Customizing Your Desktop Environment
Pages: 1, 2, 3, 4

Let's return to the pop-up menu; right-click on the Mount CDROM option to enter its configuration screen. Notice that the entry in the Command Line: section is incorrect. Use your mouse to highlight /mnt and your delete key to delete that text. It should read:

mount /cdrom

Click OK to save your changes.

Repeat this process for Unmount CDROM, Mount Floppy, and Unmount Floppy. The corrected Command Line: entries should be:

umount /cdrom
mount /floppy
umount /floppy

Make sure you have a floppy in the floppy drive and a data CD-ROM in the CD-ROM drive before testing your new menu commands.

If you're root, the floppy and CD-ROM should mount successfully. If you open an xterm and type:

cd /floppy
ls

you should be able to see the contents of the floppy and

cd /cdrom
ls

should show the contents of the CD-ROM.

And, df should show both as mounted:

df

Filesystem  1K-blocks     Used    Avail Capacity  Mounted on
/dev/fd0         1424       28     1396     2%    /floppy
/dev/acd0c     470754   470754        0   100%    /cdrom

However, if you're not root, nothing will happen. If you press Ctrl-Alt-Fx, where x is the number of the terminal you originally typed startx at, you'll see the following error messages:

cd9660: Operation not permitted
msdos: /dev/fd0: Operation not permitted

You may have issued the command from XFCE's menu option, but a Windows Manager must still abide by the rules of the Unix system it is installed on.

"No problem," you might think to yourself, "if that user is a member of the group wheel, I'll just open an xterm and su to root." However, if you try that, you'll still create the same error messages if you use the menu option to mount the floppy or CD-ROM. However, if you use the xterm to issue the mount commands, they will mount.

We've just discovered a Catch-22. If you open a Window Manager as a regular user, you'll receive that regular user's customized desktop, and the menu options will have the privileges of the regular user. If you su to root and then open a Window Manager, you will receive root's desktop, not the original user's.

Therefore, if you are customizing a desktop for a regular user, you might as well remove the menu options to mount and unmount file systems. To do this, right-click the option and click on the Remove button, then click on the Yes button when you are asked if you're really sure.

The other two options in this pop-up menu are installed and work by default. You can remove them if you don't like them, change their default icon by right-clicking on the option and browsing through the Icon File: list, or change the text that appears in the menu by editing the Label: section.

Pages: 1, 2, 3, 4

Next Page