How to run a script when a distinct flash-drive is mounted?

Question

Is there a way to run a script when a specific USB device is mounted?

I keep my videos on a separate USB and would like to run a script that would mount the video folder on the USB device to the one in the home folder.

Answer 1

Start by finding your device in lsusb. Note the ID (eg 0a81:0101)

Create a new udev rules file in /etc/udev/rules.d/ via sudoedit /etc/udev/rules.d/100-mount-videos.rulesand plonk a new rule in there like this:

ACTION=="add", ATTRS{idVendor}=="0a81", ATTRS{idProduct}=="0101", RUN+="/home/your_username/bin/mount_videos.sh"

Note how I used the ID from lsusb.

Then you just need to write the script to do the work. A simple mount command should work. You might need a sleep 5 command in there to wait for the filesystem to initialize (if you leave gnome to do the main mounting -- but you're free to mount it first and then you might not need the sleep).

Addition from Allan:

Long running scripts might block "all further events for this or a dependent device". My Mint man page further states "Long running tasks need to be immediately detached from the event process itself." No tip is given on where to gain the skill to do this.

Answer 2

Another way to get the values for ATTRS{idVendor} and ATTRS{idProduct} (tested in Ubuntu 12.04) is:

1. Find where your usb is mounted:

   $ mount | grep /dev/sd*
   

   this shows something like the following:

   /dev/sdb on /media/SOMEDIR type vfat ...
   

2. Use udevadm to get that device info:

   udevadm info -q all -n /dev/sdb | grep -E -i -w '.*VENDOR_ID.*|.*MODEL_ID.*'
   

   the output should be something like:

   E: ID_MODEL_ID=001a
   E: ID_VENDOR_ID=002b
   

3. Now use the model id for ATTRS{idProduct} and vendor id for ATTRS{idVendor}

   ACTION=="add", ATTRS{idVendor}=="002b", ATTRS{idProduct}=="001a" ...
   

Answer 3

use udev

http://archive.atomicmpc.com.au/forums.asp?s=2&c=16&t=4775

Answer 4

In Nautilus under Edit>Preferences>Media you can choose "other action" and than "costum command". for different kind of media to be executed. By that time the usb drive is already mounted, but I suppose you could still link it (with a costum command) to the folder you want the drive to appear in. I couldn't tell whether this is easier or better than using udev.