> > I don't know how to use udev, but it does seem like the sort of thing I > should learn. Here's what's happening on my system: > > (1) there are several USB drives attached to the machine > (2) when it reboots, those drives are not automounted, until... > (3) I log in at the console, and then they are mounted, but... > (4) if I'm not there, but I ssh in, they are still not mounted. > Right. This makes sense, and the system is bahaving as it should. Your solution works, but you want this automated. Most certainly a udev task, with some additional tweaks (see below). Have a look here: http://www.reactivated.net/writing_udev_rules.html http://www.reactivated.net/writing_udev_rules.html#example-usbhdd I am going to be digging into udev in the coming weeks, but your early timing catches me un-prepared to provide any real help... > > While I'm on this topic, because of how they are mounted, these drives are > only accessible to me -- to my user account -- and not to other users or > processes. I would like to be able to make them available to, say, the > Apache web server. Does anyone know how to do that? > What I would do is create a group (/etc/groups) that is responsible for keeping this data around and make both you and the webserver user ("apache" I think) members of the group. Then, give read-write and execute permissions to the drives to this group. Something like that. > Best answer would do this: > > (1) mount all attached USB drives at startup before anyone logs in and > (2) all mount points have certain owner/group permissions: > I am owner (rw), www-data is group (r-only) > (3) do the same thing when a new USB drive is attached to the > already-running system > You are suggesting the solution I offered above. I think you are on the right track. With some testing you will get there.