11.2 partition isolation issue

**nospam990** · 26-Dec-2010, 09:01

I'm new to 11.2, coming from 10.1 (and other distros going back to RH5 in '98), and I have noticed (another) undesirable feature. Partitions which are not in fstab appear in Dolphin as "Volumes". I multiboot and have always maintained strict isolation of partitions from other OSs to the extent that I do Custom Partitioning during Installation to "try" to enforce that isolation. Is there a way to remove 11.2's awareness of the partitions/volumes that it shouldn't be aware of?

**hcvv** · 26-Dec-2010, 10:10

I noticed the same. Those partitions, on purpose NOT mounted by the sytem manager (by NOT putting them in /etc/fstab) are nevertheless shown by Dolphin to the innocent end-user.
Then when that end user clicks on it, (s)he gets the message that the partition can only be mounted by root. Which is of course very true, but it is frustrating for that end-user.
Why is it shown when it can not (and should not) be used.

**jdmcdaniel3** · 26-Dec-2010, 10:31

This comes under the category of saving you from yourself. Not sure if this will work, but it looks like something to try: First, you can't really hide anything from a program like GPARTED or openSUSE's Partitioner, but perhaps you can in other places. You need to know the logical name for the partition like sda2; run the following command to find out the name(s) for the partition you wish to disappear.

Code:

ls -l /dev/sd*

To create a rule to hide say sda2, create a file called /etc/udev/rules.d/hide--partitions.rules and include the following text:

Code:

ACTION!="add|change", GOTO="hide_partition_end"
SUBSYSTEM!="block", GOTO="hide_partition_end"
KERNEL=="loop*|ram*", GOTO="hide_partition_end"

KERNEL=="sda2", ENV{UDISKS_PRESENTATION_HIDE}="1"

LABEL="hide_partition_end"

If you use KDE, you could use this command to create the file:

Code:

kdesu kwrite /etc/udev/rules.d/hide--partitions.rules

Reboot to see if this took effect.

Thank You,

**hcvv** · 26-Dec-2010, 11:21

That is something one can do. But imho it goes a bit to far. Not speaking for the OP (I hope we get his comment also), my idea is that this not mounted partition should not be offered to the end-user as a possibility to look for files in such an end-user file manager like Dolphin. It is not my intention that such a partition should be hidden from those who (know to) manage the system (in fact: root). Thus tools like YaST > System > Partitioner and fdisk are not where I am after. Like the OP, I never saw such behaviour before (that was Konqui as file manager in KDE 3.5).

In fact I am not convinced that I understand the function of the panel called Places/Locations in Dolphin (where this not available partition is shown).

**nospam990** · 26-Dec-2010, 11:24

Thanks for the suggestion, James. But doesn't that shoot me in the foot for when I WANT to access the partitions? What I have done in the past is to manually mount them as root when they are needed. My concern here is Linux (or KDE) automatically usurping my authority as the root human. I object to any computer program automatically doing ANYTHING with a partition if doesn't own. (Once had to rebuild the partition table by hand with a hex editor when a bug in a disk driver trashed it - NEVER again.)

**hcvv** · 26-Dec-2010, 11:42

I do not know what will be done, it is shown and when the end-user clicks, it asks for the root password to mount it. As the end-user normaly does not know this, you, as root, are save.
But I never trusted this mechanism enough to type the root password (I happen to wear two caps on the system, being normaly the end-user, but also the system manager). Thus I have no idea if it asks for a mount point, or just mounts it god knows where and which what parameters.

**jdmcdaniel3** · 26-Dec-2010, 13:14

Thanks for the suggestion, James. But doesn't that shoot me in the foot for when I WANT to access the partitions? What I have done in the past is to manually mount them as root when they are needed. My concern here is Linux (or KDE) automatically usurping my authority as the root human. I object to any computer program automatically doing ANYTHING with a partition if doesn't own. (Once had to rebuild the partition table by hand with a hex editor when a bug in a disk driver trashed it - NEVER again.)

I can only say that I do not switch to root unless I need to and only the partitions that are mounted in my fstab are used. I can plug in a USB drive and work with it without using the root user password and perhaps this is what is wrong, but I am not sure how to fix that, though I don't wish to change how it works. I do hope you find what you are looking for.

Thank You,

**hcvv** · 26-Dec-2010, 13:39

Maybe you did not get the correct picture before your eyes. That is not that strange because a lot of systems will not have this. Think of my system as an example:

I have one Swap partition, one partition for /home and TWO partitions for /. Thus I can install a new version on one of those while the current version is still on the other one. Needless to say in normal day to day running only one of those two partitions is mounted on / and the other one is not used at all. Thus:

Code:

boven:~ # fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x1549f232

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1         262     2104483+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda2             263        2873    20972857+  83  Linux
/dev/sda3            2874       15000    97410127+  83  Linux
/dev/sda4   *       15001       38913   192081172+   f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5           15001       17611    20972826   83  Linux
boven:~ #

and

Code:

boven:~ # cat /etc/fstab
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-Hitachi_HDT725032VLA380_VFJ201R23XUEXW-part5 /                    ext4       acl,user_xattr        1 1
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-Hitachi_HDT725032VLA380_VFJ201R23XUEXW-part1 swap                 swap       defaults              0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-Hitachi_HDT725032VLA380_VFJ201R23XUEXW-part3 /home                ext3       defaults              1 2
proc                 /proc                proc       defaults              0 0
sysfs                /sys                 sysfs      noauto                0 0
debugfs              /sys/kernel/debug    debugfs    noauto                0 0
usbfs                /proc/bus/usb        usbfs      noauto                0 0
devpts               /dev/pts             devpts     mode=0620,gid=5       0 0
#/dev/disk/by-id/ata-Hitachi_HDT725032VLA380_VFJ201R23XUEXW-part2 /mnt/oldroot         ext3       ro,acl                1 2
boven:~ #

where you see in the last line that I have a prepared entry for this partition that still holds the 10.3 system. This (still) ext3 prtition has a label System_A.

Now this is from the system Managers point of view.

But we have one or more end-users on this system. And when they run KDE with Dolphin as file manager they see at the left a panel called Places and there they will see a certain System_A. And the OP and I think that that is none of their bussiness! And to repeat what I explained earlier, when they click on that System_A it opens a window telling them that they need root privileges to mount it, and are asked for the root password, which they (happily) do not know. We think that that is very embarassing for them.

**robin_listas** · 26-Dec-2010, 14:38

On 2010-12-26 17:06, nospam990 wrote:

> Is there a way to remove 11.2's awareness of
> the partitions/volumes that it shouldn't be aware of?

I define all partitions in fstab, and put those that should not be mounted
as "noauto".

But yes, all desktop should have a global setting (by root) to make them
ignore partitions.

--
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 "Emerald" at Telcontar)

**hcvv** · 26-Dec-2010, 15:17

Originally Posted by robin_listas

On 2010-12-26 17:06, nospam990 wrote:

> Is there a way to remove 11.2's awareness of
> the partitions/volumes that it shouldn't be aware of?

I define all partitions in fstab, and put those that should not be mounted
as "noauto".

But yes, all desktop should have a global setting (by root) to make them
ignore partitions.

--
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 "Emerald" at Telcontar)

Well, putting a # before the line is easier then adding the noauto. And I am from the days (long ago) that every key to press was one to much (therefore the lot of two letter commands there are).

But I doubt that using noauto will teach Dolphin to behave