Desktop automounting pain

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+Desktop automounting pain
+
+<p>Ubuntu's live CD installer, Ubiquity, needs to suppress desktop
+automounting while it's doing partitioning and generally messing about with
+mount points, otherwise its temporary mount points end up busy on unmount
+due to some smart-arse desktop component that decides to open a window for
+it.</p>
+
+<p>To date, it employs the following methods, each of which was sufficient
+at the time:</p>
+
+<ul>
+ <li>
+  Set the <code>/desktop/gnome/volume_manager/automount_drives</code> and
+  <code>/desktop/gnome/volume_manager/automount_media</code> gconf keys to
+  <code>false</code>.
+ </li>
+ <li>
+  Tell <code>kded</code> to unload its <code>medianotifier</code> module,
+  and load it again just before the installer exits.
+ </li>
+ <li>
+  Set the <code>/apps/nautilus/desktop/volumes_visible</code> gconf key to
+  <code>false</code>.
+ </li>
+ <li>
+  Set the <code>AutomountDrives</code> and <code>AutomountMedia</code> keys
+  in <code>$HOME/.config/Thunar/volmanrc</code> to <code>FALSE</code>.
+ </li>
+ <li>
+  Set the <code>/apps/nautilus/preferences/media_automount</code> and
+  <code>/apps/nautilus/preferences/media_automount_open</code> gconf keys to
+  <code>false</code>.
+ </li>
+ <li>
+  The entire installer is run under <code>hal-lock --interface
+  org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.Storage --exclusive</code>.
+ </li>
+ <li>
+  Set the <code>/apps/nautilus/preferences/media_autorun_never</code> gconf
+  key to <code>true</code>
+  (<a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubiquity/+bug/210620">experimental,
+  but apparently now required since nautilus uses the gio volume
+  monitor</a>).
+ </li>
+</ul>
+
+<p>This is getting <strong>ridiculous</strong>. Dear desktop implementors:
+please pick a configuration mechanism and stick to it, and provide backward
+compatibility if you can't. This is not a rocket-science concept.</p>
+
+<p>I rather liked the <code>hal-lock</code> mechanism; it was simple and
+involved minimal fuss. I had hoped that it might end up as a standard, but I
+guess that would be too easy.</p>