Why does hal think my USB devices are fixed?

[Hans Petter Selasky]

On Wednesday 14 October 2009 19:04:07 Warren Block wrote:
> Fixed as opposed to removable.  hal used to see these USB
> devices--USB memory sticks, memory cards in a reader--as removable
> devices.  Which they are.
>
> Same computer, same config that used to automount these devices as
> removable, but now FreeBSD 8.0-RC1 and hal says they are fixed devices:
>
> org.freedesktop.hal.storage.mount-fixed no <-- (action, result).
>
> Is this be due to the USB system?

Hi Warren,

The fixed/removable information is transferred to the PC using a SCSI INQUIRY 
command. What the device reports or what the CAM layer reports to HAL is not 
up to the USB stack.

The most significant bit of second byte of the INQUIRY response decides if the 
medium is removable or not.

See: ustorage_fs_inquiry() in src/sys/dev/usb/storage/ustorage_fs.c

--HPS