I've ranted on this before, but had hoped that it would be addressed in 
Leopard, but apparently not.....

I have several user accounts and one administrator account. I normally am 
using one of the user accounts.

I have several volumes on external drives, these volumes being used for my 
single Time Machine backup or my several SuperDuper! backups.

My preference is that the SuperDuper! backup volumes remain unmounted other 
than when actually being the recipient of a scheduled SuperDuper! backup. 

The problem is that if I switch accounts, either by logging out of one 
account and logging into another, or by logging onto an additional account, 
Mac OS X automatically mounts all of the currently connected volumes.

My method of somewhat addressing the issue is to have an Automator workflow 
which has an embedded AppleScript which then ejects all of the newly mounted 
volumes.The workflow waits twenty seconds after the sign-on so that the 
volumes can mount so they can then be ejected.

I would prefer things to be such that the volumes in question would be 
mounted only when I make a specific request that they be so.

Is there a better way than the Automator workflow to accomplish this?

Many thanks for suggestions and such!


-- 
James Leo Ryan ..... Austin, Texas ..... taliesinsoft@mac.com

In 10.1 and/or 10.3, the automounter got in my way,
so I turned it off by changing YES to NO on its line
in /etc/hostconfig

All local internal disk partitions are still mounted automatically.
All others that I want all the time are controlled by defining them
Unix-style in /etc/fstab and then doing

sudo niload -d fstab . < /etc/fstab

Anything else, I mount when I want it on the command line.

niload of course won't help you in Leopard, but perhaps
some of the above is helpful

-- 
Wes Groleau

   Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns
   it, and finds himself no wiser than before ... He is full of
   murderous resentment of people who are ignorant without having
   come by their ignorance the hard way.
                                         -- Kurt Vonnegut

In article <0001HW.C36E431D0001C6D3B01AD9AF@news.supernews.com>,
 TaliesinSoft <taliesinsoft@mac.com> wrote:

> I've ranted on this before, but had hoped that it would be addressed in 
> Leopard, but apparently not.....
> 
> I have several user accounts and one administrator account. I normally am 
> using one of the user accounts.
> 
> I have several volumes on external drives, these volumes being used for my 
> single Time Machine backup or my several SuperDuper! backups.
> 
> My preference is that the SuperDuper! backup volumes remain unmounted other 
> than when actually being the recipient of a scheduled SuperDuper! backup. 
> 
> The problem is that if I switch accounts, either by logging out of one 
> account and logging into another, or by logging onto an additional account, 
> Mac OS X automatically mounts all of the currently connected volumes.
> 
> My method of somewhat addressing the issue is to have an Automator workflow 
> which has an embedded AppleScript which then ejects all of the newly mounted 
> volumes.The workflow waits twenty seconds after the sign-on so that the 
> volumes can mount so they can then be ejected.
> 
> I would prefer things to be such that the volumes in question would be 
> mounted only when I make a specific request that they be so.
> 
> Is there a better way than the Automator workflow to accomplish this?
> 
> Many thanks for suggestions and such!

It's too bad you don't have a Mac mini or old Mac sitting around that 
you could connect the drives to and use as a backup server. That would 
indirectly solve your problem, right? In my house, we have a Mac mini 
backup server that sits in the closet with a big 4-disk Firewire RAID 
and tape drive hooked up to it:

<http://jollyroger.kicks-ass.org/jollyroger/closet-server.jpg>

The RAID is just a concatenated RAID that serves as storage for our file 
server. But it could alternatively be a backup drive - in fact that's 
exactly what it was before we got the tape drive.

-- 
Note: Please send all responses to the relevant news group. If you 
must contact me through e-mail, let me know when you send email to 
this address so that your email doesn't get eaten by my SPAM filter.

JR

On Sat, 24 Nov 2007 21:27:32 -0600, Jolly Roger wrote
(in article 
<jollyroger-26B2E2.21273124112007@sn-indi.vsrv-sjc.supernews.net>):

[responding to my opening posting in this thread in which I grumped about Mac 
OS X (Leopard) automatically mounting volumes whenever I enabled a different 
account]

> It's too bad you don't have a Mac mini or old Mac sitting around that 
> you could connect the drives to and use as a backup server.

Roger,

Thanks for the reply. Maybe I should pick up a Mac mini and use it for a 
server. Good suggestion!

Jim

-- 
James Leo Ryan ..... Austin, Texas ..... taliesinsoft@mac.com

In article <0001HW.C36E49A500034EA7B01AD9AF@news.supernews.com>,
 TaliesinSoft <taliesinsoft@mac.com> wrote:

> On Sat, 24 Nov 2007 21:27:32 -0600, Jolly Roger wrote
> (in article 
> <jollyroger-26B2E2.21273124112007@sn-indi.vsrv-sjc.supernews.net>):
> 
> [responding to my opening posting in this thread in which I grumped about Mac 
> OS X (Leopard) automatically mounting volumes whenever I enabled a different 
> account]
> 
> > It's too bad you don't have a Mac mini or old Mac sitting around that 
> > you could connect the drives to and use as a backup server.
> 
> Thanks for the reply. Maybe I should pick up a Mac mini and use it for a 
> server. Good suggestion!

They make excellent backup servers, if you ask me.  ...and DNS, and FTP, 
and AFP/SMB, and HTTP, and...  : D

-- 
Note: Please send all responses to the relevant news group. If you 
must contact me through e-mail, let me know when you send email to 
this address so that your email doesn't get eaten by my SPAM filter.

JR

In article <XS52j.39897$Pt.8364@trnddc02>,
 Wes Groleau <groleau+news@freeshell.org> wrote:

> In 10.1 and/or 10.3, the automounter got in my way,
> so I turned it off by changing YES to NO on its line
> in /etc/hostconfig
> 
> All local internal disk partitions are still mounted automatically.
> All others that I want all the time are controlled by defining them
> Unix-style in /etc/fstab and then doing
> 
> sudo niload -d fstab . < /etc/fstab
> 
> Anything else, I mount when I want it on the command line.
> 
> niload of course won't help you in Leopard, but perhaps
> some of the above is helpful

OMG, wouldn't it be something if this simplistic solution solved Jim's 
problem for once and for all, after all this time? 

Jim, have you tried this?

-- 
Note: Please send all responses to the relevant news group. If you 
must contact me through e-mail, let me know when you send email to 
this address so that your email doesn't get eaten by my SPAM filter.

JR

On Sun, 25 Nov 2007 03:08:10 -0600, Jolly Roger wrote
(in article <jollyroger-402FBE.03081025112007@news.supernews.com>):

[in regards to his prior suggestion in this thread to use a Mac mini as a 
server for backups]

> They make excellent backup servers, if you ask me.  ...and DNS, and FTP, 
> and AFP/SMB, and HTTP, and...  : D

A problem with the Mac mini server that occurred to me after my prior posting 
is that at this time SuperDuper! apparently doesn't support its "Smart" 
backup over a network.

-- 
James Leo Ryan ..... Austin, Texas ..... taliesinsoft@mac.com

On Sun, 25 Nov 2007 03:10:54 -0600, Jolly Roger wrote
(in article <jollyroger-0281DA.03105425112007@news.supernews.com>):

> In article <XS52j.39897$Pt.8364@trnddc02>,
>  Wes Groleau <groleau+news@freeshell.org> wrote:
> 
>> In 10.1 and/or 10.3, the automounter got in my way,
>> so I turned it off by changing YES to NO on its line
>> in /etc/hostconfig
>> 
>> All local internal disk partitions are still mounted automatically.
>> All others that I want all the time are controlled by defining them
>> Unix-style in /etc/fstab and then doing
>> 
>> sudo niload -d fstab . < /etc/fstab
>> 
>> Anything else, I mount when I want it on the command line.
>> 
>> niload of course won't help you in Leopard, but perhaps
>> some of the above is helpful
> 
> OMG, wouldn't it be something if this simplistic solution solved Jim's 
> problem for once and for all, after all this time? 
> 
> Jim, have you tried this?

I'll hopefully be getting Wes' suggestion a try this afternoon and will 
report back.

If it works Wes gets the "big hug"!   :-)

-- 
James Leo Ryan ..... Austin, Texas ..... taliesinsoft@mac.com

On Sat, 24 Nov 2007 21:21:27 -0600, Wes Groleau wrote
(in article <XS52j.39897$Pt.8364@trnddc02>):

> In 10.1 and/or 10.3, the automounter got in my way,
> so I turned it off by changing YES to NO on its line
> in /etc/hostconfig
> 
> All local internal disk partitions are still mounted automatically.
> All others that I want all the time are controlled by defining them
> Unix-style in /etc/fstab and then doing
> 
> sudo niload -d fstab . < /etc/fstab
> 
> Anything else, I mount when I want it on the command line.
> 
> niload of course won't help you in Leopard, but perhaps
> some of the above is helpful.

Wes,

Many thanks for the suggestion!

Could you, for someone like me that isn't Unix and/or terminal savvy, 
slightly detail the instructions down to the "idiot" level. I would like to 
give things a try later today.   

Jim


-- 
James Leo Ryan ..... Austin, Texas ..... taliesinsoft@mac.com

In article <0001HW.C36E431D0001C6D3B01AD9AF@news.supernews.com>,
 TaliesinSoft <taliesinsoft@mac.com> wrote:

> I've ranted on this before, but had hoped that it would be addressed in 
> Leopard, but apparently not.....

I, too, was hoping for a change in this behavior.  I have noticed that 
Leopard does seem to do the whole energy saving and sleep thing better 
than Panther and previous OS X versions, however--- leastways on my 
computer (G4 Quicksilver) and with my particular drives (internal 
Seagates).  This may vary with the drive type I suppose.  I used to have 
to eject and then remount my second drive from the Terminal but now I 
leave it going and Leopard does manage it quite well w/o causing me a 
lot of interruption or inconvenience.  OTOH, I still leave my externals 
off most of the time because there is no choice over mounting them or 
not.
> 
> I have several user accounts and one administrator account. I normally am 
> using one of the user accounts.
> 
> I have several volumes on external drives, these volumes being used for my 
> single Time Machine backup or my several SuperDuper! backups.
> 
> My preference is that the SuperDuper! backup volumes remain unmounted other 
> than when actually being the recipient of a scheduled SuperDuper! backup. 
> 
> The problem is that if I switch accounts, either by logging out of one 
> account and logging into another, or by logging onto an additional account, 
> Mac OS X automatically mounts all of the currently connected volumes.
> 
> My method of somewhat addressing the issue is to have an Automator workflow 
> which has an embedded AppleScript which then ejects all of the newly mounted 
> volumes.The workflow waits twenty seconds after the sign-on so that the 
> volumes can mount so they can then be ejected.
> 
> I would prefer things to be such that the volumes in question would be 
> mounted only when I make a specific request that they be so.
> 
> Is there a better way than the Automator workflow to accomplish this?
> 
> Many thanks for suggestions and such!

In article <0001HW.C36F023400014954B01AD9AF@news.supernews.com>,
 TaliesinSoft <taliesinsoft@mac.com> wrote:

> On Sun, 25 Nov 2007 03:08:10 -0600, Jolly Roger wrote
> (in article <jollyroger-402FBE.03081025112007@news.supernews.com>):
> 
> [in regards to his prior suggestion in this thread to use a Mac mini as a 
> server for backups]
> 
> > They make excellent backup servers, if you ask me.  ...and DNS, and FTP, 
> > and AFP/SMB, and HTTP, and...  : D
> 
> A problem with the Mac mini server that occurred to me after my prior posting 
> is that at this time SuperDuper! apparently doesn't support its "Smart" 
> backup over a network.

Ouch - that hurts.  Then again SuperDuper wasn't designed with that kind 
of thing in mind from the beginning. Got a license of Retrospect 
Workgroup handy?  ; )

-- 
Note: Please send all responses to the relevant news group. If you 
must contact me through e-mail, let me know when you send email to 
this address so that your email doesn't get eaten by my SPAM filter.

JR

In article <0001HW.C36E431D0001C6D3B01AD9AF@news.supernews.com>,
 TaliesinSoft <taliesinsoft@mac.com> wrote:

> I've ranted on this before, but had hoped that it would be addressed in 
> Leopard, but apparently not.....

I forgot to ask.  Have you tried Cocktail for this?  It will prevent the 
mounting of external volumes but not internal partitions I don't think.

In article <0001HW.C36F023400014954B01AD9AF@news.supernews.com>,
TaliesinSoft <taliesinsoft@mac.com> wrote:

> A problem with the Mac mini server that occurred to me after my prior posting 
> is that at this time SuperDuper! apparently doesn't support its "Smart" 
> backup over a network.

it supports it just fine.  where did you get that idea?

TaliesinSoft wrote:
> If it works Wes gets the "big hug"!   :-)

It WON'T work exactly as written.

'niload' transfers the /etc/fstab specs into NetInfo
and NetInfo doesn't exist in Leopard.

/etc/hostconfig - probably Leopard is different there, too,
but I don't know.

-- 
Wes Groleau

Change is inevitable.  We need to learn that "inevitable" is
neither a synonym for "good" nor for "bad."
                                -- WWG

TaliesinSoft wrote:
> Could you, for someone like me that isn't Unix and/or terminal savvy, 
> slightly detail the instructions down to the "idiot" level. I would like to 
> give things a try later today. 

I could be very detailed.  I used to have a job that demanded
Reader: "Pick up the half-inch wrench"
   Tech:  "Check"
Reader: "Put it on the upper left bolt"
   Tech:  "Check"
etc.

With a safety observer to ensure that the tech did not say
"Check" until _after_ he had done exactly what the
checksheet reader had said.

BUT, it would be properly detailed for _Panther_
Leopard would be different and I don't have access
to the information I'd need to write the checksheets.

-- 
Wes Groleau
    "Would the prodigal have gone home if
     the elder brother was running the farm?"
                       -- James Jordan

On Sun, 25 Nov 2007 18:57:14 -0600, nospam wrote
(in article <251120071657142628%nospam@nospam.invalid>):

> In article <0001HW.C36F023400014954B01AD9AF@news.supernews.com>,
> TaliesinSoft <taliesinsoft@mac.com> wrote:
> 
>> A problem with the Mac mini server that occurred to me after my prior 
>> posting 
>> is that at this time SuperDuper! apparently doesn't support its "Smart" 
>> backup over a network.
> 
> it supports it just fine.  where did you get that idea?

It looks like I stand corrected! The SuperDuper! help does indeed suggest 
that one create a disk image with "Smart" backup and direct it to the network 
destination. Why I was of a different opinion I don't know.

Thanks for alerting me to my error!

-- 
James Leo Ryan ..... Austin, Texas ..... taliesinsoft@mac.com

In article <0001HW.C370518000008B32B01AD9AF@news.supernews.com>,
 TaliesinSoft <taliesinsoft@mac.com> wrote:

> On Sun, 25 Nov 2007 18:57:14 -0600, nospam wrote
> (in article <251120071657142628%nospam@nospam.invalid>):
> 
> > In article <0001HW.C36F023400014954B01AD9AF@news.supernews.com>,
> > TaliesinSoft <taliesinsoft@mac.com> wrote:
> > 
> >> A problem with the Mac mini server that occurred to me after my prior 
> >> posting 
> >> is that at this time SuperDuper! apparently doesn't support its "Smart" 
> >> backup over a network.
> > 
> > it supports it just fine.  where did you get that idea?
> 
> It looks like I stand corrected! The SuperDuper! help does indeed suggest 
> that one create a disk image with "Smart" backup and direct it to the network 
> destination. Why I was of a different opinion I don't know.
> 
> Thanks for alerting me to my error!

I see a Mac mini, or a cheap old Mac, set up as a backup server is in 
your future!  ; )

-- 
Note: Please send all responses to the relevant news group. If you 
must contact me through e-mail, let me know when you send email to 
this address so that your email doesn't get eaten by my SPAM filter.

JR

On 2007-11-24 19:21:27 -0800, Wes Groleau <groleau+news@freeshell.org> said:

> In 10.1 and/or 10.3, the automounter got in my way,
> so I turned it off by changing YES to NO on its line
> in /etc/hostconfig
> 
> All local internal disk partitions are still mounted automatically.
> All others that I want all the time are controlled by defining them
> Unix-style in /etc/fstab and then doing
> 
> sudo niload -d fstab . < /etc/fstab
> 
> Anything else, I mount when I want it on the command line.
> 
> niload of course won't help you in Leopard, but perhaps
> some of the above is helpful

Well, on my Intel mini running Leopard /etc/hostconfig still exists, 
with a date matching when I installed Leopard. So maybe all that's 
necessary is changing the line (and perhaps restarting).

On Mon, 26 Nov 2007, Steven Fisher wrote:

> On 2007-11-24 19:21:27 -0800, Wes Groleau <groleau+news@freeshell.org> said:
>
>> In 10.1 and/or 10.3, the automounter got in my way,
>> so I turned it off by changing YES to NO on its line
>> in /etc/hostconfig
>> 
>> All local internal disk partitions are still mounted automatically.
>> All others that I want all the time are controlled by defining them
>> Unix-style in /etc/fstab and then doing
>> 
>> sudo niload -d fstab . < /etc/fstab
>> 
>> Anything else, I mount when I want it on the command line.
>> 
>> niload of course won't help you in Leopard, but perhaps
>> some of the above is helpful
>
> Well, on my Intel mini running Leopard /etc/hostconfig still exists, 
> with a date matching when I installed Leopard. So maybe all that's 
> necessary is changing the line (and perhaps restarting).

The hostconfig part is fine. The problem is the mounting - how do you 
mount a USB drive from the command line (or otherwise) in Leopard?

If you have a device in /dev corresponding to the drive, it's simplicity 
itself - you use diskutil, doing a 'diskutil mount' with the right 
parameters. The problem is getting that device name; will a USB drive show 
up as an entry in /dev if it's not mounted? If not, how do you get it to 
do so?

Can someone who has unmounted USB volumes (Wes?) do a 'diskutil list' and 
an 'ls -l /dev/*disk*' and tell us the results?

If it's not there, there may be IOKit craziness we can do. Here's what 
'ioreg' says to me about the ejected-but-not-unplugged USB key i have in 
my machine (edited to show only relevant stuff):

+-o Root  <class IORegistryEntry, retain count 13>
   +-o iMac5,1  <class IOPlatformExpertDevice, registered, matched, active, busy 0, retain count 22>
     +-o AppleACPIPlatformExpert  <class AppleACPIPlatformExpert, registered, matched, active, busy 0, retain count 38>
     | +-o PCI0@0  <class IOACPIPlatformDevice, registered, matched, active, busy 0, retain count 44>
     | | +-o AppleACPIPCI  <class AppleACPIPCI, registered, matched, active, busy 0, retain count 39>
     | |   +-o USB7@1D,7  <class IOPCIDevice, registered, matched, active, busy 0, retain count 11>
     | |   | +-o AppleUSBEHCI  <class AppleUSBEHCI, registered, matched, active, busy 0, retain count 14>
     | |   |   +-o Removable Disk  @fd500000  <class IOUSBDevice, registered, matched, active, busy 0, retain count 8>
     | |   |     +-o IOUSBCompositeDriver  <class IOUSBCompositeDriver, !registered, !matched, active, busy 0, retain count 4>
     | |   |     +-o IOUSBInterface@0  <class IOUSBInterface, registered, matched, active, busy 0, retain count 6>
     | |   |       +-o IOUSBMassStorageClass  <class IOUSBMassStorageClass, !registered, !matched, active, busy 0, retain count 10>
     | |   |         +-o IOSCSILogicalUnitNub@0  <class IOSCSILogicalUnitNub, registered, matched, active, busy 0, retain count 6>
     | |   |         | +-o IOSCSIPeripheralDeviceType00  <class IOSCSIPeripheralDeviceType00, !registered, !matched, active, busy 0, retain count 8>
     | |   |         |   +-o IOBlockStorageServices  <class IOBlockStorageServices, registered, matched, active, busy 0, retain count 5>
     | |   |         |     +-o IOBlockStorageDriver  <class IOBlockStorageDriver, registered, matched, active, busy 0, retain count 6>
     | |   |         +-o IOSCSILogicalUnitNub@1  <class IOSCSILogicalUnitNub, registered, matched, active, busy 0, retain count 6>
     | |   |           +-o IOSCSIPeripheralDeviceType00  <class IOSCSIPeripheralDeviceType00, !registered, !matched, active, busy 0, retain count 8>
     | |   |             +-o IOBlockStorageServices  <class IOBlockStorageServices, registered, matched, active, busy 0, retain count 5>
     | |   |               +-o IOBlockStorageDriver  <class IOBlockStorageDriver, registered, matched, active, busy 0, retain count 6>

So it knows there's something there, it just hasn't got anything in /dev 
or /Volumes for it. All we'd need to do is tell OS X to make a device in 
/dev connected to that thing, and then we can diskutil it. I think we can 
forget about mknod at this point, since OS X is radically different to 
normal unix about how it does devices. But i'm completely at a loss for 
how we might do it :(.

tom

-- 
you can't feel your stomack with glory -- Czako

Steven Fisher wrote:
> On 2007-11-24 19:21:27 -0800, Wes Groleau <groleau+news@freeshell.org> 
> said:
>> niload of course won't help you in Leopard, but perhaps
>> some of the above is helpful
> 
> Well, on my Intel mini running Leopard /etc/hostconfig still exists, 
> with a date matching when I installed Leopard. So maybe all that's 
> necessary is changing the line (and perhaps restarting).

But I said "niload won't help you in Leopard" and that's because
Leopard does not have NetInfo

-- 
Wes Groleau

He that complies against his will is of the same opinion still.
                   -- Samuel Butler, 1612-1680

Tom Anderson wrote:
> Can someone who has unmounted USB volumes (Wes?) do a 'diskutil list' 
> and an 'ls -l /dev/*disk*' and tell us the results?

Sorry.  This is the first time in this thread I've noticed anything 
about USB.  I have no USB disk drives, but my USB flash drives and
CD/DVD drive DO mount automatically.

My suggestion only affects NFS-mounting disk drives.

And the command for that is

sudo  mount  host:/path  /mount-point

-- 
Wes Groleau

    There ain't no right wing,
    there ain't no left wing.
    There's only you and me and we just disagree.
                               (apologies to Jim Krueger)

On Tue, 27 Nov 2007, Wes Groleau wrote:

> Tom Anderson wrote:
>> Can someone who has unmounted USB volumes (Wes?) do a 'diskutil list' and 
>> an 'ls -l /dev/*disk*' and tell us the results?
>
> Sorry.  This is the first time in this thread I've noticed anything 
> about USB.  I have no USB disk drives, but my USB flash drives and 
> CD/DVD drive DO mount automatically.

Whoops! Sorry, i overinterpreted what you said.

> My suggestion only affects NFS-mounting disk drives.
>
> And the command for that is
>
> sudo  mount  host:/path  /mount-point

And this creates a fully operational disk, on the desktop and such? No 
need for diskutil?

tom

-- 
I came here to chew gum and kick ass

Tom Anderson wrote:
> On Tue, 27 Nov 2007, Wes Groleau wrote:
>> sudo  mount  host:/path  /mount-point
> 
> And this creates a fully operational disk, on the desktop and such? No 
> need for diskutil?

It might appear on the desktop.  Depends on your finder settings
and the location of the mount-point.

In more detail, here's what I did for one of them:

(on Mac)
sudo sh        # need root privileges
mkdir /Games   # this will be the mount point
vi /etc/fstab
   # (added to fstab the line
      Symetra:/usr/Games /Network/Games nfs rw,bg,soft 0  0
   # )
niload -d fstab . < /etc/fstab
telnet Symetra    # no, it is NOT a security risk [1]
# login as administrator,
sudo sh
mkdir /usr/Games
chown xxx:staff /usr/Games  # xxx is admin, same UID on both hosts
vi /etc/exports
   # ( added to exports on the remote:
       /usr -alldirs -network x.y.z.0 -mask 255.255.255.0
   # where x.y.z is the IP range within my LAN )
exit      # back to the Mac
mount -a  # get the disk online
exit      # don't need to be root any more

Then with Finder, drag and drop all the games over there
and delete them from the Mac.

HOWEVER, Mac OS gave me some grief because the automounter
doesn't like not having mount points be in /Volumes, and it insists on 
making softlinks in /automounts but there were permissions issues
that interfered with that.  Solution was to disable the automounter
by making the appropriate line of /etc/hostconfig say
AUTOMOUNT=-NO-
and then adding a StartupItem with
    Requires        = ("NFS", "Disks");
and does
    mount -a
during boot.

Since automounter is Off, I lose the disk if the other machine
reboots.  Rarely happens, but to cover it, put mount -a occasionally
in /etc/crontab


-- 
Wes Groleau

   Promote multi-use trails in northeast Indiana!
   http://www.NorthwestAllenTrails.org/