Failure to safely remove the USB with the following techniques:
umount /dev/sdd and I get the error “umount: /dev/sdd is not mounted (according to mtab)”
dolphin > right click the drive icon > safely remove: I get the error message “org.desktop.Hal.Device.Volume.UnknownFailure: Cannot open /media/.hal-mtab”
konqueror: sys:/info > click the drive eject button (nothing happens)
device notifier > click the drive eject button : I get a ERROR in Plasma Workspace that says “Could not unmount the device. One or more files on the device are open within an application” … NOTE: this will happen on a fresh reboot with the folders of the USB never accessed, much less files being open on it.
I have also noticed something similar when dealing with cds/dvds… seems like I can only eject on a reboot.
umount /dev/sdd and I get the error “umount: /dev/sdd is not mounted (according to mtab)”
You can not unmount entire disks, but only partitions (for example /dev/sdd1).
dolphin > right click the drive icon > safely remove: I get the error message “org.desktop.Hal.Device.Volume.UnknownFailure: Cannot open /media/.hal-mtab”
Please post the output of
cat /media/.hal-mtab
cat /etc/mtab
If this does not work, try again as root.
device notifier > click the drive eject button : I get a ERROR in Plasma Workspace that says “Could not unmount the device. One or more files on the device are open within an application” … NOTE: this will happen on a fresh reboot with the folders of the USB never accessed, much less files being open on it.
Yet some application could try to access the USB-drive, for example Akonadi or the like. Check
Sorry, but there is no law that states that your disk must be partitioned. You can create a filesystem on a disk (writing over the partition table if there was one). You can mount that file system. And thus you can unmount it.
It is almost never done, the space gained by using the MBR/Partition table is not that big. But it can be done.
hcvv, when creating a filesystem on a disk, it is partitioned. Again: you can not unmount a disk but only partitions.
hoppers:~ # mount
/dev/sdb1 on / type ext4 (rw,acl,user_xattr)
proc on /proc type proc (rw)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)
debugfs on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw)
udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,mode=0620,gid=5)
/dev/sdb2 on /home type ext3 (rw)
/dev/mapper/cr_sdb1 on /home/kalle/datenzwei type ext4 (rw,acl,user_xattr)
fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
securityfs on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)
/proc on /var/lib/ntp/proc type none (ro,bind)
**/dev/sdg1 on /media/crypt type ext4 (rw,nosuid,nodev)**
hoppers:~ # umount /dev/sdg
umount: /dev/sdg: not mounted
hoppers:~ # umount /dev/sdg1
hoppers:~ # mount
/dev/sdb1 on / type ext4 (rw,acl,user_xattr)
proc on /proc type proc (rw)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)
debugfs on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw)
udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,mode=0620,gid=5)
/dev/sdb2 on /home type ext3 (rw)
/dev/mapper/cr_sdb1 on /home/kalle/datenzwei type ext4 (rw,acl,user_xattr)
fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
securityfs on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)
/proc on /var/lib/ntp/proc type none (ro,bind)
I am afraid you did not realy read what I posted. Of course you can not unmount what is not mounted as your example above shows. Of course you can not mount a whole disk (like sdg) when there is no file system created on it and when it is partitioned. But do
mkfs -t ext4 /dev/sdg
and you will see that an EXT4 file system is created on the whole disk (I reckon that you will not do this on a disk that still has usefull data on it or, for other readers: DO NOT DO THIS AT HOME when you do not understand what you are doing).
And then this can be mounted with
mount /dev/sdg /mnt/lalala
and the it can be unmounted
umount /dev/sdg
Seldom done, but not an absolute “You can not unmount entire disks”.
And of course * fdisk -l* will report that there is no valid partition table on the disk, it is gone.
I rebooted into kde root environment. I can right click the device and select to safely remove it (in dolphin) and it does.
Commentary: in YAST> SYSTEM information > DISKS > USB Flash Memory /dev/sdd
if I hover over the device in Konqueror it says ///dev/sdd1 block device… my bad didnt see that before.
I rebooted back into the kde environment for myself (as a user) and then it seemed to work when I was in dolphin.
so I figured great! must have been something that cleared up on a reboot …as I dont reboot often, not like I used to
I load in a dvd in dolphin, look at the directory structure then I try to right click > eject disk and I get another persistent error “org.freedesktop.Jal.Device.Volume.NotMounted ByHal: Device to unmount is not in /media/.hal-mtab so it is not mounted by HAL”
Maybe it is just your wording, but I do not understand this. Boot and KDE have no direct connection. You boot the system. And then someone can log in, and (s)he may use a KDE environment. Thus you may mean that you loged out and in again. But then I could read from this that you did so using the user root>:). I hope I misunderstood you completely.
So basically it’s an unusable disk then? Isn’t that an example being a bit too exotic to show why my comment is basically wrong? It is at least highly offtopic here. I consider your reply a reply for the sake of contradiction, so for me it’s EOD.
It is NOT an unusable disk. Not basicaly, nor otherwise. I showed you that I created an ext4 file system there. I showed you that I mounted it. And then you can use the file system like any other filesystem. It is all in my post #7 above. Why should partitioning be a must? Of course there was first the disk and the need for partitioning came later. Patitioning is a feature and a lot of people use it for obvious reasons. But when you have a disk only for some lump of data and you want but one partition, why then partition it? Use it as it is!
I showed you that I created an ext4 file system there.
Not really; you showed some commands without any output. However, I just gave it a test and it does indeed work. One major disadvantage is that one cannot resize the formatted space or add other partitions and the like (that’s just for the record - I suppose that’s why partitions are usually created). Edit: However, I do note that I can not access this disk via KDE but only by using the console. I suppose a desktop environment expects partitions to be there (just a guess, though).
Either way, qu1nns disk is partitioned (/dev/sdd1), so I guess we both did enough pondering on that now.
Yes, qi1nns case is not a non partitioned disk. It is your statement that I was afraid of feeding the urban legend about this.
I do not understand that you can not access the disk via KDE. One normaly does not access disks or partitions (the operating system is there to hide hardware from the user), but one travels the directory tree. I suppose that when you use Dolphin going to / and then click your way up to the mountpoint and beyond you will have a list of the files there in the Dolphin window (when the access bits alow you of course). As user you are normaly not aware when you change from one file system to another, Unix/Linux has the concept of one big directory tree. And as root you have only to “know about it” when dealing with certain aspects of managiing the system.
There’s no need to explain basics about how a partition is handled via filetrees etc., I know that well of course (by “accessing” I meant to create for example a file within that disk). The problem was indeed caused by a simple permissions issue - my bad, sorry.
Yes, qi1nns case is not a non partitioned disk.
Are you sure? /dev/sdd1 is a partition (isn’t that the one we are talking about here?).
