automounting cd-rom & cd-rw devices

[Joshua Lokken]

* Jay Moore <jaymo at cromagnon.cullmail.com> [2004-03-29 08:24]:
> On Sunday 28 March 2004 12:44 am, Malcolm Kay wrote:
> > On Sunday 28 March 2004 11:43, Jay Moore wrote:
> > > I have a FreeBSD 4.9 system; I am also running KDE...
> > >
> > > I'm building this system for my son (college student)  <snip >...
> > > </snip> ...................  how to make the cd-rw & cd-rom devices
> > > usable without requiring him to start a root shell and mount/umount these
> > > devices.
> 
> > > 1) Should I automount cd's?
> >
> > Depends what you mean by auto-mount
> 
> Good point... I guess what I'd really meant is automount in the Windoze sense 
> of the word; i.e. if I put a music cd in I can play music, if I put a data cd 
> in I can read the files. I (regular joe user) don't have to su, or sudo to 
> mount the device, and if I put a music cd in I don't cause a panic by trying 

Audio CDs don't need to be mounted, but you may need to have similar
permissions on the device to get them to play.


> to mount the device as a file system. In short, I want an automount that can 
> figure out whether I've got a music cd or a file system, and "do the right 
> thing".
> 
> > > 2) What is the "best way" to allow ordinary users to mount cd's?

As someone mentioned earlier; /usr/ports/security/sudo allowd you to
do exactly what you've asked about.

 
> But there are two things that concern me:
> 1) once the file system cd is mounted, a fixed amount of "no activity" time 
> must pass before it is umount'd

I'm not sure what you mean by this.  I've never had to wait for any
length of time to unmount a CD-ROM, however, you will not be able to
unmount it if you are currently in the directory that the drive is
mounted on;)


> 2) security implications ?!!
> 
> Item 1) is a concern mostly 'cause it's just kind of kludge ("oh yeah, I have 
> to wait for 60 seconds before I can eject my data cd"). Item 2) is a concern 
> 'cause college campuses are the most hostile network environments I've ever 
> seen.

Again, I've never heard of this.  Anyone else?

 
> I don't mean to sound critical (really)... maybe there's just no good way to 
> do this in FreeBSD. If that's the case, maybe WinXP is the best route for the 
> "average user".

I think the key here is "average user."


-- 
Joshua

Fascinating, a totally parochial attitude.
		-- Spock, "Metamorphosis", stardate 3219.8