# &appname; Manual V&manrevision;

## Introduction

### &appname; Applet

The &appname; applet.

The &app; applet enables you to quickly mount and unmount various types of drives and file systems.

For the &app; applet to work properly, your system administrator must configure your system appropriately. For more information about the necessary system administration tasks, see

fstab

5.

### To Add &appname; to a Panel

To add &app; to a panel, right-click on the panel, then choose Add to Panel Utility&appname;.

### Manually Mounting and Unmounting File Systems

Many file systems on Linux and UNIX systems must be manually mounted and unmounted.

When a file system is mounted, you can read and write to the file system. When you finish working with a file system, you should unmount the file system.

You must unmount removable drives, such as floppy disks and Zip disks, before you remove the media, because Linux and UNIX systems do not always write the changes immediately. Such systems typically buffer the changes to the disk, to improve the speed of the system.

Partitions on fixed drives, such as your hard drive, are typically mounted automatically when your computer boots, and unmounted when your computer shuts down. Removable media must be mounted and unmounted manually, for example by using the &app; applet.

### Mount Points

The root file system is the main file system on your computer. The root file system starts with the following character: `/`

Other file systems are associated with empty directories inside the root file system. These directories are called mount points. When a file system is mounted, the contents of the file system are accessible from the associated mount point.

For example, most systems create a mount point called `/mnt/floppy`:

- If your floppy drive is not mounted, `/mnt/floppy` is an empty directory.

- If your floppy drive is mounted, `/mnt/floppy` provides access to the contents of your floppy disk.

## Usage

### To Display the Mount Point and Mount Status of a Drive

To display the mount point and mount status of a drive, move the mouse pointer to the drive icon in the panel. A tooltip displays the mount point and mount status of the drive.

### To Mount or Unmount a Drive

To mount or unmount a drive, click on the drive icon in the panel.

### To Browse the Contents of a Drive

To use a file manager to browse the contents of a drive, right-click on the drive icon in the panel, then choose Browse.

You can only browse the contents of a mounted drive.

### To Eject a Disk From a Drive

To eject a disk from a drive, right-click on the drive icon in the panel, then choose Eject.

## Preferences

To configure the &app; applet, right-click on the applet, then choose Preferences. The Disk Mounter Preferences dialog is displayed.

Mount directory

- Enter the name of the mount point for this drive. Alternatively, use the Browse button to select the mount point.

Update interval ... seconds

- Use this spin box to specify the interval at which you want &app; to check the status of the drive and update the icon if necessary.

Icon

- Select a drive type from the drop-down list. &app; automatically provides icons for each defined drive type, to indicate whether the drive is mounted or unmounted.

  Alternatively, select Custom from the drop-down list. Click on the Mounted icon and Unmounted icon buttons to choose icons that indicate whether the drive is mounted or unmounted.

Eject disk when unmounting

- Select this option to eject the disk when you unmount the drive.

Use automount friendly status test

- Select this option only if you use the automount facility.

  If you do not use the automount facility, you do not need to select the Use automount friendly status test option. When you position the mouse pointer over a drive icon in the panel, &app; runs the `stat` command, which tests the mount status.

  However, if you use the automount facility, &app; behaves differently, as follows:

  - If you use the automount facility and you do not select the Use automount friendly status test option, &app; runs the `stat` command, which mounts the drive instead of testing the mount status.

  - If you use the automount facility and you select the Use automount friendly status test option, &app; runs the `mount` command, which tests the mount status.