Improved Udev Rule For Arch Linux

There are many time-saving features that you should have on your Arch Linux and one of sacred ones is automount. It’d be very time-consuming and monotonous to use mount/umount commands every time you connect and disconnect a usb removable device. Fortunately, Arch Wiki has a very clear explanation on this. However the original script lack the ability of automatically creating a symbolic link on your desktop. The sort of feature that you’ve seen in ubuntu or mint: Every time you connect a usb removable device an icon appears on your Desktop and it vanishes when you remove the usb.

The USB storage icon has been added to Desktop automatically using a udev rule

 

I’ve made some modification to the original script to add this feature. It’s quite easy. Just create a rule (i.e. /etc/udev/rules.d/11-media-by-label-auto-mount.rules) using your favorite editor and paste the following code inside it:

# /etc/udev/rules.d/10-my-media-automount.rules

# start at sdb to ignore the system hard drive
KERNEL!="sd[b-z]*", GOTO="my_media_automount_end"
ACTION=="add", PROGRAM!="/sbin/blkid %N", GOTO="my_media_automount_end"

# import some useful filesystem info as variables
IMPORT{program}="/sbin/blkid -o udev -p %N"

# get the label if present, otherwise assign one based on device/partition
ENV{ID_FS_LABEL}!="", ENV{dir_name}="%E{ID_FS_LABEL}"
ENV{ID_FS_LABEL}=="", ENV{dir_name}="usbhd-%k"

# create the dir in /media and symlink it to /mnt
ACTION=="add", RUN+="/bin/mkdir -p '/media/%E{dir_name}'"
# create a symbolic link to /media/{usb_folder} on desktop
ACTION=="add", RUN+="/bin/ln -s '/media/%E{dir_name}' '/home/aardvark/Desktop/%E{dir_name}'"

# global mount options
ACTION=="add", ENV{mount_options}="relatime"
# filesystem-specific mount options (777/666 dir/file perms for ntfs/vfat)
ACTION=="add", ENV{ID_FS_TYPE}=="vfat|ntfs", ENV{mount_options}="$env{mount_options},gid=100,dmask=000,fmask=111,utf8"

# automount ntfs filesystems using ntfs-3g driver
ACTION=="add", ENV{ID_FS_TYPE}=="ntfs", RUN+="/bin/mount -t ntfs-3g -o %E{mount_options} /dev/%k '/media/%E{dir_name}'"
# automount all other filesystems
ACTION=="add", ENV{ID_FS_TYPE}!="ntfs", RUN+="/bin/mount -t auto -o %E{mount_options} /dev/%k '/media/%E{dir_name}'"

#remove the symbolic link to ~/{usb_folder}
ACTION=="remove", RUN+="/bin/rm -f '/home/aardvark/Desktop/%E{dir_name}'"
# clean up after device removal
ACTION=="remove", ENV{dir_name}!="", RUN+="/bin/umount -l '/media/%E{dir_name}'", RUN+="/bin/rmdir '/media/%E{dir_name}'"

# exit
LABEL="my_media_automount_end"

Note: Edit line 17 and 30 to reflect your Desktop path. In other words, change /home/aardvark/Desktop to /home/{your_user_name}/Desktop. The reason that I didn’t use a relative path is because there is a myth that such configs do not go well with relative paths.

Now save the file and you’re done. Just connect your usb removable device(s) to see if it works. 😎

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