quirky usb/external hard drive connection

[alphaace]

So, short of redoing the partition (and I do need it to work with my mac), anyone have any ideas why it prevents me from disconnecting unless I log out and back in first?

[Old-Polack]

So, short of redoing the partition (and I do need it to work with my mac), anyone have any ideas why it prevents me from disconnecting unless I log out and back in first?

As JohnBoy said, the device is still busy. Install the lsof package with Synaptic then use it to find out what process is still keeping the partition from unmounting.

Example:

[root@littleboy ~]# umount /home/polack/Documents
umount: /home/polack/Documents: device is busy.
        (In some cases useful info about processes that use
         the device is found by lsof( or fuser(1))
[root@littleboy ~]# lsof /home/polack/Documents

Code: [Select]

COMMAND     PID   USER   FD   TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF    NODE NAME
kio_http_  1037 polack  cwd    DIR   8,37    12288       2 /home/polack/Documents
kwalletd   1459 polack  cwd    DIR   8,37    12288       2 /home/polack/Documents
klauncher  2529 polack  cwd    DIR   8,37    12288       2 /home/polack/Documents
kded4      2531 polack  cwd    DIR   8,37    12288       2 /home/polack/Documents
gam_serve  2533 polack  cwd    DIR   8,37    12288       2 /home/polack/Documents
kglobalac  2926 polack  cwd    DIR   8,37    12288       2 /home/polack/Documents
knotify4   2952 polack  cwd    DIR   8,37    12288       2 /home/polack/Documents
plasma-de  2953 polack  cwd    DIR   8,37    12288       2 /home/polack/Documents
kaccess    2962 polack  cwd    DIR   8,37    12288       2 /home/polack/Documents
krunner    2969 polack  cwd    DIR   8,37    12288       2 /home/polack/Documents
kmix       2971 polack  cwd    DIR   8,37    12288       2 /home/polack/Documents
konsole    2973 polack  cwd    DIR   8,37    12288       2 /home/polack/Documents
kio_file   2974 polack  cwd    DIR   8,37    12288       2 /home/polack/Documents
kdf        2977 polack  cwd    DIR   8,37    12288       2 /home/polack/Documents
su         2981   root  cwd    DIR   8,37    12288       2 /home/polack/Documents
kalarm     2984 polack  cwd    DIR   8,37    12288       2 /home/polack/Documents
kget       2986 polack  cwd    DIR   8,37    12288       2 /home/polack/Documents
kdf        2988 polack  cwd    DIR   8,37    12288       2 /home/polack/Documents
skype      2994 polack  cwd    DIR   8,37    12288       2 /home/polack/Documents
pidgin     2996 polack  cwd    DIR   8,37    12288       2 /home/polack/Documents
konqueror  2997 polack  cwd    DIR   8,37    12288       2 /home/polack/Documents
dolphin    2999 polack  cwd    DIR   8,37    12288       2 /home/polack/Documents
ktorrent   3001 polack  cwd    DIR   8,37    12288       2 /home/polack/Documents
firefox    3002 polack  cwd    DIR   8,37    12288       2 /home/polack/Documents
pam-panel  3006 polack  cwd    DIR   8,37    12288       2 /home/polack/Documents
update-no  3011 polack  cwd    DIR   8,37    12288       2 /home/polack/Documents
xsettings  3044 polack  cwd    DIR   8,37    12288       2 /home/polack/Documents
klipper    3078 polack  cwd    DIR   8,37    12288       2 /home/polack/Documents
bash       3079 polack  cwd    DIR   8,37     4096 5808165 /home/polack/Documents/Admin/Vahis
net_apple  3083 polack  cwd    DIR   8,37    12288       2 /home/polack/Documents
xbindkeys  3099 polack  cwd    DIR   8,37    12288       2 /home/polack/Documents
xchat      3104 polack  cwd    DIR   8,37    12288       2 /home/polack/Documents
plugin-co  3365 polack  cwd    DIR   8,37    12288       2 /home/polack/Documents
update-no 17698 polack  cwd    DIR   8,37    12288       2 /home/polack/Documents
sleep     17716 polack  cwd    DIR   8,37    12288       2 /home/polack/Documents
zenity    17908 polack  cwd    DIR   8,37    12288       2 /home/polack/Documents
bash      23083 polack  cwd    DIR   8,37    12288       2 /home/polack/Documents
kio_file  23120 polack  cwd    DIR   8,37    12288       2 /home/polack/Documents
kio_file  23121 polack  cwd    DIR   8,37    12288       2 /home/polack/Documents

To unmount my partition mounted at /home/polack/Documents I'd have to kill -9 <process id> each process shown above first, then it will successfully unmount.