Monday, 21 April 2008

Naming external devices in Ubuntu

Since I switched to Ubuntu Linux at work, I was a bit miffed that all my devices (USB drive, old hard drives, mobile phone in data mode) appeared as "/media/disk" - all the same name. I looked for ages to find out how to set unique and meaningful names for them, but nothing worked, so I just put up with it. Then today I found the answer. For anyone else who has the same problem, these instructions might come in handy:
  1. Open Nautilus to the Computer area.
  2. Connect the device.
  3. Right-click the device and select Properties, then the Drive tab.
  4. Expand the Settings section.
  5. Type the desired name in the Mount Point box and close the window.
  6. Unmount and remount the device.
It's embarrassingly easy for the time it took me to discover the feature.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I just expected it to be harder for some reason.
PPS - Some other things are hard, but perhaps I'm just misunderstanding them.

5 comments:

Erin Marie said...

You're all about helping the common man, aren't you?

John said...

Well, for a certain definition of "common", yes. ;)

Erin Marie said...

My nerd alert did kind of go off a bit.

John said...

That nerd alert will be the end of me someday.

Erin Marie said...

Well, it will make it difficult for you to sneak up on me to kill me and make a drum out of my skin.