Problems with built-in "Most Recent Device" app

[Richard Troy]

Hi Folks,

I confess I don't have a clue what to properly call this bit of KDE. I 
never asked for it, it's nothing I configured, it's just a part of my 
"menu bar". It has the icon of the tip of a USB cable, and when hovered 
over it says "Most Recent Device". When I select it, It says: "Disks & 
Devices".

Maybe not knowing what to call it is the problem; I haven't a CLUE where 
to get good information on it.

This thing is FRIGHTENING.

How about the "remove all" option? It offers, for another example, to 
reformat, at the click of a mouse, my system's /var and /tmp - I guess the 
author of the code never imagined people would be separately mounting 
those - and seems to propose that virtually 100% of the mounted hard 
drives are temporary and cheerfully offers, do I want to unmount them? Or 
maybe I want to reformat my 60 TERABYTES of hard drives? Surely THAT'S a 
good thing to have so readily at hand...  and... and... and....

I could go on and on about all the TRULY frightening things it says.

But maybe I'm just not bold enough? Maybe I should pick "remove all?!" In 
my own head I'm thinking "what kind of idiot would remove ALL the drives 
from a booted system?!" but maybe the meaning is that it would remove all 
the devices from ITS TRYING TO MANAGE THEM?! Well? Maybe? I've just never 
been bold - or, in my own head, STUPID enough to try it.

I've just ignored it, mostly, of course, only deigning to waste my time now 
and then to see if MAYBE THIS TIME it will help me rather than hurt.

So far, best I can figure, it blocks me from doing ANYTHING with a USB 
device.

It DOES NOT help me with my cell phone - oh, it sees it's a unisoc device 
and all - but when I try mounting it doesn't appear to do a damned thing 
and continues to offer mounting as an option and when I try one of the two 
open in a file browser choices (one does nothing at all) it reports an 
error from "KIOExec": Malformed URL 
mtp:udi=/org/kde/solid/udev/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.2/0000:01:00.0/0000:02:08.0/0000:06:00.3/usb3/3-3/.

Not that I have the slightest clue what I can do with that "information."

NEVER have I been able to get it to do anything useful.

Now what's prompting me to write this, is the frustration of trying for 
the uncountable-th time and it won't even help me get to a simple USB 
"memory stick." ...I just went through a half-hour session with the damned 
thing trying to get it to mount this memory stick so I can get some files 
off it.

So far as I can tell, it must be a well-intended, just horribly misguided 
bit of software. And, I don't need it. The only way I've not just ditched 
KDE entirely over the matter in deep and profound frustration is because I 
run a small data center and just go to one of the no-desktop systems and 
do what I need there. I can mount USB devices just fine by hand. So, like 
I said, I don't need this. And I'm pretty sure it's the reason I can't 
just do these mounts from the root account by hand - it somehow owns 
everything, though I don't have a fresh example to share at the moment. 
And, honestly, this is embarrassing if I have someone visit me at my desk 
with a memory stick for me to load up.

Can someone please either tell me where I can get full directions on how 
to USE the damned thing productively or remove it entirely from my system? 
I'd be OK with disabling it but somehow that gives me creepy feelings like 
The Creature From Jekyll Island that's going to come back and bite me 
someday. So far as I've seen it's never done a damned thing for me but has 
wasted a LOT of my time.

HELP!

Thanks,
Richard

--
Richard Troy
510-717-6942
rtroy at ScienceTools.com