[CentOS] Slightly OT: Extra icons on desktop

Mon Apr 28 22:18:16 UTC 2008
William L. Maltby <CentOS4Bill at triad.rr.com>

On Mon, 2008-04-28 at 13:52 -0700, MHR wrote:
> On Thu, Apr 24, 2008 at 3:36 PM, William L. Maltby
> <CentOS4Bill at triad.rr.com> wrote:
> >
> >  I see that you have solved. If for some reason you wish to keep both
> >  definitions (there may be reasons), just add "noauto" (no quotes) to one
> >  or both of the entries. This might be useful when you want to mount a
> >  different volume, e.g. as a "temp" mount for backup or copy purposes.
> >  This is handy when you have, e.g., a couple identical looking external
> >  usb drives that are used for different purposes on multiple machines.
> >
> >  With "label" and "noauto", it keeps me from accidentally mounting the
> >  wrong one. No, external labels won't do - purposes change frequently.
> >
> 
> I'm not sure I understand this - there are no duplicate entries in
> fstab, and the /misc volume does not automount during the boot, or
> didn't the last time I booted the machine.

The entry in fstab will mount automatically unless noauto is specified.
With HAL, UDEV et al active on your system, it is safe to assume that
one of them is "mounting" the device. At the time X starts, devices that
are handled via this facility will be made available to the user of the
desktop (and "ownership" is assigned to that user too IIUC). I don't
recall seeing noauto in your fstab entry.

Before logging on via X, switch to a vt and type mount. You'll probably
see the device already mounted. Then after you log in via X, do "mount"
again. I expect you'll see two mounts on the device.

> 
> The problem is that I still have two icons on the desktop for a single
> mounted disk.

AFAIK, that is not a problem except to the "wetware". The system is
perfectly happy with it. See "man mount" and look for "bind" to see
evidence of this.

I'm not that knowledgeable about the desktop, but I think Gnome has some
stuff it starts up that comminucates with HAL or udev to locate
removable devices and make them available on the desktop. This goes
beyond mount, IIUC. Witness a CD or DVD that is a video or music media.
It has no file system, as we understand it, and can't be formally
mounted. I *think* that's correct. Those devices should get accessed
through the raw device interfaces.

Maybe Gnome has some preferences about this?

> <snip>

HTH
-- 
Bill