tdebase/doc/userguide/removable-disks.docbook

<sect1 id="removable-disks">

<sect1info>
<authorgroup>
<author>
<firstname>Edward</firstname>
<surname>Haven</surname>
<email>edward.haven@gmail.com</email>
</author>
</authorgroup>
</sect1info>

<title>Removable Disks</title>

<para>For &kde; to use any device, removable or not, the device must
first be mounted. When a device is mounted, &kde; gets all the needed
information about the device: how to read it, how to write information to
it, and much more.</para>

<para>The use of a device is controlled by the operating
system and it is important your operating system has tools for managing
these devices. &kde; can also auto mount devices, working with
<acronym>HAL</acronym> (Hardware Abstraction Layer). Your distribution
should have set up <acronym>HAL</acronym> automatically; if not,
consult the documentation provided by your distribution.</para>
<para>There are several ways to find the list of media devices: use
whichever one suits you best:</para>

<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Enter <userinput>media:/</userinput> or
<userinput>system:/media</userinput> into the &konqueror; location bar.</para>
</listitem>

<listitem>
<para>Navigate to it by clicking on the <guilabel>Services</guilabel>
tab in &konqueror;'s Navigation Panel, then selecting <guilabel>Storage
Media</guilabel>.</para>
</listitem>

<listitem>
<para>Select <menuchoice><guimenu>Go</guimenu><guimenuitem>Storage Media</guimenuitem>
</menuchoice> from the &konqueror; menus.</para>
</listitem>

<listitem>
<para>Click the <guilabel>System</guilabel> desktop icon, then from
the window that appears, click on <guilabel>Storage
Media</guilabel>.</para>
</listitem>

</itemizedlist>


<para>The <guilabel>Storage Media</guilabel> location (also known as
the media:/ protocol) will show all devices which are recognized by
&kde;, including the hard drive and &CD; and <acronym>DVD</acronym>
drives, as well as <acronym>USB</acronym> and Firewire devices,
provided that your distribution is set up correctly to tell &kde;
about them.</para>


 <para>You can also setup &kde; to display a device icon
on the desktop. To start or configure this feature in the &kcontrolcenter; go
to
<menuchoice><guilabel>Desktop</guilabel><guilabel>Behavior</guilabel></menuchoice>
and select the <guilabel>Device Icons</guilabel> Tab. The device icon action
can be used to show both mounted and unmounted devices, or to only create an
icon when media is detected and automounted (only if automount is properly
configured), by not checking the unmounted boxes.</para>

<sect2 id="automounting">
<title>Automount</title>

<para>With &kde; 3.5 and newer, devices can be automounted, meaning one only
has to insert the removable disk. &kde; will then open an automount prompt
asking the user <quote>What do you want to do?</quote> with the media. To
configure the list of options prompted for devices open the &kcontrolcenter; and
navigate to <menuchoice><guilabel>Peripherals</guilabel><guilabel>Storage
Media</guilabel></menuchoice>. Here you can add and remove programs from the
list of devices.</para>

<para>The automount feature will only work if
<application>dbus</application>, <application>hal</application> and
<application>udev</application> are installed and the kernel is properly
configured. To find out if they are running on your system check the
<guilabel>Process Table</guilabel> in &ksysguard; for:
<command>hald</command>, <command>dbus-deamon</command>, and
<command>udevd</command>. &kde; does not provide any of these
components. You must check with you distribution.</para>

<itemizedlist>
<title>Related Information</title>
<listitem><para><ulink url="http://wiki.kde.org/tiki-index.php?page=DBUS">HOWTO: setting up D-BUS and HAL with KDE's media ioslave
edit</ulink> (A community maintained HOWTO on the &kde; wiki)</para></listitem>
<listitem><para><ulink url="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/dbus">The DBus page</ulink></para></listitem>
<listitem><para><ulink url="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/hal"></ulink>HAL - Hardware Abstraction Layer</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>

</sect2>

<sect2 id="mounting-removable-disks">
<title>Mounting</title>

<para>If your system does not automount, &kde; is configured to mount and
unmount devices which the current user has permission to mount. If a device
is mounted as the root partition (&ie; <literal>/</literal>), and you log in
to &kde; as a user, &kde; can not mount or unmount it without being given a
higher permission. To check a devices mount permission see the
<filename>/etc/fstab</filename> file.</para>

<para>To mount and unmount devices manually in &kde; one only has to &RMB;
click the device icon in media:/ or on the desktop and select
<guimenuitem>Mount</guimenuitem> or <guimenuitem>Unmount</guimenuitem>, for
removable devices one can also unmount with <guimenuitem>Safely Remove</guimenuitem>. &kde; still requires the device to be setup in
/etc/fstab.</para>
</sect2>




</sect1>

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