Mounting and F-stab Questions with a Mint/Kali/Win8.1 Boot

hoolia · 06-11-2017, 02:49 AM

Hello,my name is Julia and I am new to the Linux community! I have an Acer Aspire, 1 TB, AMD64 that came with Windows 8.1 pre-installed. I now have Mint 18.1 and Kali 2017.1 booting alongside. All OS's are up and running, but I have a few questions.

First here is my fdisk:

Code:

julia-Aspire-E5-521 julia # fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 931.5 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 1BCF58D9-B4A8-4A86-B99A-66670971BFBA

Device          Start        End    Sectors   Size Type
/dev/sda1        2048    1230847    1228800   600M Windows recovery environment
/dev/sda2     1230848    1845247     614400   300M EFI System
/dev/sda3     1845248    2107391     262144   128M Microsoft reserved
/dev/sda4     2107392 1148825599 1146718208 546.8G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda5  1449181184 1858779135  409597952 195.3G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda6  1858781184 1910798335   52017152  24.8G Linux filesystem
/dev/sda7  1910798336 1921204223   10405888     5G Linux swap
/dev/sda8  1921204224 1953523711   32319488  15.4G Windows recovery environment
/dev/sda9  1207418880 1449179135  241760256 115.3G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda10 1148825600 1207418879   58593280    28G Linux filesystem

OK, here is a few of my many many questions (I have been researching like crazy

but am having trouble finding information, and I have been at this for a many hours/days so I am getting quite confused

):

1. Is it ok for Mint and Kali to be sharing a swap? It always shows as empty as far as usage goes but I want to be sure that this is configured correctly.

2. I have 2 storage partitions, I would like to merge them, (/sda5 & /sda9). Can this be done even though they are not physically next to each other on the hard drive? If I cannot merge them can I mount them to the same point /media/storage/? I have /sda5 already auto-mounted there in Mint.

3. Both my Mint (/sda6) and Kali(/sda10) are mounting as read-only. Should I remount these, or auto-mount them? If so, where should I mount them to?

4. Should all of my partitions be showing up in the fstabs?

Here is both my fstabs:

Mint:

Code:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
# / was on /dev/sda6 during installation
UUID=c8eed6b8-f91d-4eb8-9b95-c06184e2274d /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# /boot/efi was on /dev/sda2 during installation
UUID=1CE2-A271  /boot/efi       vfat    umask=0077      0       1
# swap was on /dev/sda7 during installation
UUID=eef7629d-277f-4b6c-880d-038eaba5c364 none            swap    sw              0       0


# storage mount
UUID=01D2D4F2A939D740 /media/storage/	ntfs-3g		auto,user,rw 0 0

Kali:

Code:

root@kali:~# cat /etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
# / was on /dev/sda10 during installation
UUID=58ded1fa-7b82-4716-b6d2-34a1724eaa89 /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# /boot/efi was on /dev/sda2 during installation
UUID=1CE2-A271  /boot/efi       vfat    umask=0077      0       1
# swap was on /dev/sda7 during installation
UUID=6923bf5a-1221-4591-a197-24847a98dad1 none            swap    sw              0       0

I hope that someone can help me or point me in the right direction for help! I also just want to mention, I have no attachment to Windows but was instructed not to remove it as a precautionary measure, but if anyone knows how I can do this please advise!

sorry for the super long post!!

I have let these questions build up too long!

Thanks Julia

yancek · 06-11-2017, 10:38 AM

Quote:

Is it ok for Mint and Kali to be sharing a swap?

Yes. I've personally had 10+ Linux systems on the same machine using one swap partition. If you have enough RAM, you will probably not need swap or use it.

In order to merge partitions they need to be contiguous which they are not. You can't mount them to the same mount point. I would think they would be available at least on Mint under the /media/user directory (substitute your user name for user). Have you checked that? Otherwise, you could simply create mount points with a different name.

sda5 mounted at /media/storage; sda9 mounted at /media/storage2 for example. Add the entry for sda9 to fstab below the sda5 entry.

Mounting read-only can be the result of a number of things. First thing to do is run a filesystem check with fsck. If you can't boot either, use the Mint or Kali install media to do it on each / partition. What exactly happens when you boot? Are you able to login?

Are you interested in computer forensics and penetration testing? Are you aware that is the only reason to use Kali?

hoolia · 06-11-2017, 11:58 AM

@yancek

Thank you very much for your response! Wow that's so many on one machine!!

Ok so I will just set up an auto-mount my sda9 on a different mount point /media/storage2. I have noticed in Kali that both the storage partitions are already available to me, it just mounts as soon as I access the files. Do I need to setup mount points through Kali as well? If so, can I name them the same as I have in Mint? I just want to be sure that all docs etc will be available and updated through either operating system.

I didn't think that I could merge them, it was just poor planning as I wasn't planning on having 3 OS's! It's not a big deal at all, was more just curious. Do you have any thoughts on me being able to remove Windows off of this system or would you recommend just leaving it alone?

When I first added Kali, I only had problems with Mint booting once, but that was because I had forgotten to update the grub. I have no trouble logging in or booting any OS now. So do I just go in an change the fstab. Like this, for Mint:

/ was on /dev/sda6 during installation
UUID=c8eed6b8-f91d-4eb8-9b95-c06184e2274d /dev/sda6/ ext4 defaults 0 1

# storage mount
UUID=01D2D4F2A939D740 /media/storage/ ntfs-3g auto,user,rw 0 0

#storage mount2
UUID=PUTUUIDHEREFROMBLKID /media/storage2/ ntfs-3g auto, user, rw 0 0

I just am having a lot of trouble picturing "mount points" when it comes to the OS and where I should be mounting these. So if it is read only does that mean that anything I change while in that OS is not changed after I log out? Should the different OS's be showing up in the others fstab? It doesn't seem to matter how much I read about mount points it is just not connecting in my brain...it's quite frustrating! It will click eventually I guess

And yes I am aware of the uses and that Kali is for pen-testing and securities. I am very interested in it and I am actually just learning Python right now and I am working through a number of securities exercises. I found Kali to have all of the python programs I would need to write and the appropriate programs in which to test the scripts. And it is very interesting learning different OS's! I am jumping into the world of Linux with both feet and some water wings! LOL

Thanks so much for tackling my questions

Julia

DVOM · 06-11-2017, 12:49 PM

These are the lines I use in my fstab file to mount my data partitions:

Code:

/dev/sda5                                  /media/sda5  ntfs  defaults  0  0
/dev/sda6                                  /media/sda6  ntfs  defaults  0  0

AFAIK, they're not mounted to different mount points, they both show up in /media/

In Debian or Ubuntu, that's all I need to do, the "sda5" and "sda6" directories are auto created in /media/

Some other OSs, such as Fedora, I need to manually create those directories myself.

---

As for removing Windows and rearranging your partitions, if you could give us a list of what's on each partition that would be great as it looks like you can get rid of about half of them. Also, a screen shot of your HDD in gparted would be nice.

BTW, I've got 5 OSs on this machine. They all have those same identical lines in fstab.

hoolia · 06-11-2017, 02:13 PM

@DVOM

Thank you that clears it up as far as the data partitions go I went ahead and did it and its awesome, but what about the Mint and Kali partitions, should i just be doing the same thing as the data ones:

Code:

#FROM KALI OS
mkdir /media/Kali 
mkdir /media/Mint
#then edit my fstab 
# / was on /dev/sda10 during installation
UUID=58ded1fa-7b82-4716-b6d2-34a1724eaa89           /media/sda10              ext4                 defaults          0       1
# / was on /dev/sda6 during installation 
UUID=c8eed6b8-f91d-4eb8-9b95-c06184e2274d           /media/sda6               ext4                 defaults          0       1

Or do I mount them at /dev/sdaX
Do I need to repeat this process in both operating systems?

Sorry I think this is probably really simple I just can't wrap my head around it for some reason... I really am a pretty smart cookie!

****

Ok and as far as whats on each partition here is a link to a screenshot of gparted:

http://imageshack.com/a/img923/7154/qvA1Ct.png

I am just leery of getting rid of windows as it was preinstalled and I am afraid that basic functionalities will stop working. But I guess that as long as I backup all my drivers on a flash drive, I have already backed up all my pictures etc. it shouldn't be an issue. The grub has taken over now for the boot. I wouldn't care about getting rid of it if windows wasn't blocking 500 GB for what is probably a very stupid file! It's more of a wanting to rid myself of windows completely thing now...its the principal!!

Thanks for your help!
Julia

John VV · 06-11-2017, 05:00 PM

a bit of advice for using kali

you SHOULD already know how to solve ALL OF THE ABOVE IN YOUR SLEEP if you are going to use kali

hoolia · 06-11-2017, 05:59 PM

@john vv
Well thanks but I learn best by doing and asking questions from people on forums like this. I'm not doing anything bad, just learning.

Have a great day!

DVOM · 06-11-2017, 06:09 PM

Julia, I only pre-mount partitions I need all the time or immediately on boot. All the others are easy to open when you need them.

Edit: However, you can mount them all the same way as your data partitions. Just adjust your "sdaX" for each one.

Looking at your gparted, you can shrink that windows partition down quite a bit. One problem with shrinking these newer windows partitions is the OS puts stray files all over the partition. It will only allow you to shrink it down to where the first stray file is located. So you need a defragger that will move all the immovable files. PerfectDisk is what I used. It's a pay-for program with a one month grace period and you're only going to need it for a couple of hours. So it's free. I had to run it probably 8 to 10 times to get all the files moved to the front of the partition. Then you can shrink it from within Windows disk management. I'd guess a Win partition of about 50GB or slightly more would work. Especially since you're not going to use it. So you'd have a net gain of about 500GB.

I'm guessing that you would like to shrink your Win partition and eventually get a single 800GB data partition. At least that's what I'd try to do.

yancek · 06-11-2017, 10:24 PM

Quote:

but what about the Mint and Kali partitions, should i just be doing the same thing as the data ones:

vivv

Having data partitions auto-mpunted can make things easier but I don't really see the point of auto-mounting other system partitions. Firstly, since you can read and write(type), doing a manual mount when you need to access another system partition because you are having problems, entering the command to do so takes about 10 seconds. If you decide to do the auto-mount, just use the same method described above creating a directory as a mount point and an entry in fstab.

hoolia · 06-12-2017, 02:18 AM

Awesome thank you guys, I am starting to understand this mounting a lot better after a lot of reading and just doing it. I totally don't need to mount the drives, it's not necessary, I was just concerned that because they had mounted ro that any changes I made to the system would not be reflected on the next login.

@DVOM

That's the defragger I ran, I think about 4x, but I wasn't gaining anymore space. I guess I will have to keep at it. I wish there was an easier way to move the file. It's a lot of space to be losing! But I am ok for space now so I will save that for another day. Thank you for all your help!

Have a great day!

Shadow_7 · 06-12-2017, 02:44 AM

You only need the partitions you want to USE in /etc/fstab. Baring some autofs setups that will mount everything as it sees fit without direction.

You can share swap (although you might need to reformat it before turning it on, depending on encryption things in modern things)

$ sudo swapon -s

You can merge two storage location into one software raid (lvm2 and others) usable space. Not for the meek. Probably full of potential downfalls. But possible. Not really needed unless you have or are creating a single file that wont fit on either individual partition. Or want simple for the end user, while making life a living hell for the administrator. Actually it's not that hard (until you need to recover from a really bad fail).

Your system mounting as read-only at boot is a bad sign (although probably designed that way for kali). On debian under systemd, if your /etc/fstab omits the / details, or gets them wrong it'll default to read-only. But there could be other causes like a filesystem that needs fsck-ing. The root details need to be right in the bootloader, AND /etc/fstab. And probably of matching type /dev/, LABEL=, or UUID=.