'automount' is an alternative mechanism to mount local and networked media automatically. In this contributed article, Mandrake Linux user Kevin McCormick describes a setup.

Preparations

This is based on my reading of the man pages for autofs and also the Automount mini-HOWTO, plus a few trial and error cycles. Your mileage may vary. I use Linux-Mandrake, and the "Supermount" method they have for accessing removable drives wasn't working for me.
I have found the method described below to be quite usable. Notice that 'automount' doesn't work with 'urpmi' or the 'Software Manager' when installing RPMs ('device is busy' error).

Anyone who has better ideas should feel free to add improvements.

1. Run urpmi autofs as 'root' to install the package (or use the Software Manager').
2. Enable the 'autofs' service via the Mandrake Control Center - System - Services. Alternatively, run (as 'root'): chkconfig autofs on to make sure the automounter is started automatically upon boot. (More on system services)

3. Disable 'supermount' by running (as 'root') supermount -i disable

section index top

Creating Mount Points

Create mount directories as 'root' with mkdir /mnt/dir_name (as 'root'). Directories such as '/mnt/cdrom', '/mnt/floppy', and '/mnt/zip' may have already been created, and you may just want to use these. (More on 'mounting')
These directories can be located anywhere in your tree but are usually placed under '/mnt', as in '/mnt/cdrom'.

A separate directory for each removable drive should be created because you will probably want to use different timeout (auto unmount) options for each removable drive. However, if the timeout option is the same, you can simply use a mount point for more than one removable drive.
Here, I could use a single mount point for the cdrom and zip drives.

section index top

Configuring autofs Files In /etc

Next edit the '/etc/auto.master' file

# For details of the format look at autofs(8).
# mount point config file --options
# my layout:
# NFS link to server is under /net
# removable drives are under /mnt/cd, mnt/fd, and mnt/zd
/net /etc/auto.net --timeout=30 #(this is a network nfs share)
/mnt/floppy /etc/auto.floppy --timeout=1
/mnt/cdrom /etc/auto.cdrom --timeout=3
/mnt/zd /etc/auto.zip --timeout=3

                  

Next create an '/etc/auto.drivereference' file for each removable drive reference in '/etc/auto.master'.

----------------
Example file for /etc/auto.zip which mounts under '/mnt/zd'

# $Id: auto.misc,v 1.2 1997/10/06 21:52:04 hpa Exp $
# This is an automounter map and it has the following format
# key [ -mount-options-separated-by-comma ] location
# Details may be found in the autofs(5) man page
#==== /etc/auto.zip (has 3 second timeout)
zipd -fstype=vfat,users,rw,suid :/dev/hdd
zipl -fstype=ext2,users,rw,suid :/dev/hdd1

                  

Note there are two zip drive directories, one for dos (vfat) formatted zip drives and one for linux (ext2) formatted drives. Since they mount to different partitions on the zip drive, it appears separate entries are necessary. See the mini HOWTO on zip drives.

-----------------
Example file for /etc/auto.cdrom which mounts under '/mnt/cdrom'

#==== /etc/auto.cdrom (has 3 second timeout)
cdrom -fstype=iso9660,ro,nosuid,nodev :/dev/cdrom

                  

----------------
Example file for /etc/auto.floppy which mounts under '/mnt/floppy'

#==== /etc/auto.floppy (has 1 second timeout)
floppy -users,suid,rw,exec,fstype=auto, :/dev/fd0

                  

----------------
Example file for '/etc/auto.net' NFS network file share which mounts under '/net' (if you don't share NFS directories in your network, don't use this).

#==== /etc/auto.net
nfs1 -fstype=nfs,rsize=4096,wsize=4096,hard,intr server_name:/share_name

                  

section index top

Desktop Icons For Easy Access

Next edit the desktop icons (if you use these) on your desktop which reference the removable drives. These icons are perhaps labeled "CD-ROM", "Floppy", and "Zip".

For KDE, just right-click the desktop icon and select "Properties" from the pop-up menu. This displays a small dialog and you should click on the "URL" tab to show the URL (uniform resource locater). Edit the URL to be the same as the '/etc/auto.master' mount point plus the 'auto.removabledrive' directory name. Following the examples, the URL for the cdrom drive would be: "/mnt/cdrom/cdrom", for the floppy drive: "/mnt/floppy/floppy", and for the zip drive: "/mnt/zd/zipl" or "/mnt/zd/zipd".

Now when you click on these icons, the Konqueror file manager will open and display the contents of the removable drive. If there is no disk in the drive when you click on the icon, you will get an harmless error message.

When you are done with the removable drive, close the Konqueror file manager so that there are no active programs with a reference to the directory. After the timeout has elapsed, the removable drive will be automatically unmounted and the removable disk can be taken out without having to worry about files that are not synced or other such annoying problems.

In order to access a removable drive directly from the Konqueror file manager, you will need to type the path (e.g. '/mnt/cdrom/cdrom') in the Location bar at the top. If you are using Konsole, xterm, or another terminal emulator, you also just type the path (e.g. $ cd /mnt/cdrom/cdrom).

'autofs' will automatically mount the removable drive when the path is given and when there are no programs referring to the drive, it will automatically unmount after the timeout period has elapsed.

Mandrake Linux user James Coliz prefers a slightly different approach:

Once I got it up and running, I found it extraordinarily cumbersome to have my floppy on '/auto/floppy/floppy', and my CD on '/auto/cdrom/cdrom'.

I'd like to recommend that people consolodate into a single map file.

Here's my '/etc/auto.master':

/auto /etc/auto.drives --timeout=2

And my /etc/auto.drives:

zip -fstype=vfat,user,rw,suid,uid=root,gid=local,umask=7007 :/dev/zip
cdrom -fstype=iso9660,ro,nosuid,nodev :/dev/cdrom
floppy -fstype=vfat,user,rw,suid,uid=root,gid=local,umask=7007 :/dev/fd0

Sure they all have the same timeout. But the access is so much simpler...

section index top