Udiskie

Udiskie is an automatic disk mounting service using udisks. It can be used for mounting CDs, flash drives, and other media. It is simple to use and requires no configuration.

Installation

You can install Udiskie by using the udiskie package that is found in the Official Repositories. Start the Udiskie service by adding

udiskie &

to your xinitrc file, before the window manager is loaded.

Once Udiskie is running, all removable media will automatically be mounted under /media under a new directory that matches the device name.

Permissions

udiskie requires permission for the org.freedesktop.udisks.filesystem-mount action to be granted through PolicyKit. If you use a display manager that supports ConsoleKit this will be taken care of for you automatically. If you don't, you'll need to set up consolekit to work with startx/xinit or use the storage group method.

Consolekit

Note: You may have to start udiskie after your window manager is started. You may have to use the storage group method if your WM doesn't provide this functionality.

Start your window manager or desktop environment with ck-launch-session, for example, an exec line in ~/.xinitrc:

exec ck-launch-session awesome

You may need to start udiskie within the Consolekit session -- that seems to be necessary, for example, when launching dwm:

exec ck-launch-session bash -c "udiskie & dwm"

Storage group

If it doesn't already exist, create the file /etc/polkit-1/localauthority/50-local.d/10-udiskie.pkla with these contents:

 [Local Users]
 Identity=unix-group:storage
 Action=org.freedesktop.udisks.*
 ResultAny=yes
 ResultInactive=yes
 ResultActive=yes

This example configuration allows any member of the storage group to mount and unmount disks with udiskie.

Unmounting

Use the udiskie-umount command to unmount media. For example, for a device named "MY_USB_DRIVE":

 udiskie-umount /media/MY_USB_DRIVE

Or, you can unmount all media with the command:

 udiskie-umount -a

Window Manager Menu Scripts

For convenience, you can add a script to the menu in some window managers to allow for easy access and control of removable media.

Openbox

Here's an openbox menu script that offers a slight variation on the WindowMaker example below:

#!/bin/bash

# An openbox menu for removable media (requires udiskie).
#
# This script will generate sub-menus for any device mounted
# under /media. You can browse the device in a file manager or
# unmount it.
#
# It will ignore the "cd", "dvd", and "fl" directories and the U3
# containers found on some windows formatted drives
#
# By default, this script uses the rox file manager to browse the
# media.

DIR=$(cd $(dirname "$0") && pwd)
SCRIPT=$(basename "$0")
NOTIFY="notify-send"
FM_CMD="rox"

pipemenu() {

    cd /media
    echo '<openbox_pipe_menu>'

    for i in *
    do
	if [ "$i" != "*" ] && [[ ! "$i" =~ ^U3|cd|dvd|fl ]]; then
	    echo "<item label=\"Browse $i\">"
	    echo "<action name=\"Execute\">"
	    echo "<execute>$FM_CMD /media/$i</execute>"
	    echo "</action></item>"
	    echo "<item label=\"Unmount $i\">"
	    echo "<action name=\"Execute\">"
	    echo "<execute>$DIR/$SCRIPT unmount /media/$i</execute>"
	    echo "</action></item>"
	    echo "<separator/>"
	fi
    done

    echo "<item label=\"Eject CD/DVD\">"
    echo "<action name=\"Execute\">"
    echo "<execute>eject -T</execute>"
    echo "</action></item>"

    echo "<item label=\"Remount all\">"
    echo "<action name=\"Execute\">"
    echo "<execute>$DIR/$SCRIPT remount</execute>"
    echo "</action></item>"

    echo "</openbox_pipe_menu>"
}

case $1 in 
    unmount)
	udiskie-umount $2
	if mountpoint -q $2; then
	    $NOTIFY "Failed to unmount $2"
	else
	    $NOTIFY "Unmounted $2"
	fi
	;;
    remount)
	killall udiskie
	udiskie &
	$NOTIFY "Mounting removable media..."
	;;
    *)
	pipemenu
	;;
esac

Window Maker

Create a "Generated Submenu" entry in the root menu.

#!/bin/bash

# For a Window Maker menu for removable media.
#
# This script will generate sub-menus for any device mounted
# under /media. You can browse the device in a file manager or
# unmount it.
#
# It will ignore the "cd", "dvd", and "fl" directories.
#
# It uses "emelFM2" file manager to browse the media.

cd /media

echo \"Media\" MENU

for i in *
do
  if ["$i" != "*" ] && [ "$i" != "cd" ] && [ "$i" != "dvd" ] && [ "$i" != "fl" ]
  then
    echo \"Browse $i\" EXEC \"emelfm2 -1 \'/media/$i\'\"
  fi
done

for i in *
do
  if ["$i" != "*" ] && [ "$i" != "cd" ] && [ "$i" != "dvd" ] && [ "$i" != "fl" ]
  then
    echo \"Unmount $i\" EXEC \"udiskie-umount \'/media/$i\'\"
  fi
done

echo \"Eject Disc\" EXEC \"eject --traytoggle\"

echo \"Media\" END

Links

• Udiskie Homepage