Trying to mount loop device during boot: permission denied

openSauce · 08-14-2008, 01:42 AM

Hi,

I'm using Fedora core 8, and I have a file containing an ext3 filesystem I want to mount during bootup, but get a 'permission denied' error. Here is the entry in /etc/fstab:

Code:

/mnt/data/.filename	/home/user/mntpoint	ext3	loop,user,defaults	0 0

/mnt/data is the mountpoint of an NTFS partition whose fstab entry occurs above the one for the file, and which mounts correctly.

With the above entry in fstab, the command

Code:

mount /home/user/mntpoint

mounts the filesystem when I execute it after logging in. root is also able to execute that command successfully. But during boot I get the message:

Code:

/mnt/data/.filename: permission denied

/mnt/data is normally mounted with me as the owner and permissions rwxrwxrwx. I tried mounting it with root as the owner and the same permissions, but got the same error message. I also tried changing the mountpoint to /mnt/mntpoint (owned by root rather than me), but still got the same message.

If root executes 'mount -a' from a terminal when /mnt/data is not mounted, then /mnt/data/.filename mounts successfully. The permission error only occurs during boot. What else could be affecting the permissions here?

cyclepathology · 08-14-2008, 08:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by openSauce

Hi,

I'm using Fedora core 8, and I have a file containing an ext3 filesystem I want to mount during bootup, but get a 'permission denied' error. Here is the entry in /etc/fstab:

Code:

/mnt/data/.filename	/home/user/mntpoint	ext3	loop,user,defaults	0 0

/mnt/data is the mountpoint of an NTFS partition whose fstab entry occurs above the one for the file, and which mounts correctly.

With the above entry in fstab, the command

Code:

mount /home/user/mntpoint

mounts the filesystem when I execute it after logging in. root is also able to execute that command successfully. But during boot I get the message:

Code:

/mnt/data/.filename: permission denied

/mnt/data is normally mounted with me as the owner and permissions rwxrwxrwx. I tried mounting it with root as the owner and the same permissions, but got the same error message. I also tried changing the mountpoint to /mnt/mntpoint (owned by root rather than me), but still got the same message.

If root executes 'mount -a' from a terminal when /mnt/data is not mounted, then /mnt/data/.filename mounts successfully. The permission error only occurs during boot. What else could be affecting the permissions here?

What happens if you add the _netdev option to your loopback file system?

I'm speculating...

openSauce · 08-15-2008, 03:25 AM

I still get permission denied, although at a slightly later time. I don't know how to get a log of the messages that come up on the screen during boot (if anyone knows how to do this in Fedora Core 8 please let me know - tried dmesg but those messages are different), so I'm paraphrasing here, but basically the difference is:

without _netdev

Code:

Mounting filesystems in /etc/fstab...             [FAILED]
// some other messages...
Mounting other filesystems... /mnt/data/.filename: permission denied
                                                  [FAILED]

with _netdev

Code:

Mounting filesystems in /etc/fstab...             [OK]
// some other messages...
Mounting other filesystems... /mnt/data/.filename: permission denied
                                                  [FAILED]

Tk3thelinuxnewb · 08-15-2008, 05:06 PM

Is the permission denied the only message pertaining to that mount during boot? or is there something else like folder does not exist?

openSauce · 08-19-2008, 04:14 AM

Only permission denied. It turns out to be SELinux causing the problem (if I disable it, the file mounts successfully). Unfortunately I haven't managed to set up an selinux policy that will allow me to mount the file at boot, but it's not too much hassle to just mount it after I log in.

openSauce · 10-06-2008, 12:07 PM

In case anyone else has this problem, I managed to work around it by putting the command to mount the filesystem in my ~/.bash_profile. It does mean I get an error message if I log in a 2nd time, but this can be ignored, or you can put a slightly smarter command in the profile.