Getting GVFS to work on NetBSD 10.0 w/ XFCE4?

[pl]

It's alive, autostarted by XFCE4 (or dbus?), but thunar shows nothing when plugging in USB drives. I can normally mount these disks with e.g.

mount /dev/sd0e /mnt

I've tried to search for the cause with no luck so far. GVFS doesn't seem to log anything and gvfs-* commands or their manpages don't help either. Has anyone idea what is maybe goin' on and how to fix it?
I'll try updating it to 10.1 on next time I have access to it, but I suspect problem is on GVFS side (It barely works in overall, even on Linux)

[Head_on_a_Stick]

I don't use NetBSD so I might be wrong but the Linux version of Thunar needs thunar-volman to use GVFS for mounts but it uses udev and so is only available for Linux:

https://wiki.netbsd.org/xfce4/

[pl]

I've stumbled upon that page, but it's nearly decade-old. And if I understand correctly, volman is merely for automatic tasks regarding inserted media:

Originally Posted by https://docs.xfce.org/xfce/thunar/thunar-volman

The Thunar Volume Manager is an extension for the Thunar file manager, which enables automatic management of removable drives and media. For example, if thunar-volman is installed and configured properly, and you plug in your digital camera, it will automatically launch your preferred photo application and import the new pictures from the camera into your photo collection.

It doesn't seem to be required for just accessing media

By the way, I should mention that in first post, before XFCE I installed MATE and in Caja it didn't work either.

Now I remind meself I haven't checked if polkitd was running at all. Maybe that's the problem...

[shep]

I don't run NetBSD but thunar should be able to access a usb drive once is it manually mounted. You are free to mount your drive to any directory, there is a Guide on doing this in OpenBSD in this forum:
https://daemonforums.org/showthread.php?t=2232

In OpenBSD there is an automount daemon that has to be configured and running. NetBSD has an amd(8) daemon but it appears to be for NFS - not sure it will work for USB drives.

[pl]

Originally Posted by shep

I don't run NetBSD but thunar should be able to access a usb drive once is it manually mounted. You are free to mount your drive to any directory, there is a Guide on doing this in OpenBSD in this forum:
https://daemonforums.org/showthread.php?t=2232

Yes, I'm aware of that, and on my systems I don't need GVFS at all
The problem is it's PC used by IT-illiterate grandparents who are barely able to use clicky-click GUI, so any usage of command-line is a complete no-go

[shep]

My blunt opinion is that NetBSD is not for the IT-illiterate - unless you want to move in with them

[pl]

Originally Posted by shep

My blunt opinion is that NetBSD is not for the IT-illiterate - unless you want to move in with them

They need help with whatever system is installed in there anyway, and NetBSD is the only one that works there so far without bigger problems. Originally that PC ran Win10 that was notoriously-crashing irritation for us both, then Debian + XFCE4 which firstly worked but then that infamous init started to kill itself and FreeBSD for whatever reason threw ATA errors on healthy SSD.

[shep]

Without knowing your hardware or your Grandparents, I'll plug my project in this thread: https://daemonforums.org/showthread.php?t=11178. It is my daily driver and I think it is both stable and secure. On a fast connection it takes 30 minutes to setup with the defaults. It is OpenBSD based and that project is much better than NetBSD about security updates.

The most common tasks (web browser, email, terminal, file manager, office suit, music player) are large, single click icons on the bottom of the screen.

If you want, it is easy to change the items in the bottom launcher. If you change out firefox-esr for netsurf and libreoffice for abiword, it will run on a 32bit machine. Hopefully your relatives have a 64 bit machine with at least 4mb ram (8mb should handle graphics editing).

[jmccue]

If all your grandmother does is email, browsing, WP and spreadsheets you may be better off creating fvwm or windowmaker setup with xfe. fvwm can be set to look like about anything. All you will need to do for xfe is customize "~/.config/xfe/xferc".

The only thing with OpenBSD is the 6 month updates, NetBSD has a longer support cycle and pkgsrc updates can be added to crontab. The admin would just need to ssh and change "/usr/pkg/etc/pkgin/repositories.conf" when a new Qtr pkgsrc is released.

Plus with only sshd running and not using passwords for login, I think security is a non issue since patches are rather rare.

Of course when firefox is updated on NetBSD, it seems to create a new peofile. I do not know how to get around that, too lazy to look, but I am sure there is a method to force use of the old profile.

[pl]

It's merely a family photo viewer with tax paying functionality (Usually once a month, I have to assist in it). Things like e-mail or spreadsheets are complete dark magic for them

Hardware-wise, it's a Athlon II-based mashup of random leftovers "glued" with quick 'n' dirty hacks only true Pole would do. Not a speed demon, but fast enough for it's job, especially when running toaster-optimized unix. I'd like to avoid reinstalling entire system as there's over 90GB worth of photos which I would have to copy once again over USB 2.0 (And getting NetBSD there was de-facto experiment as I had no experience with it regardng desktop use, and with OpenBSD I've yet messed at all)

Personally I also favor minimal setups (less is more), but keep XFCE4 there as they handle changes terribly (combined with very limited computer expertise it'sa complete paralysation) and they somewhat "know" XFCE already (by "know" meaning how to navigate with Thunar and turn off PC). Also I don't have right now time to make up something meself as I already experiment on my setup

P.S.

Originally Posted by jmccue

Of course when firefox is updated on NetBSD, it seems to create a new peofile. I do not know how to get around that, too lazy to look, but I am sure there is a method to force use of the old profile.

Quick guess, I think you should be able to import it to newer version with Profile Manager (--ProfileManager command-line arg)

[pl]

polkitd was running, but not gvfs' FUSE daemon. I recall that on Debian it wouldn't work either without it.
When I try to start it manually it exits instantly;

$ /usr/pkg/libexec/gvfs-fuse-daemon -fd /mnt
can't open /dev/puffs: permission denied

With root it will run, but is virtually useless then as it can't connect to dbus

So I guess it's a privilege matter. How can I allow non-root to access PUFFS?

[pl]

So I guess it's a privilege matter. How can I allow non-root to access PUFFS?

chown ${USER}: /dev/puffs

But it just starts with no errors and that's all. sheesh...
Setting "security.models.extensions.usermount=1" in /etc/sysctl.conf didn't make a change either.

I give up, it's not a piece of software but poor comedy. I just set up FTP server instead, barely any configuration and it Just Works(TM). Leftover USB disks they had I just mounted the simple way and imported everything from these.

I'll install MATE once again here and see if it works there, but I suspect it won't.
EDIT: It doesn't