Calibre linux mounting conflict -- PRS-505/Ubuntu

cutterjohn42 · 11-25-2009, 12:01 PM

I think that I've finally got it nailed down as far as Ubuntu 9.10 x86-64 goes that is: (this is for calibre 0.6.14 I need to go back and re-check for .24)

Ubuntu 9.10 will mount the PRS-505 main memory and storage card(s) to the desktop as USB mass storage devices automagically.

(A) Now, if I LEAVE those devices MOUNTED as done by Ubuntu and THEN run calibre it will ALSO attempt to mount the 505 + cards, and this is where the problem comes in I think. Somewhere in here /etc/fstab gets FUBARed, and I'm betting that it is Calibre's fault as it attempts to blindly mount an already mounted device and ends up removing the relevant entries in fstab.

(B) Now, if I UMOUNT the devices(505) in Ubuntu BEFORE running Calibre, Calibre will go ahead, find and mount the 505, and then I can UNMOUNT them in Calibre which works fine.

(C) I need to re-check what happens if I quit Calibre w/o "ejecting" them inside of Calibre if I had tried (B), but IIRC it behaves as though it wasn't mounted.

(A) can be a problem as it leaves no way to safely unmount the devices as there are no corresponding fstab entries which could lead to an inconsistent filesystem(likely) or entirely trashed filesystem(unlikely). It also leaves empty mount point directory entries which can lead to odd device mount names unless cleaned out manually(irritating).

Now, since I've finally gotten around to upgading again 0.6.14 -> .24 just now I'll have to re-do all of this and ensure that I hit all relevant combinations, but I think the end result is that Calibre should attempt to check if the base distro automatically mounted the reader BEFORE it goes ahead and tries to mount it on it's own. It appears to me that current(.14) behavior is to just brute force mount devices regardless of anything which is a very poor implementation/practice.

This likely applies to ANY reader that various distros are capable of automatically mounting on their own and not just restricted to Ubuntu 9.10/9.04/etc.

[EDIT]
I'll try to update this tomorrow for 0.6.24 but I have a sneaking suspicion that behavior will be identical.

(It won't really bother me since pulseaudio in 9.10 is leaking like sieve and will undoubted be gobbling down a couple gigabyte of RAM RESIDENT by tomorrow, and I'll want to re-boot anyways which I will also want to do after mangling the mount system. I suppose that I should also mention that after Calibre removes the device entries in fstab, the base mounting mechanism doesn't acknowledge physical disconnect of the device. i.e. I pull the USB cable then re-insert and it will not re-mount the reader.)
[/EDIT]

kovidgoyal · 11-25-2009, 02:51 PM

calibre does check if the distro has already mounted the device. Apparently the check is failing on your OS.

11-25-2009, 12:01 PM	#1
cutterjohn42 Addict Posts: 274 Karma: 1029955 Join Date: Feb 2009 Device: Palm IIIx, EBM-911, REB-1100(dead), PRS-505	Calibre linux mounting conflict -- PRS-505/Ubuntu I think that I've finally got it nailed down as far as Ubuntu 9.10 x86-64 goes that is: (this is for calibre 0.6.14 I need to go back and re-check for .24) Ubuntu 9.10 will mount the PRS-505 main memory and storage card(s) to the desktop as USB mass storage devices automagically. (A) Now, if I LEAVE those devices MOUNTED as done by Ubuntu and THEN run calibre it will ALSO attempt to mount the 505 + cards, and this is where the problem comes in I think. Somewhere in here /etc/fstab gets FUBARed, and I'm betting that it is Calibre's fault as it attempts to blindly mount an already mounted device and ends up removing the relevant entries in fstab. (B) Now, if I UMOUNT the devices(505) in Ubuntu BEFORE running Calibre, Calibre will go ahead, find and mount the 505, and then I can UNMOUNT them in Calibre which works fine. (C) I need to re-check what happens if I quit Calibre w/o "ejecting" them inside of Calibre if I had tried (B), but IIRC it behaves as though it wasn't mounted. (A) can be a problem as it leaves no way to safely unmount the devices as there are no corresponding fstab entries which could lead to an inconsistent filesystem(likely) or entirely trashed filesystem(unlikely). It also leaves empty mount point directory entries which can lead to odd device mount names unless cleaned out manually(irritating). Now, since I've finally gotten around to upgading again 0.6.14 -> .24 just now I'll have to re-do all of this and ensure that I hit all relevant combinations, but I think the end result is that Calibre should attempt to check if the base distro automatically mounted the reader BEFORE it goes ahead and tries to mount it on it's own. It appears to me that current(.14) behavior is to just brute force mount devices regardless of anything which is a very poor implementation/practice. This likely applies to ANY reader that various distros are capable of automatically mounting on their own and not just restricted to Ubuntu 9.10/9.04/etc. [EDIT] I'll try to update this tomorrow for 0.6.24 but I have a sneaking suspicion that behavior will be identical. (It won't really bother me since pulseaudio in 9.10 is leaking like sieve and will undoubted be gobbling down a couple gigabyte of RAM RESIDENT by tomorrow, and I'll want to re-boot anyways which I will also want to do after mangling the mount system. I suppose that I should also mention that after Calibre removes the device entries in fstab, the base mounting mechanism doesn't acknowledge physical disconnect of the device. i.e. I pull the USB cable then re-insert and it will not re-mount the reader.) [/EDIT] Last edited by cutterjohn42; 11-25-2009 at 12:14 PM.

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11-25-2009, 02:51 PM	#2
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 44,573 Karma: 24495948 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	calibre does check if the distro has already mounted the device. Apparently the check is failing on your OS.

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