udisksctl

For most users these days, accessing flash drives in Linux is handled nicely by the desktop and file managers. But sometimes it's convenient to be able to mount a flash drive from the command line, as a normal user; for that, try the udisksctl tool.

I tested this in Antergos, in Debian Stable ("Jessie"), and in Debian Testing ("Stretch"). Insert the flash drive and run lsblk to check for the device name:

sdb1 is the device name for my flash drive. To mount it, I used:

$ udisksctl mount -b /dev/sdb1

The -b switch is short for --block-device, according to udisksctl mount --help.

Running lsblk again shows the flash drive mounted:

To unmount the flash drive, I used:

$ udisksctl unmount -b /dev/sdb1

For more info see man udisksctl, udisksctl help, udisksctl mount --help, and these excellent articles:

https://zeth.net/2014/05/28/modern_mounting_with_udisks2.html

https://people.freedesktop.org/~david/udisks2-20110628/udisksctl.1.html

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Udisks