Media notifications

Trainee

Location: Slovenia

Wednesday, March 15th 2006, 7:31pm

Hi!

Recently notifications about new media stopped working on my kde. If I insert new usb / dvd no pop-up shows up about new media, however they are mounted and ready to use, e.g. /media/dvdrecorder is properly automounted and works.
I also have media storage applet in my taskbar, and it doesn't show new dvd/cds when they are inserted.

Amarok also cannot use my usb key for music transfers (worked before):
VFAT Devices cannot be manually configured. Ensure DBUS and HAL are running and your kioslaves were built with DBUS and HAL support. The device should be autodetected; click the "Manage Plugins..." suboption of the Configure button in the Media Device tab and choose the VFAT plugin for the detected device. Then ensure the device is mounted and click "Connect" again.

I checked and dbus/hal services are running. What can else can I do. I already reinstalled KDE.

Addon: even usb doesn't appear in konqueror (media:/).

Load-on-demand services NOT running:
KDED home base URL notifier
KDED remote base URL notifier
KDED system base URL notifier
KDE integration module
and some others (absolutely not related to this problem).

All startup services are enabled and running.

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Rinse

Professional

Posts: 797

2

Wednesday, March 15th 2006, 8:29pm

it could be a problem in the configuration of the current user.
To find this out, create a new user and check if the problem also exist under the account of the new user.
If not, then check the configuration of the default user, if so, there might be another problem.

Help mee om KDE 3.5.5 in het Nederlands te vertalen

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kriko

Trainee

Posts: 127

Location: Slovenia

3

Thursday, March 16th 2006, 2:02pm

I created new user, but the problem persists.

In Yast i see autofs service not running. Is this vital for media notifications?
Output:
/etc/init.d/autofs start returned 6 (program is not configured):
Starting service automounter ("files nis" does not provide any mounts)..skipped

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kriko

Trainee

Posts: 127

Location: Slovenia

4

Friday, March 17th 2006, 8:46pm

Autofs is not connected to this issue (discovered by myself).
Here is dmesg, when plugging a usb stick, might help to see what is wrong:

Quoted

Mar 17 21:44:35 linux kernel: usb 3-1: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 5
Mar 17 21:44:37 linux kernel: Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
Mar 17 21:44:37 linux kernel: scsi2 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Mar 17 21:44:37 linux kernel: usb-storage: device found at 5
Mar 17 21:44:37 linux kernel: usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
Mar 17 21:44:37 linux kernel: usbcore: registered new driver usb-storage
Mar 17 21:44:37 linux kernel: USB Mass Storage support registered.
Mar 17 21:44:42 linux kernel: Vendor: LEXAR Model: JUMPDRIVE SPORT Rev: 2000
Mar 17 21:44:42 linux kernel: Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 00
Mar 17 21:44:42 linux kernel: SCSI device sdc: 248928 512-byte hdwr sectors (127 MB)
Mar 17 21:44:42 linux kernel: sdc: Write Protect is off
Mar 17 21:44:42 linux kernel: sdc: Mode Sense: 43 00 00 00
Mar 17 21:44:42 linux kernel: sdc: assuming drive cache: write through
Mar 17 21:44:42 linux kernel: SCSI device sdc: 248928 512-byte hdwr sectors (127 MB)
Mar 17 21:44:42 linux kernel: sdc: Write Protect is off
Mar 17 21:44:42 linux kernel: sdc: Mode Sense: 43 00 00 00
Mar 17 21:44:42 linux kernel: sdc: assuming drive cache: write through
Mar 17 21:44:42 linux kernel: sdc: sdc1
Mar 17 21:44:42 linux kernel: Attached scsi removable disk sdc at scsi2, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
Mar 17 21:44:42 linux kernel: Attached scsi generic sg2 at scsi2, channel 0, id 0, lun 0, type 0
Mar 17 21:44:42 linux kernel: usb-storage: device scan complete
Mar 17 21:44:42 linux hal-subfs-mount[6808]: SYMLINKS:: disk/by-id/usb-LEXAR_JUMPDRIVE_SPORT_33000001227000000045 disk/by-path/usb-33000001227000000045:0:0:0
Mar 17 21:44:42 linux hal-subfs-mount[6808]: MOUNT_POINT:: /media/usbdisk
Mar 17 21:44:42 linux hal-subfs-mount[6808]: MOUNTPOINT:: /media/usbdisk
Mar 17 21:44:42 linux hal-subfs-mount[6808]: Collected mount options and Called(0) /bin/mount -t subfs -o fs=floppyfss,procuid,nosuid,nodev,exec,utf8=true /dev/sdc1 "/media/usbdisk"
Mar 17 21:44:42 linux udevd[2658]: get_netlink_msg: no ACTION in payload found, skip event 'mount'
Mar 17 21:44:45 linux udevd[2658]: get_netlink_msg: no ACTION in payload found, skip event 'umount'
Mar 17 21:44:45 linux udevd[2658]: get_netlink_msg: no ACTION in payload found, skip event 'mount'

Is here everything ok?

This post has been edited 1 times, last edit by "kriko" (Mar 17th 2006, 8:47pm)

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kriko

Trainee

Posts: 127

Location: Slovenia

5

Saturday, March 18th 2006, 8:52pm

If I disable everything in:
KDE Control center -> Peripherials -> Storage media -> advanced
then all cd /dvd recorders are shown at media:/ (kde takes entries from fstab I guess) . So my guess is there is something wrong with kde/hal backend, how can I see what is really wrong?

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kriko

Trainee

Posts: 127

Location: Slovenia

6

Tuesday, March 21st 2006, 1:48pm

Aditional info:

I was playing with KDCOP browser, and saw:
kded->mediamanager->ASYNC reloadBackends()

I inserted my usb flash key, executed reloadBackends() and usb key icon appeared in media:/
I repeated this procedure for DVD and it worked too.
Executing:
kded->mediamanager->QStringList fullList()
gave me full list of attached storage, which was correct.
But when I removed DVD an usb, icons where still there (I also executed reloadBackends() one more time).
After that I executed:
kded->mediamanager->QStringList fullList()
again and usb key, dvd were still listed.

Hal works correctly, I checked lshal output several times and it is correct.
Where does kde gets info of attached media (kded->mediamanager->QStringList fullList())?

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kriko

Trainee

Posts: 127

Location: Slovenia

7

Tuesday, March 21st 2006, 6:00pm

Ok, I installed Suse 10 in vmWare and after that installed kde 3.5.1 rpms for suse 10, and guess what:
Media notifications doesn't work. It seems a rpm issue.

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padala

Beginner

Posts: 3

8

Sunday, January 7th 2007, 11:14am

Ugly workaround

I have the same problem on my Debian/testing machine:

# apt-show-versions kdelibs4c2a
kdelibs4c2a/testing uptodate 4:3.5.5a.dfsg.1-5
# apt-show-versions dbus
dbus/testing uptodate 1.0.2-1
# apt-show-versions hal
hal/testing uptodate 0.5.8.1-4

After intensive googling and a lot of trial and error I found a workaround:

# /etc/init.d/dbus restart
Stopping Hardware abstraction layer: hald.
Stopping system message bus: dbus.
Starting system message bus: dbus.
Starting Hardware abstraction layer: hald.
$ killall -w kded
$ kded

I automated this in my autostart script so everything works now as it should. But the real problem is not solved, of course.

Another thing I don't like about the media notification is that the media icon disappears after klicking "safely remove" (probably this is the translation of the German "sicher entfernen"). This should only happen if the usb flash drive is not present anymore because I sometimes want to mount it again. Now I have to unplug and plug the stick in again to do so.

When I "safely remove" my usb harddisk an error message "The device was successfully unmounted but could not be ejected" appears. The error message is absurd and in fact, this should be the normal behaviour. An even better way would be a possibility to choose between "eject" and "unmount". Is there a way to control the behaviour of the mediamanager?

This post has been edited 1 times, last edit by "padala" (Jan 7th 2007, 11:31am)

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Rinse

Professional

Posts: 797

9

Sunday, January 7th 2007, 11:52am

Quoted

Another thing I don't like about the media notification is that the media icon disappears after klicking "safely remove" (probably this is the translation of the German "sicher entfernen"). This should only happen if the usb flash drive is not present anymore because I sometimes want to mount it again. Now I have to unplug and plug the stick in again to do so.

Well, the option says 'savely remove', so it expects that you want to remove the device

media:/ only shows unmounted devices that are present in /etc/fstab.
You usb stick has no entry in that file,
so if you press 'savely remove', the usb stick gets unmounted and removed from media:/

If you don't want that, you could try to add an entry for the stick into /etc/fstab.

Regards, Rinse

Help mee om KDE 3.5.5 in het Nederlands te vertalen

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padala

Beginner

Posts: 3

10

Sunday, January 7th 2007, 5:06pm

Quoted

Well, the option says 'savely remove', so it expects that you want to remove the device

That's why I proposed to implement the possibility to choose between "eject" and "unmount" instead of "remove safely". But I still think it is absurd to "remove" (or "eject") an usb device via software.

Quoted

media:/ only shows unmounted devices that are present in /etc/fstab.

No, it does not. Even with entries in /etc/fstab the devices are removed from media:/ after being "removed safely".

But these things are really only minor nuisances. The main topic of my posting is the bug that destroys the whole media recognition in KDE. Believe me, I googled for ages and saw dozens of postings describing more or less the same problem without anyone posting a solution or even a workaround. Is this the right place to post or should I contact the KDED- (or Debian-?) developers directly?

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Rinse

Professional

Posts: 797

11

Sunday, January 7th 2007, 11:32pm

Quoted

[That's why I proposed to implement the possibility to choose between "eject" and "unmount" instead of "remove safely". But I still think it is absurd to "remove" (or "eject") an usb device via software.

Well, i use SUSE, and i can choose between unmount, eject and remove safely.
I can unmount my windows drive, unmount or eject my cd-rom media, and safely remove my usb stick.

so it is somehow related to the type of media that you attach to your system.

the windows drive stays visible, even after unmounting, the usb stick and cd rom dissapear (both don't have any entry in /etc/fstab).

Quoted

But these things are really only minor nuisances. The main topic of my posting is the bug that destroys the whole media recognition in KDE. Believe me, I googled for ages and saw dozens of postings describing more or less the same problem without anyone posting a solution or even a workaround. Is this the right place to post or should I contact the KDED- (or Debian-?) developers directly?

I'm not familliar with Debian, so i don't have a solution for your problem.

You could check if it is a configuration error in KDE by creating another user and check if kio_media behaves as expected.
If not, you could file a bug report at bugs.kde.org

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padala

Beginner

Posts: 3

12

Monday, January 8th 2007, 2:08pm

Quoted

I can unmount my windows drive, unmount or eject my cd-rom media, and safely remove my usb stick.

Yes, the same with Debian. So my criticism boils down to replace "remove safely" with "unmount" in the case of usb-sticks.

Quoted

You could check if it is a configuration error in KDE by creating another user and check if kio_media behaves as expected.

I did that, of course.

Quoted

If not, you could file a bug report at bugs.kde.org

Before I do that I go to some Debian-KDE forum and post the problem there:
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?t=11295

This post has been edited 1 times, last edit by "padala" (Jan 8th 2007, 3:09pm)

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polrus

Beginner

Posts: 5

Location: Europe.Poland.Zabrze

Occupation: ~student

13

Wednesday, January 31st 2007, 9:02pm

let's focus on the bug instead of talking about icon names and funcionality.

I have the problem in suse 10.1 with kde 3.5.6 , no media is beeing detected. when i do rchal restart it starts but after several seconds rchal status shows "unused"

ska ska ska

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kriko

Trainee

Posts: 127

Location: Slovenia

14

Wednesday, January 31st 2007, 9:32pm

I don't know what is causing this, however now in opensuse 10.2 I don't have this problem anymore. I use smart for package managing, last time I upgraded to kde 3.5.6 and works fine.

See this thread for a workaround:
http://forums.suselinuxsupport.de/index.…topic=44840&hl=

Read it till last post, which I corrected my previous command: