can't mount external device

stroudmw · 2018-05-25 11:06:16

I installed Devuan Ascii 32 bit and Openbox this morning. I have been having an issue mounting my external hard disk: I use PCMANFM and click on my external drive. I'm told: "Not authorized to perform this operation". I've usually make myself part of the "wheel" group, but that doesn't seem to exist.

I just want to open PCMANFM, click on the external disk, and access my files. I really don't want to go to the command line and sudo mount/umount.

How can I automate the mounting of external devices?

Thanks!

zephyr · 2018-05-25 11:13:05

I am assuming you may be running xfce or lxde with ob, this will work for xfce with openbox, slightly different with lxde. Will depend on which polkit your install is using.

Try installing gvfs if not installed. Secondly check autostart in home/ user/.config/openbox/autostart and see if the line of code is present.

/usr/libexec/polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1 &

This should allow you to access your drives with a reboot.

zephyr

Last edited by zephyr (2018-05-25 11:20:58)

Panopticon · 2018-05-25 11:15:51

In my experience, pcmanfm is not a good choice for devuan.

Nice minimal way to access your drives would be to install the spacefm file mananger and udevil.

https://ignorantguru.github.io/spacefm/

https://ignorantguru.github.io/udevil/

Otherwise thunar file manager and gvfs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunar

https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/gvfs

stroudmw · 2018-05-25 11:28:32

Thanks for replying so quickly.

I've got usr/libexec/polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1 & in my autostart - no joy
gvfs is already at the newest version, as is udevil
I've tried thunar and configured it to automount - no joy

I didn't install a desktop at all: I didn't use the graphical install, and I deselected the desktop options on tasksel. But I kept the system tools. I installed openbox from the command line after the install had finished. I also installed lightdm so that I go straight into openbox. I suppose that all this might have something to do with it.

Last edited by stroudmw (2018-05-25 11:30:39)

stroudmw · 2018-05-25 11:33:55

gparted also won't run.

Panopticon · 2018-05-25 12:10:25

Is gnome polkit installed though?

Panopticon · 2018-05-25 12:23:34

If you have udevil installed, you can access your drives from the commandline, atleast i would hope you can.

just an example = udevil mount /dev/sdx /media (or /mnt)

find your drives with cmd in terminal lsblk --fs

then udevil mount /dev/sdx x denotes drive letter.

Give it a try and post back your outcome.

Last edited by Panopticon (2018-05-25 12:25:16)

zephyr · 2018-05-25 15:32:57

Agree with Panopticon policykit-1-gnome needs to be installed.

cheers

zephyr

golinux · 2018-05-25 15:44:07

stroudmw wrote:

gparted also won't run.

pkexec was not working properly from the menu . There is a fix coming up in the RC2. In the meantime gksu works just fine.

stroudmw · 2018-05-26 06:51:55

Thanks so much! I'll have to wait until Monday to give it another try. I'm not really a fan of "desktops" (although I do have XFCE running on one pc). I much prefer a windows manager, and I've gotten to know how to make openbox behave the way I like it to.

stroudmw · 2018-05-27 11:17:27

still not working. A workaround is to mount it every time to /mnt/sdb1. I did chown mike /mnt/sdb1 and that seems to have worked.
btw: my /usr/libexec/polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1 is actually /usr/lib/policykit-1-gnome/polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1 and I haven't got a /usr/libexec directory.

devuser · 2018-05-27 11:46:20

Not an actual solution and i think it has been mentioned before but i think SpaceFM (which is based on PCManFM iirc) + udevil should work.

Panopticon · 2018-05-27 12:05:30

You say the wheel group does not exist which is a little strange.

Maybe create it.

#groupadd wheel
#gpasswd -a (user) wheel

I think this is correct commands, working on my terminal.

# denotes being root user.

Last edited by Panopticon (2018-05-27 12:06:05)

stroudmw · 2018-05-28 08:32:16

Ok... I got it:

When I installed Devuan Ascii, I didn't select to install any of the desktops as I wanted to install Openbox afterwards using his link:

https://devuan.org/os/documentation/dev … nbox-guide

I've just done a fresh install, this time selecting the desktop, and it works! Clearly the desktop option installs some dependencies that are missing from the Openbox installation.

I'd like to thank all of you for taking the time to help me!

Cheers,
Mike

msi · 2018-05-28 12:26:51

stroudmw wrote:

Clearly the desktop option installs some dependencies that are missing from the Openbox installation.

Just for the record: Those dependencies are not missing in the case of Openbox. Openbox is very much nothing but a window manager. It is not a desktop environment. So there is no need for it to depend on anything required to handle removable media as a non-privileged user.

Last edited by msi (2018-05-28 12:28:31)

devuser · 2018-05-28 13:03:08

msi wrote:

stroudmw wrote:
Clearly the desktop option installs some dependencies that are missing from the Openbox installation.
Just for the record: Those dependencies are not missing in the case of Openbox. Openbox is very much nothing but a window manager. It is not a desktop environment. So there is no need for it to depend on anything required to handle removable media as a non-privileged user.

If they are missing very much depends on view point but i agree. I'd be quite annoyed to put it lightly if IceWM (or any window manager for that matter) started pulling in dependencies like polkit or even yike gnome stuff.

stroudmw · 2018-05-29 07:33:46

devuser wrote:

msi wrote:
stroudmw wrote:
Clearly the desktop option installs some dependencies that are missing from the Openbox installation.
Just for the record: Those dependencies are not missing in the case of Openbox. Openbox is very much nothing but a window manager. It is not a desktop environment. So there is no need for it to depend on anything required to handle removable media as a non-privileged user.
If they are missing very much depends on view point but i agree. I'd be quite annoyed to put it lightly if IceWM (or any window manager for that matter) started pulling in dependencies like polkit or even yike gnome stuff.

Excellent point!

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#1 2018-05-25 11:06:16

can't mount external device

#2 2018-05-25 11:13:05

Re: can't mount external device

#3 2018-05-25 11:15:51

Re: can't mount external device

#4 2018-05-25 11:28:32

Re: can't mount external device

#5 2018-05-25 11:33:55

Re: can't mount external device

#6 2018-05-25 12:10:25

Re: can't mount external device

#7 2018-05-25 12:23:34

Re: can't mount external device

#8 2018-05-25 15:32:57

Re: can't mount external device

#9 2018-05-25 15:44:07

Re: can't mount external device

#10 2018-05-26 06:51:55

Re: can't mount external device

#11 2018-05-27 11:17:27

Re: can't mount external device

#12 2018-05-27 11:46:20

Re: can't mount external device

#13 2018-05-27 12:05:30

Re: can't mount external device

#14 2018-05-28 08:32:16

Re: can't mount external device

#15 2018-05-28 12:26:51

Re: can't mount external device

#16 2018-05-28 13:03:08

Re: can't mount external device

#17 2018-05-29 07:33:46

Re: can't mount external device

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