Some vl-hot Questions

[Pita]

My desktop PC would not boot any longer. Luckily I just had my /home
directory backed-up onto a 4 Gig flash drive. I then wanted to transfer it
to tyhe HP2133. Putting the flash drive into this machine 2 vl-hot icons showed-up.
One mounted on /dev/sdb1 and one on /dev/sdb2. Clicking on either one of
the icon opened a file manager opened and showed an empty flash drive. Cold sweat
pouring out from me. Where are my files?

Now I found unmounting either one of the vl-hot icons will then consequently
show all my back-up /home files.

When I mount another flash drive of only 1 Gig then only one vl-hot icon shows-up
with all the files.

What would be the explanation for 2 vl-hot icons showing and indicating no files for
the 4 Gig flash drive?

fstab has no entries for mounting sdb1 or sdb2.

HP2133 Mini-Note runs on VL6.0-DeLuxe

My PC is working again after the idle lancard was removed. I will see if this was
as well the cause of the freezing problem I reported earlier in another post.

[nightflier]

The vl-hot version in Light is an older one, and locked from upgrades because it works with a window manager. There is an issue with partitions without lables. Since you use a DE (XFCE), you could upgrade to newer version. In gslapt, click Edit > Preferences > Exclude, and remove the vl-hot entry. Update sources, then upgrade the package.

Another workaround is to manually mount the parts.

[Pita]

Thanks, however, it seems I did not make myself very clear. I try again.

On a HD2133 Mini-Note which runs on VL-6- Standard-Gold if I insert a
flash drive of 4 Gig, 2 vl-hot icons will show up mounted on /dev/sdb1
and /dev/sdb2 respectively. Opening then the flash drive with a file manager shows it is
empty, meaning there are no files. The device applet on the panel shows
only one mounting point /dev/sdb1 indicating only 50.9 MB and 5 % use.
If I then unmount either one and open the remaining mounted flash drive
all the files it contains show-up. The device applet shows 3.7 GB and 54 % use.

If I insert a 1 Gig flash drive only one vl-hot icon shows and a file manager
will show all the files on it.

The question then is why this behavior between a 4 and 1 Gig flash drive?

[nightflier]

Check the mount points (enter command "mount" in a terminal).

I think the problem is, if there are two partitions, none with a label, both get mounted at the same default point (vl-hot), causing confusion. When you unmount one, the other one becomes accessible. A stick with only one partition would not have that issue.

[Joe1962]

Does the 4GB pendrive actually have 2 partitions? Please post here the output of running "/sbin/fdisk -l" (lowercase "L") after the pendrive is mounted.

Or maybe it is one of those "smart" (actually very stupid, IMO) U3 pendrives?   

... if there are two partitions, none with a label, both get mounted at the same default point (vl-hot), causing confusion ...

Not really, there is a consecutive counter added at the end of the mountname, making each unique.

[Pita]

Does the 4GB pendrive actually have 2 partitions? Please post here the output of running "/sbin/fdisk -l" (lowercase "L") after the pendrive is mounted.

Or maybe it is one of those "smart" (actually very stupid, IMO) U3 pendrives?   

... if there are two partitions, none with a label, both get mounted at the same default point (vl-hot), causing confusion ...

Not really, there is a consecutive counter added at the end of the mountname, making each unique.

Alright it seems there are 2 partitions on this flashdrive, vl-hot and vl-hot1

/sbin/fdisk -l
Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1        1008     3874751+   b  W95 FAT32
/dev/sda2   *        1009        1022       53816   83  Linux

I tried now to delete the vl-hot1 partition and the file manager and "mount" showed it was
gone, however, when I inserted the flash drive again it was back.

I have no idea how those 2 partition entered the flash drive. May be that drive is
crazy, it cost just about $11.00. "RIDATA, EZdrive, 4GB.

At least I know now how to handle it. Its kind of a shock if one sees ones data gone.

I check it on my PC and the behaviour is the same as on the HP2133.

[Joe1962]

I really think fdisk is showing you the hard drive there, not the pendrive. Maybe you ran it too quickly and it hasn't shown up yet? The pendrive would be /dev/sdb probably. Also, if you deleted the "partition" with the file manager, you only deleted the mountpoint for it, not the partition itself. For that you need to use a partition manager, like fdisk, cfdisk or gparted, etc.

[Pita]

Successfully deleted one partituion on this flashdrive using fdisk.
After that only one vl-hot icons shows up when flashdrive has been inserted.
BTW the first connection to a USB like i-Pod mounts always on /dev/sda, a second then
on /dev/sdb like the flash drive while i-Pod is mounted or vice versa.
/mnt/pendrive is not used it is always /mnt/vl-hot.

[Colonel Panic]

Possibly this needs a new thread, but I'll take the chance;

Does vl-hot always show an icon on the desktop when it loads a CD, pen drive etc., or only in XFce? I've just inserted a CD-R in my DVD drive and whilst I can hear it whirring away when it's inserted, it's not mounted anywhere that I can see.

[Pita]

I can only reply for my box.
I have never seen an icon on the desktop when loading a CD, neither in
xfce, lxde or gnome. However, a vl-hot icon including the unmount icon appears
when a flash drive etc is loaded. A music CD does not show as mounted anyhow.

[Colonel Panic]

Thanks for the info. Is it possible to enable automounting of a CD or DVD, with or without an icon on the desktop?

[Pita]

I just double checked, in xfce4 and gnome when inserting a DVD an icon appears
on the desktop with some functions to click on.

There is as well the neat program of nightflier "explorer_cd" which I would recommend
to install. It lets you open DATA Disk, Audio CD, Video DVD and has a CD burn program
which I use a lot. It puts an icon on the desktop. It can be found in VL-6-Light and
can be installed as well in VL-6-whatever-flavor. I put it in HP2133 with VL-6-STD.

[Colonel Panic]

Thanks for the info. Explorer_ cd is good (I'm using it now), but it doesn't seem to run on automatic; you have to insert the CD-ROM and then execute it manually.

Ideally, what I'd like is to have the process running on automatic (with an option to turn it off) so the loading of the CD-ROM is picked up by a background process which then mounts the CD and launches the desktop icon which displays the files on the CD when clicked on. Is that possible? I believe Zenwalk does something like this.

[toothandnail]

Ideally, what I'd like is to have the process running on automatic (with an option to turn it off) so the loading of the CD-ROM is picked up by a background process which then mounts the CD and launches the desktop icon which displays the files on the CD when clicked on. Is that possible? I believe Zenwalk does something like this.

You're describing the way HAL works, in both Zenwalk and Vector. If I remember correctly, VL-Hot is only designed to work with USB devices, which is why you're having to manually mount a CD when it is active rather than HAL.

Paul.

[Colonel Panic]

Thanks, I'll go into Vector and enable HAL. I used Vl-hot because when I set up Vector it was recommended for older computers like mine.

Cheers,

CP .