[gentoo-amd64] Re: CD drive opening on boot!!

[Duncan]

Paul Stear posted on Sun, 20 Dec 2009 12:26:43 +0000 as excerpted:

> On Saturday 19 Dec 2009 20:59:52 Duncan wrote:
>> Paul Stear posted on Sat, 19 Dec 2009 14:27:49 +0000 as excerpted:
>> > Thanks for the replies, I have updated the kernel, udev and hal and
>> > the cd stays closed on boot.  Thanks for the info.  However I now
>> > have another problem:
>> > When I insert a usb drive or put a cd into the cd drive I am not
>> > getting any notification that they have been detected.  I have now
>> > realised that this hasn't been working for sometime. Any thoughts on
>> > how to resolve this?
>>
>> No notice... on what level?  At the desktop?  What desktop environment
>> do you use?  No notification in the system log?  For the USB drive,
>> does the device show up as a new /dev/sdX when you plug it in?  Does
>> lsusb see it?
>>
>> IOW, you didn't include enough information to know where to start on
>> that problem, or even at what level the problem is appearing,
>> system/kernel/ udev level, desktop environment level, or somewhere on
>> the stack (dbus, hal, perhaps fstab) between the two.

> You are right I didn't give enough information. I am running kde 4.3.4.
> dmesg reports the flash disc as sde The entry sde1 in directory media is
> blank. There is no entry for sde  also the kde desktop did not report
> the device, in fact no pop up at all.
> Looking at /dev/disk/by-id:
> ata-DVD-ROM_BVD316E link tp /hdb
> ata-PHILIPS_DVDR16LS_DCV0516041208 linked to /hda
>
> The In /DEV cdrom2 cdrom3 cdrw3 dvd2 dvd3 dvdrw3 are all linked to /hdb
> but I have no entry for /hdb in /media So again if I insert a music cd
> in any of the drives, nothing happens.  I used to get a pop up on the
> kde desktop asking what I wanted to do and displaying various options,
> e.g. play, copy, rip etc.
>
> This seems to be a bit of a mess and help will be greatly appreciated.

OK, that's a bit better.  We know the kernel and udev seem to be doing 
their thing correctly, if the devices are showing up in /dev.

But we don't know whether it's hal or kde, now, or possibly dbus (oh, and 
do you have policykit installed and the USE flag enabled, that's another 
possibility...).  hal config issues can be seriously un-fun to try to 
debug and fix, even for people who prefer the command line for most stuff.

It /may/ be worth simply doing your mounts from the commandline, and 
similarly, starting your cdplayer app manually instead of letting the 
popup handle it, rather than trying to figure out hal.

I do know that if there's an entry in fstab for it, hal /used/ to ignore 
the fstab entry and mount it in /media on its own anyway, but now defers 
to the fstab entry and ignores the event.  I thought that might be the 
issue, but while you didn't mention fstab, since I asked you about it, 
I'm assuming there's no entry corresponding to either of the device 
entries there.

Something else you might consider, tho it's not urgent and AFAIK is 
unrelated to this, but who knows?  /dev/hd? indicates that you're still 
using the old kernel ide drivers.  Those are now officially deprecated, 
with the newer libata SATA/PATA drivers the encouraged replacement (yes, 
even tho the config still says pata's experimental).  They'll use sd? 
notation instead of the older hd? notation, so then you'll not have any 
hd? devices at all.  Unless you /know/ that you don't have libata support 
for your old ide/pata chipset, I'd strongly encourage you to consider 
switching... at your leisure, tho.

And I'd suggest you run kernel 2.6.27 or newer (/I'd/ suggest 2.6.30 or 
newer, probably 2.6.31 as 2.6.32 won't be keyworded stable yet, but...) 
as the newer udevs work best with it, even if they only require 2.6.25.

It's /possible/ that the problem will more or less "magically" disappear, 
if you switch to the SATA/PATA drivers, with a reasonably new kernel and 
udev, and dbus and hal, while you are at it.  I'd at least ensure I was 
running the latest stable of each.  Then do a revdep-rebuild, and at 
least rebuild kdelibs if anything changed.  If we're lucky, it's just 
something getting out of sync, not any real bug or config issue, and 
updating to the latest stable (or latest ~arch if that's what you 
normally run) on all of it, plus rebuilding kdelibs and doing a revdep-
rebuild, will get you running without even touching the headache that hal 
and policykit could well be if it's necessary to debug their config.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman