Author Topic: How to manage removable USB storage devices in 0710  (Read 4126 times)

totallymaxed

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How to manage removable USB storage devices in 0710
« on: January 12, 2008, 11:06:27 am »
I have just created the Mantis ticket below and wanted to draw everyones attention to it here ;-)

http://mantis.linuxmce.org/view.php?id=3809

Please read the Mantis and post any views/ideas/suggestions related to how this process might be made smoother in the future. This will not make the initial release of 0710 but could come as a subsequent update post release... so lets have a constructive discussion about how this should work.

I have posed this basic question before http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=2315.0 but there was 'silence' from everyone back then... I'm hoping for more feedback this time ;-)

Looking forward to your comments!

Andrew
« Last Edit: January 12, 2008, 11:08:51 am by totallymaxed »
Andy Herron,
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schaferj

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Re: How to manage removable USB storage devices in 0710
« Reply #1 on: January 14, 2008, 04:52:25 pm »
Andrew,
I agree that the scripts that auto detect usb storage devices need to be extended to allow the user to have the option to copy the content from the external device to storage managed by the lmce core.

And do some auto cleanup of /mnt/device/XX

IIRC freespire does something similar with the automount, lmce issue is to ask the user if it's a quick camera card they want to copy over or an external 500GB HD they want to leave attached.

thanks,
joseph

totallymaxed

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Re: How to manage removable USB storage devices in 0710
« Reply #2 on: January 14, 2008, 05:50:18 pm »
Andrew,
I agree that the scripts that auto detect usb storage devices need to be extended to allow the user to have the option to copy the content from the external device to storage managed by the lmce core.

And do some auto cleanup of /mnt/device/XX

IIRC freespire does something similar with the automount, lmce issue is to ask the user if it's a quick camera card they want to copy over or an external 500GB HD they want to leave attached.

thanks,
joseph

Yes I agree Joseph... a very good point. The device management needs to handle the scenario you describe.
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Greg

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Re: How to manage removable USB storage devices in 0710
« Reply #3 on: January 14, 2008, 06:32:55 pm »
I would also l like to see support for exporting to USB storage devices.  There are lots of portable media devices that appear as USB storage devices.  LMCE should provide a way to "sync" media (both import and export) with portable media devices.

This applies to both audio and video.

colinjones

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Re: How to manage removable USB storage devices in 0710
« Reply #4 on: January 14, 2008, 08:43:58 pm »
I also agree with these comments - I can't think of any simple way for LMCE to automatically detect if this is a "casual" device or something more permanent. But certainly, the average consumer would expect the option to simply "import" the contents, perhaps with a "chooser" of somekind so you can at least choose the right folder (eg DCIM, on cameras, and so on) or better yet, highlight individual pics, songs, etc.

The problem I see is that the wizard that pops up now, is already a little confusing as to which option does what (using the LMCE structure, or not, and the other questions). Perhaps prior to those questions, a simple one should be added along the lines of "I have detected that new media storage has been connected - do you wish to Import the Contents so that you may disconnect it again, or leave it connected and Merge the Libraries together?  -> Import Contents/Merge Libraries"

That was off the top of my head, and definitely needs to be reworded, but you get the picture! The first option would go into the new script that Andrew is talking about, the second would go into the normal script - perhaps that normal one should be reworded as well?!

This could be generic for all discovered media devices, even PCs etc permanently connected to the network. Maybe you don't want to add your PC to the LMCE environment permanently, but do have a share of media on it that you want imported into the LMCE libraries (a PC that isn't normally on the Internal network, or a friend's/work laptop, etc) - at least this way you could bring all that media into your system "casually", and then remove the PC (or even leave it) without having to go into the admin console, find it and manually remove it because it was never added as a system but the auto detect scripts...