Bug 264905

Version:           4.6 (using KDE 4.6.0) 
OS:                Linux

I'm not sure what component this bug should be filed, it manifests itself most visibly in Dolphin and the Device Notifier widget, but also in Open/Save File dialogs across KDE applications.

Starting with KDE 4.6, unmounted filesystems are touched (probed?) when the user interacts with devices in the Places lists available in Dolphin, Device Notifier, Open/Save file dialogs, etc.

In many cases, external hard disks enter in low power mode when not in use for several minutes (very likely if there are no mounted filesystems from that hard disk), sometimes even powering off almost completely. When doing simple interaction on the "Places" list, even simply hovering the partition name with the mouse pointer, KDE somehow tries some interaction with the unmounted partition.

The result is, since the device was powered off, it has to restart. This may take as much as 12 seconds or more for the disk to spin up and reinitialize, from what I'm experiencing. During this time, the application is completely unresponsive, frozen.

This must not happen unless I actually click the partition to be mounted. This was not an issue up to KDE 4.5.5.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Connect an external USB hard disk with energy saving mode.
2. Do not mount it, wait it to power off.
3. Open Dolphin, move the mouse pointer over the partition in Places (without clicking anything or mounting the partition).

Actual Results:  
Dolphin freezes, the hard disk is powered on (may take several seconds), and then it unfreezes.

Expected Results:  
The unmounted partition is simply listed, and otherwise ignored by the system until the user clicks to mount it.