improve "cannot mount volume" prompt for not properly unmounted NTFS volumes

Bug #275951 reported by Ronan Jouchet
2
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
gnome-mount (Ubuntu)
New
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

Binary package hint: gnome-mount

Hello,

Gnome-mount "cannot mount volume" has already some open bugs (#146686, #236309). This one is very similar and seems to me like a low-hanging fruit interesting a LOT of users.
Start point: normal users never disconnect properly their external drives under windows. So when they connect it on a Ubuntu station, they have a cryptic message (see screenshot cannot-mount.png attached).
_However_, this message is not the generic gnome-mount message when unable to mount. Gnome-mount already did the hard part : identifying a bad unmount under Windows. That means only some GUI love is needed.

Please see cannot-mount_redesign.png attached for my redesign proposal (please make abstraction of the windowish look, it has been mocked up in Visio). My comments:
- Display a measured compromise of technical content by default. Currently, gnome-mount includes nothing by default, and proposes to expand the whole technical "details". A sensible initial display is probably in the middle.
- The current gnome-mount diagnostic is excellent, so lets keep the idea, but state it in an understandable manner: the word Windows should appear in the first line, followed by a hint on why we are here ((trying to) educate the user)
- Possibilities are alternative, not sequential, so we should use dashes, not numbers
- Need to include the risks of forcing mount (what are they?)
- And most importantly, actually do the thing via a single click, instead of suggesting doing it via a terminal. The average Joe will never ever try to do it manually
- Displaying the device name (wdExt in my case) would be even better

NOTE: I can't find gnome-mount in GNOME Bugzilla. I googled it a bit be I'm unsure of what to do for upstream reporting. Can somebody give me a hint?

Regards,
Ronan

Details
---------
Ubuntu Intrepid alpha6, up2date 2008/09/29
Gnome 2.24.0
gnome-mount 0.8~svn20080225-0ubuntu4

Revision history for this message
Ronan Jouchet (ronj) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Ronan Jouchet (ronj) wrote :
description: updated
description: updated
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