Desktop usability: how to unmount devices?

[Scott James Remnant]

On Tue, 2004-09-07 at 20:35 +0200, Martin Pitt wrote:

> As discussed in the meeting, we need to agree to an obvious, easy and safe
> method of unmounting hotpluggable and CD-ROM devices.
> 
Sadly I missed the meeting, but:

> To unmount it again, the user currently has to open the Computer window,
> right-click on the device and select "Unmount" / "Eject".
> 
Anything hidden on a right-click is not discoverable, especially to Mac
users.  Top-level functionality like being able to remove devices needs
to be more accessible, wherever the icon is.

> 3. Just let the user rip out the device; hal will detect this and gvm can
>    unmount it afterwards. Devices are mounted with 'sync' anyway, so this should
>    not damage VFAT devices too badly.
> 
>    + easiest solution :-)
> 
This needs to be supported anyway, I expect our users will just rip USB
devices out without thinking.

>    - processes may still access it; forced unmount does not work in this case
>      and if the user replugs the device, it will appear as another device
> 
fuser solves the "force unmount" case, I think I used to use a lazy one
as well (I'll have to dig my scripts for my watch).

> 5. Add a small icon to the panel if a device is mounted. Clicking would attempt
>    to unmount and pop up an error box if it fails (perhaps with the
>    applications that still use the device).
>    + panel is visible every time
>    + safe and consistent
>    - small icons are likely to be overseen (but you get used to it, I guess)
> 
This is exactly what I thought the notification area was for when it was
invented, seeing a little picture of a CD there when you've got a CD in
the drive seems natural ... this could be usefully extended into the
hotplug/hal tray if we get that for hoary.

It does conflict with a CD player though ... which one is the disk and
which one isn't?

> 6. Add a small icon to the desktop if a device is mounted. Left-click could
>    bring up a Nautilus window with the content, right-click the usual context
>    menu with the unmount option. Same error box here if device is busy.
>    + safe and consistent
>    + MacOS X does this (and they probably know something about easy user
>      interfaces)
>    + GNOME standard
>    + this approach does not really require to immediately open a Nautilus
>      window (which might annoy people, including me :-) )
>    - Icons might be covered by windows
>    - Additional Desktop icons do not fit into the current Desktop policy
> 
This also gives people an icon they want to get rid of, a good instinct
to use for unmounting.  Delete and drag-to-trash should be supported to
unmount ... I click on CD-ROM, Delete, it unmounts and vanishes.

Scott
-- 
~scott
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