removable devices

Donatas G. dgvirtual at akl.lt
Thu Apr 27 12:43:45 UTC 2006


Gabriel Dragffy wrote:
> It seems I have found the solution to my own problem. When browsing files on 
> my USB drive through a KDE app it uses the address media:/sda1/????   the 
> apps treat this as a remote address. If I replace this address with the 
> rather more simple /media/sda1/?? then everything is hunky-dory. I gotta ask 
> what is the logic behind browsing files with such things as system:/ media:/ 
> file:/  It only seems to cause problems and doesn't solve any. I like many 
> others have been caught by the system:/  home bug and it's absurd, infact 
> encountering this bug actually gave me the idea to check what addresses KDE 
> apps were using for my USB devices.
> 
> Are the developers going to change this ridiculous behaviour?

I guess the idea is to go beyond the unix "limitation" of having all the
different storage devices being represented as directories, while the
users (especially those coming from windows world) are rather accustomed
to treating devices as separate devices with their own hierarchies. This
is especially true of the dual-boot systems.

So We have:

Windows             | regular unix    | KDE
  system disc C:\   |   /media/hda1   |   media:/hda1
  data disc D:\     |   /media/hda3   |   media:/hda3
  nonexistent       |   /             |   media:/hda2
  floppy disc A:\   |   /media/floppy |   media:/fd0
  cdrom disc E:\    |   /media/hdc0   |   media:/hdc0
  flash disc F:\    |   /media/sda1   |   media:/sda1

I, having a double boot system, rather like the KDE way of doing it - I
like partitions/removable media to have their own separate root and an
independent directory tree.

However:

1. the KDE system is not finished up, has a lot of bugs, which makes it
much less usable than the regular unix system for many a user;

2. the KDE system is not as descriptive as windows either; a non
technical user would never call a disc media:/hda1 (or /media/hda1 to
that matter, but if you can rename /media/hda1 to /media/win_d no
problem, and you can even rename the link to the partition hda1 in
media:/ to win_d, that does not change the path once you click on the
link - it is back to media:/hda1/ !!!)

3. the KDE system is confusing:
    * media:/hda1/file.txt
    * system:/media/hda1/file.txt
    * file:/media/hda1/file.txt
    * /media/hda1/file.txt
-- all mean the same thing!!!

4. Even if you could work it out in a more useable, user-friendly
manner, it would be very hard to establish a common standard; did you
notice that all the system:/ and media:/ thing seems  to be coming out
of nowhere, it is not documentend anythere, there are no serious
discussions among KDE developers and users (except for limited forums
like this - correct me if I am wrong!)

My suggestion:

I think the system:/ and media:/ could turn into a nice innovation, but
FOR NOW I would suggest patching Kubuntu so that, like it is already
done with system:/home, all the links to media devices in system:/ and
media:/ would simply point to a specified partition AS IT IS MOUNTED IN
THE UNIX FILE TREE.

So, once in media:/ I click an icon "flash" (which is renamed from sda1)
I would be kicked into /media/flash/ (the name, again, I choose myself).

All the best to Kubuntu and KDE architects! Thank you for the wonderful
desktop!

Donatas G.
KDE translation into Lithuanian team coordinator





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