Mounting/unmounting in Debian

Honeysuckle · 06-21-2008, 02:12 AM

All of my data are on a separate partition. I have Debian "Etch" installed and have added the data partition to fstab so that it is accessible. I'd prefer to have it like Knoppix does - so that it is unmounted, but able to be mounted by clicking an icon. Can somebody point me in the right direction to find out how to do this? Thanks.

jamwaffles · 06-21-2008, 04:14 AM

i dont really know, but i would say nautilus would detect the disk without an entry in fstab (?????). anyone correct me if im wrong.

james waples, 14

kummiliim · 06-21-2008, 04:31 AM

There are probably complete solutions for this but just make a small script. $DEV is the partition you want to mount such as /dev/sda3, $MNT is the mount point such as /mnt/misc. replace them in this script.

Code:

#!/bin/bash
#
# This small script mounts and unmounts my partition
#

if [ "$(mount | grep -c $DEV)" -eq "0" ];then
        mount $DEV $MNT
else
        umount $MNT
fi

Then make the script executable and put it in a launcher or on desktop and set a nice icon for it. At least that's how I usually do these kinds of things.

IsaacKuo · 06-21-2008, 04:40 AM

Put the entry in /etc/fstab, but put in the option "noauto". That means the partition won't be automatically mounted. As for the desktop icon--this depends on what desktop environment you use. Assuming you use the default GNOME interface, then you'll want to put the mountpoint in either /mnt/ or /media/ (I'm not sure which one), and GNOME will automatically put it on the desktop.

Honeysuckle · 06-21-2008, 08:52 AM

Thanks for the replies.

Changing the etc/fstab entry to "noauto" stops it automounting.

I've been trying to get the script to work. It will work if I log on as root, but not as user... I changed the ownership of the script file to my user and I've got "user" in the fstab entry. I think it needs to be "told" to make me root so it will "do" the mounting, but I don't know what is required??

I'm using KDE, by the way.

kummiliim · 06-21-2008, 10:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Honeysuckle

I've been trying to get the script to work. It will work if I log on as root, but not as user... I changed the ownership of the script file to my user and I've got "user" in the fstab entry. I think it needs to be "told" to make me root so it will "do" the mounting, but I don't know what is required??

Sorry, forgot about only root being able to mount new stuff. Use 'mount $MNT' instead of 'mount $DEV $MNT' and it should work. If you have declared the device-mountpoint pair in fstab at least.

IsaacKuo · 06-21-2008, 10:56 AM

In KDE, right click on the desktop. You want to create a new link to device. I don't remember the exact details of how to make it work, but the "user" option in fstab certainly can't hurt.

Honeysuckle · 06-21-2008, 12:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by IsaacKuo

In KDE, right click on the desktop. You want to create a new link to device. I don't remember the exact details of how to make it work, but the "user" option in fstab certainly can't hurt.

Yay, success! Thanks.

Right click on desktop, select create new -> Link to device -> Hard Disc Device, select the "device" tab and choose a device from the drop-down menu in the "device" box, click ok. It mounts by clicking on the icon, unmounts by choosing from the menu that comes up when you right-click on the icon. (I'm not sure whether the "user" option in fstab is significant in this happening without complaint or whether I gave myself ownership of it before when I was trying to get it to mount using the script.)

Quote:

Use 'mount $MNT' instead of 'mount $DEV $MNT' and it should work. If you have declared the device-mountpoint pair in fstab at least.

I gave that a whirl to see what would happen, but it still didn't work. Thanks for the suggestion, but I don't have to persevere with that avenue now that the other one works.

Thanks again.

kummiliim · 06-22-2008, 01:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Honeysuckle

I gave that a whirl to see what would happen, but it still didn't work. Thanks for the suggestion, but I don't have to persevere with that avenue now that the other one works.

Thanks again.

Glad that you got it working. It still bugged me a bit why the script didn't work so I tried it all out myself. In my example I try to mount /dev/sda7 to /mnt/misc. If this partition isn't in the fstab then:

Code:

sander@blunt:~$ cat /etc/fstab | grep sda7
sander@blunt:~$ mount /dev/sda7 /mnt/misc/
mount: only root can do that
sander@blunt:~$ mount /mnt/misc/
mount: can't find /mnt/misc/ in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab
sander@blunt:~$

If I add it in the fstab with default settings:

Code:

sander@blunt:~$ cat /etc/fstab | grep sda7
/dev/sda7       /mnt/misc       ext2    defaults        0       0
sander@blunt:~$ mount /dev/sda7 /mnt/misc/
mount: only root can do that
sander@blunt:~$ mount /mnt/misc/
mount: only root can mount /dev/sda7 on /mnt/misc
sander@blunt:~$

And when I add the 'user' (and your 'noauto') option:

Code:

sander@blunt:~$ cat /etc/fstab | grep sda7
/dev/sda7       /mnt/misc       ext2    noauto,user     0       0
sander@blunt:~$ mount /dev/sda7 /mnt/misc/
mount: only root can do that
sander@blunt:~$ mount /mnt/misc/
sander@blunt:~$ mount | grep sda7
/dev/sda7 on /mnt/misc type ext2 (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,user=sander)
sander@blunt:~$

It works. Well, doesn't matter, as long as the KDE solution works for you.

Honeysuckle · 06-22-2008, 10:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kummiliim

Glad that you got it working. It still bugged me a bit why the script didn't work so I tried it all out myself.

I didn't want you to have to spend any more time on it if you had better things to do, but as you have persevered, I gave it another go, and it DID work - so the answer to the question "why didn't the script work last time?" is probably "clueless newb typed something wrong, or did something wrong"

However, it doesn't seem to unmount it - does that work for you? EDIT: tried it again after a reboot and it worked for both mounting and unmounting, so it does work.

Thanks for sticking with it.

kummiliim · 06-23-2008, 03:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Honeysuckle

I didn't want you to have to spend any more time on it if you had better things to do, but as you have persevered, I gave it another go, and it DID work - so the answer to the question "why didn't the script work last time?" is probably "clueless newb typed something wrong, or did something wrong"

However, it doesn't seem to unmount it - does that work for you? EDIT: tried it again after a reboot and it worked for both mounting and unmounting, so it does work.

Thanks for sticking with it.

No problem. I always try to fix my stuff even when I have other solutions just so I can see how things work.