[SOLVED] How can I auto-mount partitions?

[azziam]

I have a few OS'es on this desktop and I synchronize firefox and t-bird by putting their xxx.default files on a FAT32 partition and putting the path in their local profiles. This works great but I need the FAT32 partition mounted in /media. Easy? Even if I manually mount the FAT32 it is put in /run/user/media so the path doesn't work. I could change the local path statement but I want the partition mounted everytime I boot up. I can adjust the path if needed.

[doktor5000]

Well, then mount it via fstab.

[azziam]

Well, then mount it via fstab.

Doing it... No "Open as administator" rt. click option in Nautilus? Dang.

[doktor5000]

No "Open as administator" rt. click option in Nautilus? Dang.

Is that option missing for fstab or at all? And how does this relate to your auto-mount question?

[digigold]

OP: What happens when you use the CLI? Honestly, if your not comfortable using a CLI I don't know if manually editing fstab is the best idea. Your probably safer using a GUI tool or at least make sure fstab is backed up. You could also run Nautilus as root or sudo.

[azziam]

No "Open as administator" rt. click option in Nautilus? Dang.

Is that option missing for fstab or at all? And how does this relate to your auto-mount question?

If every difficulty I encounter must generate a new thread, I do understand but may not have time. I'll do my best in being constructive. Maybe I just arrived to Gnome 3 but in taking the crash course I've learned that Nautilus lost some features. Now, some of what seems lost may just be hidden from the average user and need to be turned on in Tweaks. I reside in Gnome 2 and have never had this problem since the feature was added. So, this is the method I'm used to for editing fstab or menu.lst, etc. Suddenly, it doesn't pertain.

[azziam]

OP: What happens when you use the CLI? Honestly, if your not comfortable using a CLI I don't know if manually editing fstab is the best idea. Your probably safer using a GUI tool or at least make sure fstab is backed up. You could also run Nautilus as root or sudo.

I naturally tried opening gedit as root from the CLI and it failed to open although iit opens just fine as ordinary user. So, I logged in as root and edited the fstab with gedit. Now, I'm on the originaltopic. I tried 3 or 5 times to put am entry syntax in fstab that would autoboot that partition and it fails to boot. I decided to just manually mount the partition after booting.

[jkerr82508]

I always use MCC -> Local disks -> Manage partitions, (with the expert options when needed) and I've never had a problem having Windows partitions mount on boot. (I don't understand why people struggle with the CLI when Mageia provides easy to use GUI tools.)

https://doc.mageia.org/mcc/3/en/content/drakdisk.html

Jim

[azziam]

I always use MCC -> Local disks -> Manage partitions, (with the expert options when needed) and I've never had a problem having Windows partitions mount on boot. (I don't understand why people struggle with the CLI when Mageia provides easy to use GUI tools.)

https://doc.mageia.org/mcc/3/en/content/drakdisk.html

Jim

Thanks Jim. I've used Manage Partitions many times in my usual PCLOS Gnome but this had never come up because I never had to manually set a mount point for this purpose. Right or wrong, that OS always starts with those partitions mounted under /media. Now, I say big thanks for this tip because it educated me a bit further about why my attempts to edit fstab didn't work (trying to mount a fat partition needed to be done in /mnt/windows before PM would accept it.) Now I've edited my profile paths accordingly for tbird and FF and rebooted and all is well as far as this topic is concerned. I was beginning to think I wouldn't be able to mark it solved. Hopefully someone learns a new trick for Tbird anf FF in the process though there are other ways to sync.

[doktor5000]

If you want to run gedit as root, use su - to run a full root environment or try gksu gedit

Also, if your fstab entries didn't work, but you don't post them so we can take a look what's wrong with them, you never know what was wrong with them.

(trying to mount a fat partition needed to be done in /mnt/windows before PM would accept it.)

What does PM mean?

[azziam]

I tried su - rather than plain su and it did open gedit although it still gave me:

Code: Select all

[root@localhost ~]# gedit

** (gedit:7392): WARNING **: Can't load fallback CSS resource: Failed to import: The resource at '/org/gnome/adwaita/gtk-fallback.css' does not exist

** (gedit:7392): WARNING **: Can't load fallback CSS resource: Failed to import: The resource at '/org/gnome/adwaita/gtk-fallback.css' does not exist

** (gedit:7392): WARNING **: Could not load theme icon user-bookmarks-symbolic: Icon 'user-bookmarks-symbolic' not present in theme

** (gedit:7392): WARNING **: Could not load theme icon user-home-symbolic: Icon 'user-home-symbolic' not present in theme

** (gedit:7392): WARNING **: Could not load theme icon drive-harddisk-symbolic: Icon 'drive-harddisk-symbolic' not present in theme


But I do know now how to open gedit as root, thanks.

By PM, I meant Partition Manager and as I said, it told me why my fstab entries had failed. I was trying fstab entries to mount under /media, /run/media, or /mnt (I think) and they were not working. When I tried to enter these same mount points in PM, it specifically told me they wouldn't work because I was trying to mount a FAT partition in a True File System, ext4. /mnt/windows/thunderbird and /mnt/windows/mozilla worked for the loacations where I have the xx.default files for TB and FF. I'd never needed the /mnt/windows mount point before.

[azziam]

I'm revisiting this for a minute since I left it with info that wasn't quite right. I'd had a problem with my partition I was mounting as evidently it had got something corrupted or written wrongly so it locked itself in read-only mode till I read how to repair it. I got that repaired and just now set up the automount using the following entry in fstab:

# Entry for /dev/sdc2 :
UUID=5958-8213 /mnt/Shared vfat defaults,user,uid=500,auto,umask=000 0 0

I'm sure there are different variations that could work but this works for me. Without permissions taken care of, it wouldn't mount.