Removable USB storage
Posted: Sun Jul 30, 2017 4:32 pm
Hey, hello!
My first post here.
I've been using Linux maybe 18 years, many distros, but not really deep technically speaking, more as a user.
Just installed and am running Mint 18.2 Mate 64bit.
For the record, I have 2 USB to SATA setups, a USB to IDE box, External USB DVD drive, External USB CDRW, some SD cards, some Compact Flash cards, 3 xD cards and I think 10 USB Flash drives. I work with multimedia fairly often, such is my personal life
I have just removed a fledgling Debian derived distro where the USB devices suddenly became no longer user accessible, after a month of what seemed to be normal permissions. I can't tolerate a distribution randomly changing policies on my devices when all I did was perform a security driven system update, and I was already dissatisfied with the desktop environment options they had. I had tried Mate on that distro, but theirs was Mate 1.08, from 3 years ago. Not a great situation to be so far behind.
I had many good reports about Mint in another forum and Mint offered a current release of Mate on a 64 bit release, so ... how could I lose? I got my files relocated from the hard disk onto my flash drive despite the sudden resistance of the former distro. I ran dd to put the Mint ISO onto another flash drive and proceeded to test the Mint 18.2/Mate 64 bit live session. Very appealing, visually, although I do prefer multi-color icons over monochromatic icons.... I'll tweak that later.
After installing Mint/Mate and logging in as a normal user, I wanted to get used to the new environment and soon, I inserted one of my USB flash drives.
I got pretty scared. It mounted automatically, according to mount command.
Umm, what about those USB devices which have a dirty bit set? Mint/Mate just mounted the dirty device, so I'm worried: will system atime operations screw my data? I'd REALLY prefer to not have the device mounted upon insertion, since I already know the former distro may have borked some of the filesystems.
I'm thinking, lets look into administering this, lets see what tools I have at my disposal in the crisp new distro!
I visited the Mate Control Center, found the disks section, and began testing if I could shut off the magic.
I'm looking at what is happening and what is presented to me, and thinking: "Dear god, when and why did this matter suddenly get so flipping complex?". The best I was able to discover SO FAR, was that I could reconfigure each individual device to NOT automount, but I can only configure after the device has been automounted for the first time to create the entry in the control center for me to edit it. No broad policy statement. Device by device. Same dirty bit issue, now for every writeable device I own.
Rather than continue on my own, I came here hoping there might be direction to a concise, on point discussion (or maybe a how-to) regarding properly and topically adjusting these policies. More, I'd REALLY prefer to not have to SUDO at a commandline or CHOWN every mount point just so I can write my work files to the device I just inserted. Yes, I heard rumblings about removable devices being a security topic maybe 8 years ago (we could open the discussion well after this situation gets addressed), but today, in Mint/Mate, I now have what looks like a great tool and I'd like to get the configuration set right, straight right away. I am the ONLY user of this system, no accounts (other than root are configured) and my plan is there never will be more than these.
I see this topic viewtopic.php?f=90&t=250280&p=1345737&h ... e#p1345737 and can do that, as a start.
Ok, so here it is, this is the main point of my post: Anywhere I can turn to get an overview of how to get my removable USB device access under control?
I will also be looking for labelling to not say silly stuff like UUID but I think the control center tool should be enough.
So, if anyone has a better clue than what I have, I'd really appreciate making these issues right, but specifically, the writing permissions.
-Just an observation: when the installation script asked me if I wanted to install proprietary drivers (I installed from a live session that used ethernet for functional internet access), I was kinda hoping my systems Broadcom BCM4318 WiFi card would get set up for me. Not so. Kubuntu around 14.04 used to set it up. Just saying I was hoping.
-Another thought: After a fresh install, I've learned it is good practice to update the newly installed packages for security fixes.... Yesterday was a bit tough to take, as Synaptic seems to have lost a feature labelled 'Select All Updates', meaning I had to manually set 161 files for updating. Ahh, yesss! Thank you, whoever, for the less than useful modification.
My first post here.
I've been using Linux maybe 18 years, many distros, but not really deep technically speaking, more as a user.
Just installed and am running Mint 18.2 Mate 64bit.
For the record, I have 2 USB to SATA setups, a USB to IDE box, External USB DVD drive, External USB CDRW, some SD cards, some Compact Flash cards, 3 xD cards and I think 10 USB Flash drives. I work with multimedia fairly often, such is my personal life
I have just removed a fledgling Debian derived distro where the USB devices suddenly became no longer user accessible, after a month of what seemed to be normal permissions. I can't tolerate a distribution randomly changing policies on my devices when all I did was perform a security driven system update, and I was already dissatisfied with the desktop environment options they had. I had tried Mate on that distro, but theirs was Mate 1.08, from 3 years ago. Not a great situation to be so far behind.
I had many good reports about Mint in another forum and Mint offered a current release of Mate on a 64 bit release, so ... how could I lose? I got my files relocated from the hard disk onto my flash drive despite the sudden resistance of the former distro. I ran dd to put the Mint ISO onto another flash drive and proceeded to test the Mint 18.2/Mate 64 bit live session. Very appealing, visually, although I do prefer multi-color icons over monochromatic icons.... I'll tweak that later.
After installing Mint/Mate and logging in as a normal user, I wanted to get used to the new environment and soon, I inserted one of my USB flash drives.
I got pretty scared. It mounted automatically, according to mount command.
Umm, what about those USB devices which have a dirty bit set? Mint/Mate just mounted the dirty device, so I'm worried: will system atime operations screw my data? I'd REALLY prefer to not have the device mounted upon insertion, since I already know the former distro may have borked some of the filesystems.
I'm thinking, lets look into administering this, lets see what tools I have at my disposal in the crisp new distro!
I visited the Mate Control Center, found the disks section, and began testing if I could shut off the magic.
I'm looking at what is happening and what is presented to me, and thinking: "Dear god, when and why did this matter suddenly get so flipping complex?". The best I was able to discover SO FAR, was that I could reconfigure each individual device to NOT automount, but I can only configure after the device has been automounted for the first time to create the entry in the control center for me to edit it. No broad policy statement. Device by device. Same dirty bit issue, now for every writeable device I own.
Rather than continue on my own, I came here hoping there might be direction to a concise, on point discussion (or maybe a how-to) regarding properly and topically adjusting these policies. More, I'd REALLY prefer to not have to SUDO at a commandline or CHOWN every mount point just so I can write my work files to the device I just inserted. Yes, I heard rumblings about removable devices being a security topic maybe 8 years ago (we could open the discussion well after this situation gets addressed), but today, in Mint/Mate, I now have what looks like a great tool and I'd like to get the configuration set right, straight right away. I am the ONLY user of this system, no accounts (other than root are configured) and my plan is there never will be more than these.
I see this topic viewtopic.php?f=90&t=250280&p=1345737&h ... e#p1345737 and can do that, as a start.
Ok, so here it is, this is the main point of my post: Anywhere I can turn to get an overview of how to get my removable USB device access under control?
I will also be looking for labelling to not say silly stuff like UUID but I think the control center tool should be enough.
So, if anyone has a better clue than what I have, I'd really appreciate making these issues right, but specifically, the writing permissions.
-Just an observation: when the installation script asked me if I wanted to install proprietary drivers (I installed from a live session that used ethernet for functional internet access), I was kinda hoping my systems Broadcom BCM4318 WiFi card would get set up for me. Not so. Kubuntu around 14.04 used to set it up. Just saying I was hoping.
-Another thought: After a fresh install, I've learned it is good practice to update the newly installed packages for security fixes.... Yesterday was a bit tough to take, as Synaptic seems to have lost a feature labelled 'Select All Updates', meaning I had to manually set 161 files for updating. Ahh, yesss! Thank you, whoever, for the less than useful modification.