GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 324557
Race condition on removable media mount blocks media access from account.
Last modified: 2005-12-25 15:28:48 UTC
Please describe the problem: When multiple accounts (2 or more) are in use, i.e. have open x-sessions, and removable media is inserted, both accounts race to assume ownership of the removable media. If the account which is not in active use gains ownership, then the current active user on the computer cannot access the media, unmount, or eject it. Physically removing the media does not help, as the mounted device still appears as mounted and cannot be ejected or unmounted. Steps to reproduce: 1. Start multiple sessions 2. Insert removable media 3. Attempt to perform operations on the media as a non-root user that did not receive the auto-mount ownership of the media. Actual results: The SD card I inserted is mounted under the "computer" location as 3346Z_CARD, but was not browsable as the active user (me). Instead, it came up owned by my wife's account, which had an active gnome session, but was obviously not in use. I could not unmount or re-assign the ownership without taking over my wife's account. Expected results: Ideally, the removable media would be accessible by all users in a "removable media" group, under whatever permissions are assigned by the users and groups administrative function for removable media. Does this happen every time? Yes, but most of the time the device is mounted under the active user account, and not the stale X-session left open on another display by another user. Other information: This may be related to PAM. The problem can probably be hidden with a particular group read/write/mount/unmount permission change, but can only be solved properly by somehow determining the active user on the active display.
Thanks for the bug report. This particular bug has already been reported into our bug tracking system, but please feel free to report any further bugs you find. *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 324159 ***