handle floppy mounting correctly

Hello

I can confirm this problem.
It reproduces on KUbuntu 5.10 with installed KDE 3.5.1 and on Kubuntu Dapper Flight 4 (KDE 3.5 by default).
Older Flight CDs not tested.
It does not occur on previous releases with KDE 3.4

My fstab line (On 5.10) looks OK:
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto 0 0

The problem does not seem to be Hardware dependend (occurs on an old Athlon 800MHz as well as on a new P4 3GHz).

I do not have any other Distributions with installed KDE 3.5 so I don't know if it is a general KDE 3.5 problem.

This problem is VERY critical for some people without that much Linux knowledge (Isn't that one of Ubuntu's target groups?).

I am having the same problem with dapper today, the only difference is that konqueror accesses it via system:/media/fd0 rather than media:/fd0

Still it mounts the floppy, but never shows the contents, konquerors action icon swirls away like it's waiting for the contents to load. If I browse manually to /media/fd0 the contents are shown, and like you mtab and proc/mounts show the mount just fine. KDE just refuses to believe the disk is mounted, later clicks try to mount it again and fail with the message that it's already mounted.

This IS a KDE bug:
http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=120619

May help you a bit until system: and/or media: are better.

You can create a link to a device on your desktop for the floppy and KDE will treat it correctly, probably because it goes to /media/fd0 not through system:/ or media:/

This bug is very serious, and is present in all the versions of the KDE used in the Kubuntu, in the Suse the problem does not occur

Also being bothered by this bug...

This bug is very serious, and is present in all the versions of the KDE used in the Kubuntu, in the Suse the problem does not occur

No need for extra open tasks

Confirmed by popular vote. (See mail containing "Message-ID: <email address hidden>" in kubuntu-devel list today).

Hi
I can confirm this problem.

 unsubscribe ubuntu-security

I figured this out - want to know how? Send me a dollar! :p

okay, I'm not super educated on HAL, or udev, so I'm not sure where this permission/group stuff is configured. But apparently hal needs the user attempting to mount the floppy to belong to group disk. Once I added my user to disk I was able to mount floppies.

gpasswd -a [username] disk, log out/in and should be good to go.

At least this worked from my removable floppy.

The floppy device /dev/fd0 should be in group 'floppy', not 'disk'. What is

  ls -l /dev/fd*

for you?

biglinux@BIGLINUX:~$ ls -l /dev/fd*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 2006-05-28 05:02 /dev/fd -> /proc/self/fd
brw-rw---- 1 root floppy 2, 0 2006-05-28 05:02 /dev/fd0

Thanks. So /dev/fd0 is correct, and you shouldn't be in group 'disk' to mount it (being in 'disk' is a security risk!)

well mine's actually an external, group == plugdev, /dev/sda, but adding myself to disk nonetheless did the trick. I realize disk is a security risk, as it gives full access to hd's as well. It would seem there is something with the actual mounting process of hal/udev that's using disk wrongly.

Thing is that with my external I WAS experiencing the same issues mounting floppies as everyone else even though I was in group plugdev and the device had group ownership of plugdev. I'm really not sure why grp disk comes into play here.

Well, something else on my system must have changed to allow floppy mounting, I removed myself from disk and still AM able to mount floppies now, however days ago when I tried was not able to. hrm.

 unsubscribe ubuntu-security

--
 - mdz

I got my user into the group disk but I still cannot see floppy contents via system:/media/fd0 .... I am using the released dapper.

Please do not add users to 'disk', that will give them root access.

It seems like this issue is going to be solved in KDE 3.5.4, see http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=120619

It is the high time for such a stupid usability limiting bug to be fixed... Once the fix is is out, will it be backported to Dapper KDE 3.5.2?

Upgraded to KDE 3.5.4, but the problem is still there: I cannot see the contents of the mounted floppy on media:/fd0, though I can see those on /media/floppy/ ....

Anyone can confirm this?

I have exactly the same problem with floppy mounting with Ubuntu 5.10 and Kubuntu 6.06 on two different computers.
However, I suspect that the problem is not caused by KDE, but by access permissions.

I have found a work-around fix for Ubuntu 5.10 by creating a 'root' user account (with all privileges).
When I log in as 'root', I can mount and read / write files on the floppy.
When I log in as 'first user' (created during installation), I get the reported mount problems.

I have not tried this fix with Kubuntu yet.

Why has such a basic problem not been sorted?

To BrianTitzgerald: do you run KDE 3.5.4? It has been said that this problem will go away with KDE 3.5.4, but for me it has not.

I got this responce on http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=120619

------- Additional Comment #32 From Kevin Ottens 2006-08-07 09:09 -------
Please check as on #27. If the policy settings are wrong (IIRC was the case on Gentoo for instance) or the hal-system-storage-* scripts missing (like on Kubuntu) that's a packaging issue in the depends. You'd probably bug your distro first.
-----------------

It seems THIS IS KUBUNTU PACKAGING PROBLEM.

Could someone PLEASE look into this? The media:/ protocol for now is not user friendly at all, and if we don't fix the bugs that we can fix, this will even more distract users.

Any ideas?

According to KDE developper Ervin, the problem is that kubuntu misses hal-system-storage-* scripts.
I can see them on edgy :
locate hal-system-storage
/usr/share/hal/scripts/hal-system-storage-cleanup-mountpoint
/usr/share/hal/scripts/hal-system-storage-cleanup-mountpoints
/usr/share/hal/scripts/hal-system-storage-eject
/usr/share/hal/scripts/hal-system-storage-mount
/usr/share/hal/scripts/hal-system-storage-unmount

Would be nice if someone confirms this also fails or work on edgy since theorically it should work, according to Ervin's diagnostic.
Unfortunatelly, I can't check myself as I don't have any floppy drive here...

Changing to "need info"

I can't reproduce the bug anymore on Kubuntu Dapper with KDE 3.5.4. It seems to be fixed.

Thanks.
Any edgy user having a floppy drive could also test please ?

The alternative solution to the floppy mounting problem with Kubuntu 6.06 is to install a proper KDE file manager - Krusader.

If the Krusader package is downloaded and installed (and one dependency package for the KDE Java script library), it works perfectly without changing any scripts.

With the appropriate line in '/etc/fstab', I can mount and un-mount floppy disks and read and write to them in Krusader as an ordinary user. It even works with with my old 5.25" floppy drive as well as the 3.5" drive.

As a bonus, Krusader has additional features such as 'edit file as root' (with KDESU password) that is perfect for editing configuration files. There is even the option to 'start Krusader as root' on the 'System' menu which allows the deleting of old files owned by root.

The floppy disk mounting bug is obviously in Konqueror 3.5.2 which is inadequate as a file manager. It is also frustrating because it keeps reverting to icon view with no setting of file display preferences.

After you have used Krusader, you will not understand why it is not installed as standard in Kubuntu Linux.

By accident, I have now found out how to mount, read and write to a floppy using Konqueror 3.5.2 (as on the Kubuntu 6.06 Live CD). Here is how:-

Right click on an empty area of the desktop.
Move the mouse pointer over the 'Create New' line to expand the menu.
Move the mouse pointer over the 'Link to Device' line to expand the menu more.
Left click on the 'Floppy Device' line on the device list. This should bring up a window for setting the properties of the link.
Open the 'Device' tab and click on the down-arrow to bring up the list of available devices and then select your floppy, e.g. /dev/fd0.
Finally, click on the 'OK' button to create a link icon on the desktop.

Clicking on this desktop icon will open Konqueror, mount the floppy (if unmounted) and it will display the files on your floppy.

If the line in your /etc/fstab is like below, Konqueror will mount either DOS or EXT2 formatted floppy disks:
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto user,noauto 0 0

It seems that the Konqueror bug is in the 'Media' window which always shows the floppy as 'unmounted'.

Problem still exists on edgy, (kde 3.5.4) even with latest updates.
My /usr/share/hal directory contains:

hal-system-lcd-get-brightness hal-system-lcd-set-brightness
hal-system-power-hibernate
hal-system-power-reboot
hal-system-power-set-power-save hal-system-power-shutdown
hal-system-power-suspend hal-system-storage-cleanup-mountpoint
hal-system-storage-cleanup-mountpoints hal-system-storage-eject
hal-system-storage-mount hal-system-storage-unmount

If additional info is needed, I can provide it

BrianFitzgerald's instructions does not work anymore like he wrote them.
You can't select the floppy from the list, you have to type /dev/fd0 (or whatever your floppy is)
If I select Floppy0 from the dropdown it tries to mount /dev/
(what of course fails)
Appearently /media/floppy0 mounts the wrong device.

Modified instructions for edgy:
Right click on an empty area of the desktop.
Move the mouse pointer over the 'Create New' line to expand the menu.
Move the mouse pointer over the 'Link to Device' line to expand the menu more.
Left click on the 'Floppy Device' line on the device list. This should bring up a window for setting the properties of the link.
Open the 'Device' tab and type in /dev/fd0 (or whatever your floppy is)
Finally, click on the 'OK' button to create a link icon on the desktop.

Clicking on this desktop icon will open Konqueror, mount the floppy (if unmounted) and it will display the files on your floppy.

Forgive me if I'm stating the obvious but for clarity, the above successful workaround does not repair the problem; with the "Storage Media" window and it's function with floppy drives. So this needs attention. What is the cause?

This is fundamental for floppy drives. Also; quite frankly, it's a little embarassing. While the problem may well be with KDE, it is with KDE on Kubuntu.

Of course this problem needs to be fixed.
In my opinion, this is even a high priority bug.
Such elementary tasks as reading a floppy disk shall not pose a problem.

The problem is perhaps because kubuntu "thinks" the floppy drive is on /dev/

Out of curiosity, does it work correctly on KDE 3.5.5 now?

I just installed Kubuntu 6.10 RC (that has KDE 3.5.5 included) and the problem still exists.
Seems as the problem is caused by 2 bugs / configuration mistakes.
-System Settings -> Advanced -> Disk & Filesystems the floppy entry uses Device /dev/ .
You can manually change it to /dev/fd0 (or whatever your floppy is)
Then you can normally access your floppy but you have to manually mount it
-Seems as automount is not enabled, and I can't manually enable it (option grayed out)

As of 10/30/2006 the problem still exists in Kubuntu 6.06 and in Kubuntu 6.10.

The workaround suggested by Brian Fitzgerald and Alain R. did not work for me.

In either case Kubuntu claims that the 'mount point /dev/fd0 does not exist".

My workaround for Kubuntu 6.06 follows the latest suggestion by Alain R.:

System Settings -> Disk & Filesystems ->Media/floppy0 ->Modify

on the pulldown menu I made certain that /media/floppy0
was listed as mount point.
Device: /dev/fd0
 Put a check mark into: "enable at startup".

(There was no check there and the device was shown as 'disabled'.)

Hit OK.

Message: Device not mounted (or something to that effect); should I mount it?

YES.

Floppy gets mounted. It is now listed as 'enabled'. A click on the desptop icon activates the floppy. Files are read and displayed.

So far, so good.

Will test whethe this also works in Edgy. Report back.

Modified 6.10 the same way. It works. I now have the icon and read/write access to my floppy drive in 6.06 and 6.10.

On Sept, 12, the bug was marked as need info with comment:
"Would be nice if someone confirms this also fails or work on edgy since theorically it should work, according to Ervin's diagnostic."
Changing back to confirmed, now that we have the following info: "As of 10/30/2006 the problem still exists in Kubuntu 6.06 and in Kubuntu 6.10."

Are there still problems with this?

Yes, and more: the Edgy's patched version, which, upon clicking the "Storage media" displays /media instead of media:/ , does not contain a clickable floppy icon at all. So the user is left clueless as to when he is to click it. And obviously, the floppy drive does not detect an inserted media as it is with USB drive...

If you write in media:/ , you do get the floppy icon, but clicking on it produces as little as before.

Confirm the same problem in Feisty 7.04 with full update and KDE 3.5.6. Workaround described above works correctly in my Pc. Open Konqueror and type in address bar media:/
You should see the floppy icon, click with right button and then click Mount.

just edit /usr/share/apps/systemview/media.desktop
change /media to media:/

I've been looking for this answer, and here it is!

I have Kubuntu Feisty Fawn (7.04) installed from LiveCD (no upgrade) on an Intel based i386 laptop (Toshiba Satellite P105-S6147). I have a USB floppy drive connected to a USB seven-port hub. I was unable to mount and access any inserted diskette. My /etc/fstab entry for the device is:
/dev/sdd /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto 0 0
The only way I could mount and access the floppy, with a diskette inserted, was to open a root Konsole and mount it manually. The work-around fix by Arc at permalink https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/kdebase/+bug/30207/comments/45 was tried, and it worked. I didn't like that it opened up all the HDs and their partitions for access, so I opted to use Maini Marco's suggestion with a slight modification. I access my floppy drive (with inserted diskette) by typing media:/sdd/ in the location bar. This mounts and opens the floppy drive diskette.

This basic issue needs to be given a high priority for fixing. One should not have to go to this trouble to simply have access to ones USB floppy drive.

Is this fixed by now?

Thank you for making Kubuntu better.

added upstream bug

fixed

On 01/04/2008, Lydia Pintscher <email address hidden> wrote:
> added upstream bug
>
>
> --
> media:/ does not handle floppy mounting correctly
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/30207
> You received this bug notification because you are a member of Kubuntu
> Testers, which is a subscriber of a duplicate bug.
>

Ok thank you.
Marking as fix released.

As of today, the HAL / automount feature is not working again.
CDROMs, DVDROMs, USB memory and memory cards don't trigger the usual friendly pop up dialog asking for actions (playing, opening/mounting etc.).
I'm runnig an up-to-date Kubuntu 8.04 with KDE 3.5.9.
I confirm that those HAL scripts are missing.

"As of today"? Was there some update? What was it?

Few days ago it was working.
And, of course, I've not touched anything.

2008/7/21 Yuriy Kozlov <email address hidden>:
> "As of today"? Was there some update? What was it?
>
> --
> media:/ does not handle floppy mounting correctly
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/30207
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

--
Maybe Computers Will Never Become As Intelligent As Humans.
Fore Sure They Will Never Become So Stupid. [VR-1988]

Automatic updates? Check /var/log/dpkg.log to see if anything was recently installed/updated.

I had to install Kubuntu Hardy (I do need KDE3, not 4) and the HAL/automount is not working since the beginning.
A full upgrade lead me to KDE 3.5.10 and still not automount.
My problem is with USB HDD, not floppy, though.