Just installed Debian 4.0 (64 bit) on my AMD 64-bit system. I have a second HD which is a SATA drive (my boot drive is IDE). Debian detects, but cannot mount the 2d HD. Error message:

libhal-storage.c 1401 : info: called libhal_free_dbus_error but dbuserror was not set.
process 4581: applications must not close shared connections - see dbus_connection_close() docs. this is a bug in the application.
error: device /dev/sda1 is not removable
error: could not execute pmount

Can anything be done?

I, of course, backed-up all the data from my XP drive on to the unmountable drive.

It shows the drive icon as a CD-ROM drive, if that is any help.

And, just for fun, and because I am too tired right now to do any research, I have two DVD-RW drives but it only shows one icon, although it reads both drives. What do I have to do to get a separate icon for each DVD drive?

Is it an internal drive?

Could you list the contents of /etc/fstab, and maybe also /etc/mtab? It sounds like either you had the drives hooked up differently when doing the Debian install, or the installer was confused when auto-detecting the hard drives/optical drives.

Yes

and no to that monkey thing

I would, except those directories don't seem to exist on my system.

They don't exist? Have you looked in the /etc directory? fstab and mtab are files, not subdirectories.

It doesn't matter. I installed Ubunto, which had no problem with the SATA drive. It still sees it as a removable drive, but at least it sees the data on it as well. I guess Debian goes in my "failed experiments" file.

But as for the etc directory, I know it exists, but I tried to get into the directory and the system responded to every command "directory does not exist". Another nail in Debian's coffin as far as I am concerned.

Dude. Don't blame Debian for your inability to navigate to the /etc directory or find /etc/fstab--it's absolutely IDENTICAL to Ubuntu and every other Linux distribution there.

Ubuntu is a fine Linux distribution for a new user. It's based on Debian, so what you learn with Ubuntu is applicable to Debian if you ever want to try it again. But you're going to have to learn a little bit of patience with Ubuntu also, when something comes up that you're not immediately able to solve.

Funny enough, I have a nearly identical question, as well as enough patience and experience (all acquired in the last 2-3 weeks; i AM a noob) to follow someone's expert advice. My system differs in that I'm using plain i386 etch, and my new SATA/300 hdd is connected via a SATA/150 PCI card (by all indications thus far neither the card nor the speed mismatch are problematic). The drive itself is new and blank except for 4 file systems: one 40gb primary ext2 partition (sda1); one extended partition containing a 100gb fat32 partition (sda5) and a 40 gb fat32 partition (sda6); and one 100gb ext3 partition (sda3). I'm sure that sounds unnecessarily complicated, but circumstances lead me to do it that way. I used gparted to partition and format the SATA drive because I'm trying to work quickly and am avoiding the command line (although I *do* plan to take the time to learn linux thoroughly after I get my current crop of problems worked out).

SO - my question is, how does the fstab file work? See mine below. I read somewhere that Debian is supposed to automatically add entries for new hard drive partitions to fstab, but clearly that did not happen in my case. the thing that I am most uncertain of is what mount point to assign each partition. At this point I have no need to keep system or user files on this drive. All 4 partitions are for backing up other drives and moving files around as I prepare this machine and another one for normal use (basically, the contents of 3 other IDE drives need to be archived on the SATA drive and then I can move forward).


# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/hda1 / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
/dev/hda5 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto 0 0

Thanks to anyone who can help! Sorry the original poster was kind of obnoxious, but thanks to him I found this thread via google so - life goes on.

I'm afraid you misinterpreted. Debian - nor any other distro that I know of - will add anything to your fstab once the system is installed. Any hardware changes made after the install need to be added manually.

The short solution:

make some mountpoints in your home directory like this:

cd /home/username
mkdir disk1 disk2 disk3 disk4

The names (disk1 etc) can be changed to anything you like. For example, you could call the first partition "media" instead of disk1.

Then become root:
su -
root password

And check the output of
fdisk -l
which will show you how those four partitions are identified.

As a next step, the partitions should be added to /etc/fstab; the syntax is like this:

device - mountpoint - filesystem type - mount options - dump - pass

So if fdisk -l lists the first partition on the new drive as sda1:
/dev/sda1 /home/username/disk1 ext2 defaults 0 2

and so on for the other partitions. Special care should be taken with the fat partitions. To be fully functional, they require the following options instead of "defaults":

rw,exec,uid=1000,gid=1000,umask=0000

Check your edited fstab and save it. Then mount the new partitions manually (this is a one-time action; the partitions will automount once you have rebooted):
mount -a

Acutally all of the user friendly distro's do this, and have for years:

MEPIS (the best) also;
pcLinuxO/S
Freespire


All have a dynamic fstab that changes every time a new piece of hardware is installed.

A can't believe a Debian desktop isn't smart enough to do this yet--those others have for years!

I'm fighting this very same problem in Etch now and looking for an answer...I see there isn't a good one yet. But I can fix it by popping-in a MEPIS Live CD which will auto-detect everything & let me make any changes needed as root.

I have no idea what:
device - mountpoint - filesystem type - mount options - dump - pass
means, nor do I want to learn. Like almost all users, I just want it to work.

MEPIS, pcLinuxO/S & Freespire just work, right out of the box.

Lance

Debian not being "smart" isn't a matter of negligence. You can call those other OSes user-friendly but that is pretty relative. Trust me, that's not a prejudice of a smart ass. I have tried Mepis - have tried dozens of distros - and I was seriously disappointed. Once you get familiar with Debian, you learn to tweak the system exactly to your taste. If you then approach Mepis with the illusion that you can do the same, forget it. It's happened more than once that Mepis just broke down after doing something as simple as moving a /var or a /tmp partition. The very things that make it easy will just backfire. Not to mention the bewilderment that all those user-friendly features create when they stop functioning for some reason when it can be so simple if you do it yourself.

Anyway, if you're not interested in learning how to draw up an fstab file, you should ask yourself whether Debian is the right choice for you. There'll be a lot more hurdles to take after that. If you find that a turn-off, that's fine with me, there is a reason that we have so many different distros. Debian is just one of those systems that is intended to give you a deeper understanding of Linux. Why install it if you don't care about that sort of thing?

Thanks for the post, you saved the day. But I am on a quest for knowlage. Can you explain the umask option switch you used? I know the others, and umask is probably something simple also.

Have a look at this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umask