Debian Bug report logs - #432103
hal: Gives unknown mount option "flush" when mounting an USB stick (vfat)

Toggle useless messages

Message #5 received at submit@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Dieter Weber <uellue.unterwegs@freenet.de>

To: Debian Bug Tracking System <submit@bugs.debian.org>

Subject: hal: Gives unknown mount option "flush" when mounting an USB stick (vfat)

Date: Sat, 07 Jul 2007 17:19:57 +0200

Package: hal
Version: 0.5.9.1-2
Severity: important
Tags: patch


I'm using KDE. When I plug in a vfat-formatted USB stick KDE tries to mount it, 
but Konqueror displays an error box with this message:

     mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda, missing 
     codepage or other error In some cases useful info is found in syslog - 
     try dmesg | tail or so

In the output of dmesg I find the following lines, the last indicating the error:

     usb 4-4: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 6
     usb 4-4: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
     scsi3 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
     usb-storage: device found at 6
     usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
       Vendor: USB       Model: DISK Pro          Rev: 1100
       Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 00
     SCSI device sda: 3963904 512-byte hdwr sectors (2030 MB)
     sda: Write Protect is off
     sda: Mode Sense: 43 00 00 00
     sda: assuming drive cache: write through
     SCSI device sda: 3963904 512-byte hdwr sectors (2030 MB)
     sda: Write Protect is off
     sda: Mode Sense: 43 00 00 00
     sda: assuming drive cache: write through
      sda: unknown partition table
     sd 3:0:0:0: Attached scsi removable disk sda
     usb-storage: device scan complete
     FAT: Unrecognized mount option "flush" or missing value

Mounting the stick as root with the "mount" command works.

The problems disappears when line 155 in 
/usr/share/hal/fdi/policy/10osvendor/20-storage-methods.fdi
is commented out:

      <!-- allow these mount options for vfat -->
      <match key="volume.fstype" string="vfat">
        <match key="/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/computer:system.kernel.name" string="Linux">
          <append key="volume.mount.valid_options" type="strlist">utf8</append>
          <append key="volume.mount.valid_options" type="strlist">shortname=</append>
          <append key="volume.mount.valid_options" type="strlist">codepage=</append>
          <append key="volume.mount.valid_options" type="strlist">iocharset=</append>
          <append key="volume.mount.valid_options" type="strlist">umask=</append>
          <append key="volume.mount.valid_options" type="strlist">dmask=</append>
          <append key="volume.mount.valid_options" type="strlist">fmask=</append>
          <append key="volume.mount.valid_options" type="strlist">uid=</append>
<!--      <append key="volume.mount.valid_options" type="strlist">flush</append> -->
        </match>
        <match key="/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/computer:system.kernel.name" string="FreeBSD">
          <append key="volume.mount.valid_options" type="strlist">longnames</append>
          <append key="volume.mount.valid_options" type="strlist">shortnames</append>
          <append key="volume.mount.valid_options" type="strlist">nowin95</append>
          <append key="volume.mount.valid_options" type="strlist">-u=</append>
          <append key="volume.mount.valid_options" type="strlist">-g=</append>
          <append key="volume.mount.valid_options" type="strlist">-m=</append>
          <append key="volume.mount.valid_options" type="strlist">-M=</append>
          <append key="volume.mount.valid_options" type="strlist">-L=</append>
          <append key="volume.mount.valid_options" type="strlist">-D=</append>
        </match>
      </match>

After changing the file hald needs to be restarted.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: lenny/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (650, 'testing'), (600, 'unstable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.18-4-686 (SMP w/1 CPU core)
Locale: LANG=de_DE.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=de_DE.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages hal depends on:
ii  adduser                 3.103            Add and remove users and groups
ii  dbus                    1.1.1-1          simple interprocess messaging syst
ii  hal-info                20070618-1       Hardware Abstraction Layer - fdi f
ii  libc6                   2.5-9+b1         GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  libdbus-1-3             1.1.1-1          simple interprocess messaging syst
ii  libdbus-glib-1-2        0.73-2           simple interprocess messaging syst
ii  libexpat1               1.95.8-3.4       XML parsing C library - runtime li
ii  libgcc1                 1:4.2-20070627-1 GCC support library
ii  libglib2.0-0            2.12.12-1        The GLib library of C routines
ii  libhal-storage1         0.5.9.1-2        Hardware Abstraction Layer - share
ii  libhal1                 0.5.9.1-2        Hardware Abstraction Layer - share
ii  libsmbios1              0.13.6-1         Provide access to (SM)BIOS informa
ii  libstdc++6              4.2-20070627-1   The GNU Standard C++ Library v3
ii  libusb-0.1-4            2:0.1.12-7       userspace USB programming library
ii  libvolume-id0           0.105-4          libvolume_id shared library
ii  lsb-base                3.1-23.1         Linux Standard Base 3.1 init scrip
ii  pciutils                1:2.2.4~pre4-1   Linux PCI Utilities
ii  udev                    0.105-4          /dev/ and hotplug management daemo
ii  usbutils                0.72-8           Linux USB utilities

Versions of packages hal recommends:
ii  eject                         2.1.5-2    ejects CDs and operates CD-Changer

-- no debconf information

Message #10 received at 432103@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Michael Biebl <biebl@debian.org>

To: Dieter Weber <uellue.unterwegs@freenet.de>, 432103@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#432103: hal: Gives unknown mount option "flush" when mounting an USB stick (vfat)

Date: Sun, 08 Jul 2007 17:11:16 +0200

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Dieter Weber wrote:
> Package: hal
> Version: 0.5.9.1-2
> Severity: important
> Tags: patch
> 
> 
> I'm using KDE. When I plug in a vfat-formatted USB stick KDE tries to mount it, 
> but Konqueror displays an error box with this message:
> 
>      mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda, missing 
>      codepage or other error In some cases useful info is found in syslog - 
>      try dmesg | tail or so
> 

Hi Dieter,

thanks for your efforts but unfortunately your proposed fix is not the
correct solution.
You should either upgrade to a more recent kernel (which supports the
flush option for vfat) or the kde automounter should be told to not pass
the flush option down to hal (for older kernels).
HAL should not enforce the policy (the mount options in this case),
that's the job of the desktop session.
Generally disabling the flush option is imho wrong and I'm thus closing
this bug.

If you don't agree, feel free to reopen the bug and reassign it to the
corresponding KDE package.

Cheers,
Michael

-- 
Why is it that all of the instruments seeking intelligent life in the
universe are pointed away from Earth?

[signature.asc (application/pgp-signature, attachment)]

Message #15 received at 432103-done@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Michael Biebl <biebl@debian.org>

To: Dieter Weber <uellue.unterwegs@freenet.de>, 432103-done@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#432103: hal: Gives unknown mount option "flush" when mounting an USB stick (vfat)

Date: Sun, 08 Jul 2007 17:12:36 +0200

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Forgot to actually close the bug with my last email...


-- 
Why is it that all of the instruments seeking intelligent life in the
universe are pointed away from Earth?

[signature.asc (application/pgp-signature, attachment)]

Message #20 received at 432103-submitter@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: "Christoph Pfister" <christophpfister@gmail.com>

To: 432103-submitter@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#432103: hal: Gives unknown mount option "flush" when mounting an USB stick (vfat)

Date: Sun, 8 Jul 2007 22:52:16 +0200

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

reopen 432103
thanks

The attached patch only enables "flush" for kernel versions >= 2.6.19.
This is imho quite a good solution as the other options (add some dep
to newer kernel to force update; do kernel detection in kde) seem much
less appropriate.

Christoph

[hal.diff (text/plain, attachment)]

Message #25 received at 432103-done@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: "Christoph Pfister" <christophpfister@gmail.com>

To: 432103-done@bugs.debian.org

Subject: new kernel uploaded to testing fixes problem

Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2007 12:08:57 +0200

2.6.21 made its way into testing and so this bug and the proposed
patch become obsolete.

Christoph

Send a report that this bug log contains spam.