"kde Media Manager Not Running"

When I tried to copy a file to my usb pen drive just now, I kept getting a message re "unable to write to ...".
Now, when I go to safely remove the pen drive I get "Kde media manager not running" and the drive cannot be unmounted.

Everything has been working perfectly up until now - I've copied many files to and from this pen drive and it works fine on another machine (Windows).

Why would the kde media manager suddenly have stopped working (assuming it was, up until now) and how do I re-start it? I looked in services but I'm not sure what I'm looking for - there is no media manager listed there.

I really need to get this working so if anyone can help me I'd appreciate it!

Have you tried rebooting?

Not yet because I can't unmount the pen drive and it has assignments on it that I don't want to lose/corrupt by rebooting without it being dismounted first. This is what I can't understand - the pen drive DID mount OK. Which seems weird if the media manager isn't running - wouldn't it need to be in order to mount the pen drive in the first place?

Is there a command I can run to start the media manager without rebooting? Maybe if I can get it running it will then let me dismount the pendrive?

Why would the kde media manager suddenly have stopped working (assuming it was, up until now) and how do I re-start it? I looked in services but I'm not sure what I'm looking for - there is no media manager listed there.[/b]

Look in KDE Control Cenre for 'Service Manager' and make sure 'KDED Media Manager' is checked, and also the 'Media Notifier Daemon'

maybe its worth also checking if the device is still really mounted, by running mount command in konsole or xterm.

if listed there you may also unmount with umount /dev/sd**

in case the command outputs a device busy command, most probably you have a running process stuck on it, if so the best could be making a backup of your files to the hard disk and rebooting, as it will close all processes and then safely unmount your devices. nevertheless do a backup!

Look in KDE Control Cenre for 'Service Manager' and make sure 'KDED Media Manager' is checked, and also the 'Media Notifier Daemon'
[/b]

OK, I just looked there and the moment I clicked on "Service Manager" I got a message "Unable to contact KDED" - all entries in service manager are greyed out and all of them state "not running" - but they are all checked.

I think I'm going to have to risk losing my data and reboot as suggested.

maybe its worth also checking if the device is still really mounted, by running mount command in konsole or xterm.

if listed there you may also unmount with umount /dev/sd**

in case the command outputs a device busy command, most probably you have a running process stuck on it, if so the best could be making a backup of your files to the hard disk and rebooting, as it will close all processes and then safely unmount your devices. nevertheless do a backup!
[/b]

OK, I ran the mount command and the pen drive does NOT appear to be mounted, even though when I right click the desktop icon - it says it is.

I think I'll just take the risk, unplug it and reboot and hope that restarts the services that aren't running.

yes, if the pen is unmounted, and the kde still thinks it is, it could be the reason why it is misbehaving.

hope everything went ok.

Well just mount it by hand first and copy he data off if you are worried. Use in a console this command to identify it:

sudo /sbin/fdisk

Then suppose for example it's sdf. Issue these commands to get it mounted:

su
mkdir /mnt/sdf
mount /dev/sdf /mnt/sdf

The goto /mnt/sdf and copy the data off. Use whatever you get from fdisk rather than sdf, that's just the example

Swerdna

Thanks for all the help everyone! I rebooted and everything is now working as it should.

Thanks for all the help everyone! I rebooted and everything is now working as it should.
[/b]

Glad it's going -- probably the temperature over there