37

I would appreciate a possibility to configure in systemsettings handling of external devices in KDE, as USB stick, CD, DVD, especially with the following options:
- Mount the device automatically to the automatic mount point defined by the underlying system (before an action is chosen, for instance to browse to it in Krusader and not in Dolphin)
- What to do with a device (always resettable from that configuration dialog):
* Do nothing
* Open dialog with registered actions
* Open a default action automatically (for instance playing a Video DVD automatically in Dragonplayer)

Many users might find this more comfortable than using the current Device Notifier plasmoid. The above options should not be in a plasmoid, but configurable by systemsettings and directly integrated with KDE, in my opinion.

At the moment, I can define only the actions in systemsettings itself, but not the moment when they get mounted.

Additional note:
On most desktop systems with installed KDE4 from scratch it would be very comfortable at least to open a dialog automatically, if a new external device is connected offering the default actions. From my understanding there has to be installed AND added in the Device Notifier plasmoid to his KDE session. Thus insert a Video DVD -> offer an action to play it (with the possibility to remember this action), insert an Audio CD, insert an USB flash disk and so on should work "out of the box", not after manually preparing the desktop for each user.
IMHO, a plasmoid is a gimmick for doing something extra, but mounting and handling devices is a substantial functionality of each desktop system. To force the user to activate a plasmoid for doing so is not the nice way.

This would probably require only minor changes to the Solid User Interface server in KDE Daemon to effect this ( at least the show on device connected part )

Sounds good and would be nice to have.
The focus should be on mounting independently from whether an action is chosen or not, means also in case of "Do nothing". It could be mounted asynchronously in background and waiting for finalizing mounting only if an action is chosen directly, that would be ok.
It makes no sense to not mount the device, because if someone adds a digital camera, USB stick, CD, DVD and so on he most probably intends to do something with it. And if he plugs the device only for fun nothing dramatical happens if it is mounted.
At the moment, for example, if I want to browse photos from a digital USB camera in Krusader (which is not a predefined action) I have to
- either choose some dummy action as Open in Dolphin and than close the application which I don't really need for browsing at that moment
- or mount it manually after the camera is plugged in
for getting the camera mounted on the default mount point.

As I said above, the external device handling should be in one configuration module from my point of view, may be with tabs, where you can maintain:
- the possible actions for a device (as already exists in a module)
- choose the default action for each device in the above list
- what to to if the device is plugged in:
* Open dialog with registered actions (default)
* Open the default action defined above automatically
* Do nothing / Ignore

There's only an open issue how to unmount a device, now and with the changes described here. At the moment, this can be done with the Device Notifier plasmoid. Maybe there is a smarter solution, because the plasmoid must be explicitely added by each user.
I would appreciate rather a standard icon in systray which appears in each case if at least one external device is connected and where
- a particular device can be unmounted,
- all devices can be unmounted at once
or so. It might be also configurable in the KCM module, whether this icon appears or not, for purists

And the "Auto-mounting enabled" could be also a configuration option.
(for luck this is called brainstorming, so I don't have to stop babble )

... or split the option "Do nothing" in:
- Mount, but do nothing else
- Do nothing
That would be fine, too.

yep - auto mount is a must. Its very annoying when you want to save a file to usb form any editor, and its not here!!!. Open dolphin and close, it is ridiculous.

Its a dead end for new users

Perhaps the Solid User Interface server ( KDED Module ) should be modified to automatically mount a device upon insertion. This would also allow popping up the dialog for removable media. ( Media that were present last time should be ignored though.. at least until disconnected and reconnected again )

The automatic mounting would be a first step.
But it's more complex - there should not be forgotten the explicit unmount by the user - for instance of an USB stick were data were written. There is still necessary installing the Device Notifier plasmoid for the purpose to achieve this over KDE and not from command line. And even with this plasmoid you cannot see that there are devices connected, you must open the plasmoid's popup. This should not be optional but default. How can an external device be disconnected in another, smarter way? Changing the plasmoid's icon on connected devices and activating it by default?

Let's say it with different words: The way how the Device Notifier plasmoid represents devices in the popup is ok for me, except the plasmoid icon (which should be different if devices are connected). But this plasmoid should either be installed and activated in KDE by default or the better solution in my point of few: put it in the systray, beside the Job Notifier. That's my wish.
... and make it more configurable as described above in the second "go".

Maybe this can be divided in issues for KDE 4.3 and 4.4, if some of them are too complicated. Please take this as a wish, may be it is a hard work for the developers:
Step 1 - always auto-mount external devices immediately in background
Step 2 - adapt the Device Notifier plasmoid icon if devices are connected, still use the plasmoid
Step 3 - Move the Device Notifier from an optional plasmoid directly to systray
Step 4 - Make it configurable in a configuration module as initially described here.

I don't think auto-mounting is a good idea. I am strongly against the system doing anything with the camera/usb-stick/cd until I tell it to do so. It could be configurable if auto-mounting should be done, but it's not by chance that all the main distributions haven't auto-mounting enabled (it would be perfectly possible). Especially cameras are a big issue, you don't want them to be unusable for a couple of minutes because they have to transfer the picture names and so on (which unfortunately happens on Windows and on certain Linux distros).

What obviously should be done is having an option to just mount the media inserted, and to make that possible even without having the device notifier applet present (configurable, of course, since many users quite like the current way with the notifier applet). Maybe there could be an option in systemsettings to display some icon in the systray, so that unmounting is possible too without opening dolphin or having the notifier applet present.

@blueget:
Auto-mount to have configurable (enabled/disabled, even with disabled as default) would be a compromise from my point of view between desktop users and purists, although that default limits the usability "out of the box", anyway. In each case, after installing KDE from scratch there should be a popup for each new device of that kind:
- Choose the default action
- Choose an action from an offer of registered applications
- Mount only
- Do nothing
[ ] Remember this choice
Which should be resettable in a KCM module.

In each case there is a need to cover cases as mentioned above with meaningless opening and closing and application like Dolphin by launching somewhat action for getting the device mounted to use it from an application as Krusader Also it's not a good solution to add for example Krusader as an action to a particular device, there should be only essential applications bound to specific devices.

As I said, connecting an external device means in most use cases that the user wants to use this device. I cannot see the case that auto-mounting a device would mean blocking this device, but the device will be ready to be accessed as soon as a particular application is launched to do so, instead. That's the normal use-case.

@blueget:
Auto-mount to have configurable (enabled/disabled, even with disabled as default) would be a compromise from my point of view between desktop users and purists, although that default limits the usability "out of the box", anyway. In each case, after installing KDE from scratch there should be a popup for each new device of that kind:
- Choose the default action
- Choose an action from an offer of registered applications
- Mount only to
- Do nothing
[ ] Remember this choice
Which should be resettable in a KCM module.

In each case there is a need to cover cases as mentioned above with meaningless opening and closing and application like Dolphin by launching somewhat action for getting the device mounted to use it from an application as Krusader Also it's not a good solution to add for example Krusader as an action to a particular device, there should be only essential applications bound to specific devices.

As I said, connecting an external device means in most use cases that the user wants to use this device. I cannot see the case that auto-mounting a device would mean blocking this device, but the device will be ready to be accessed as soon as a particular application is launched to do so, instead. That's the normal use-case.

blueget wrote:Especially cameras are a big issue, you don't want them to be unusable for a couple of minutes because they have to transfer the picture names and so on (which unfortunately happens on Windows and on certain Linux distros).

What do you mean exactly? (I access my camera via card reader and have no problems, might be something about connecting via usb?)

The only problem I could imagine is the software synchronizes the data form camera. But thats a particular software problem, not camera.

But if you connect device to PC anyway this will be done, sooner or later, so whats the point to wait.

Another solution, could be a usb:/ kio slave, so all devices would be discoverable via file managers even if they are not yet mounted. Just click on a device icon and it automounts


As for Notifier plasmoid, it should have 3 icons:
White or gray (like it is now), when no devices are pluged in
Green, when devices are ready
Red, when any device is in action (red alerts user not to unplug it in any way)