Ubuntu's automounter: Configuration

[Scott Severance]

Hi all!

I've noticed many questions on the forums about permissions and other
problems on removable Windows-formatted disks. Fixing the permissions
is simple in fstab; the problem is that removable devices have
changing names. If they were ext3 partitions, they could be mounted
using a LABEL= device, but that doesn't apply to vfat/ntfs AFAIK. All
that means that the ideal solution would bypass fstab for removable
media--while still allowing configuration of mount options.

1. What program does Ubuntu use to auto mount?

2. I know that pmount is involved in the process, but I haven't been
able to figure out what program calls pmount (gnome-volume-manager?)
and how to configure the mount options that program uses. For example,
I think that Win filesystems should be mounted with umask=000. How do
I set that up?

3. How do I make the automounter use ntfs-3g instead of ntfs?

4. I've messed with udev, but it isn't general enough. I'm looking for
a change that will affect EVERY vfat/ntfs removable device.

5. I decided to hunt through the gnome-volume-manager source code to
find out where the mount options get set. Beginning on line 1400 of
src/manager.c, there are a number of mount options--presumably
constants. But I'm not a C programmer, and I can't find where those
constants (or variables?) get set. I've searched through every file in
the source distribution and I can't find a single occurrence of the
string "MOUNT_UMASK" aside from the section I mentioned. MOUNT_UMASK
has to be defined somewhere, but where? Anyone able to find that?

6. Is there any documentation on this somewhere? I couldn't find
anything useful through Google. I've also asked on the forum--that
discussion is here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=262696
 		
-- 
===Scott Severance===

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