[Pkg-utopia-maintainers] Bug#561737: udisks: Udisks-daemon prevents mounting of floppy disks

[Petra Ruebe-Pugliese]

Package: udisks
Version: 1.0.1+git20100614-1+b1
Severity: normal


-- System Information:
Debian Release: squeeze/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.32-5-686 (SMP w/1 CPU core)
Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages udisks depends on:
ii  dbus                  1.2.24-3           simple interprocess messaging syst
ii  libatasmart4          0.17+git20100219-2 ATA S.M.A.R.T. reading and parsing
ii  libc6                 2.11.2-5           Embedded GNU C Library: Shared lib
ii  libdbus-1-3           1.2.24-3           simple interprocess messaging syst
ii  libdbus-glib-1-2      0.88-2             simple interprocess messaging syst
ii  libdevmapper1.02.1    2:1.02.48-3        The Linux Kernel Device Mapper use
ii  libglib2.0-0          2.24.1-1           The GLib library of C routines
ii  libgudev-1.0-0        160-1              GObject-based wrapper library for 
ii  libparted0debian1     2.3-2              The GNU Parted disk partitioning s
ii  libpolkit-backend-1-0 0.96-2             PolicyKit backend API
ii  libpolkit-gobject-1-0 0.96-2             PolicyKit Authorization API
ii  libsgutils2-2         1.29-1             utilities for devices using the SC
ii  libudev0              160-1              libudev shared library
ii  udev                  160-1              /dev/ and hotplug management daemo

Versions of packages udisks recommends:
ii  dosfstools                    3.0.9-1    utilities for making and checking 
pn  hdparm                        <none>     (no description available)
ii  mtools                        4.0.12-1   Tools for manipulating MSDOS files
pn  ntfs-3g                       <none>     (no description available)
pn  ntfsprogs                     <none>     (no description available)
pn  policykit-1                   <none>     (no description available)

Versions of packages udisks suggests:
pn  cryptsetup                    <none>     (no description available)
pn  mdadm                         <none>     (no description available)
pn  reiserfsprogs                 <none>     (no description available)
pn  xfsprogs                      <none>     (no description available)

-- no debconf information


Hello,

I wanted to file this as a separate bug report, as it has
nothing to do with nautilus or any other surface, but I gather
you do not want to open various threads on essentially the same
problem.

In fact I described the "symptoms" floppy users have been
suffering from lately in a detailed bug report, #59271,
directed to the developers of the "mount" package.

Now this problem has come to be discussed in a recent thread in
debian-user-german at lists.debian.org under the Subject "Mounten
von Disketten".  Explanations given in this thread by other
users made me realise that the fault is apparently not with the
mount program, but with udisks-daemon.

In fact mount works properly as long as udisks-daemon is not
running and vice versa:

,-----[ /bin/bash ]------------------------------------------------------------
| ~ > ps ax | grep udisks
|  2247 ?        Sl     0:00 /usr/lib/udisks/udisks-daemon
|  2248 ?        D      0:00 udisks-daemon: polling /dev/sdb /dev/sdc /dev/sr0
|  2278 pts/3    S+     0:00 grep udisks
| ~ > df -h
| Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
| /dev/sda1              27G   19G  6.8G  74% /
| tmpfs                 252M     0  252M   0% /lib/init/rw
| udev                  247M  252K  247M   1% /dev
| tmpfs                 252M     0  252M   0% /dev/shm
| ~ > mount /floppy     #  floppy drive "makes noises"
| ~ > echo $?
| 0
| > # But nothing has happened:
| ~ > df -h
| Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
| /dev/sda1              27G   19G  6.8G  74% /
| tmpfs                 252M     0  252M   0% /lib/init/rw
| udev                  247M  252K  247M   1% /dev
| tmpfs                 252M     0  252M   0% /dev/shm
| ~ > umount /floppy
| umount: /floppy is not mounted (according to mtab)
| ~ >
| -------- Other terminal, as root:  ---------
| netty:~# kill 2247
| netty:~# ps ax | grep udisks
|  2306 pts/0    S+     0:00 grep udisks
| netty:~#
| -------- Back to first terminal:  ----------
| ~ > mount /floppy
| ~ > df -h
| Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
| /dev/sda1              27G   19G  6.8G  74% /
| tmpfs                 252M     0  252M   0% /lib/init/rw
| udev                  247M  252K  247M   1% /dev
| tmpfs                 252M     0  252M   0% /dev/shm
| /dev/sdc              1.4M  865K  559K  61% /floppy
| ~ >
`------------------------------------------------------------------------------

One participant in the discussion mentioned above proposed that
the problem might be due to the way floppy drives "answer" when
"asked" by udisks whether a medium is inserted or not.  As far
as I understand he said floppy drives cannot detect if a floppy
is inserted or not; however another participant did not share
this view.

Anyway, we now know that there is some sort of misunderstanding
between mount and udisks and the way floppy drives are being
constructed.

BTW: I am talking about any sort of floppy drives: /dev/df0 as
well as USB floppy drives; there is no difference in the
behaviour as to this particular problem.  So the excuse that
developers do not own floppy drives these days is IMHO not
really a valid excuse.

I'd be very pleased if I could be of any help in clearing up
this problem, so I'd willingly act as a "guinea pig"
if there is any particular testing job to be done.

Could you please kindly contact the "mount" crew and see to
Bug #59271 being merged with this one?

  Thanks in advance,
     Petra