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Old 03-26-2006, 03:15 PM   #1
tylerburns
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DISCUSSION: /etc/fstab broken down and explained


This thread is to discuss the article titled:
/etc/fstab broken down and explained

Quote:
The /etc/fstab file is used by some programs to determine file system types and mount points. If you are new to linux, configuration files can seem cryptic and intimidating. This tutorial contains an example /etc/fstab file broken down and thoroughly explained. Keep in mind that the sample that is broken down and explained is larger than your typical /etc/fstab so that this tutorial can be applicable to a wider audience. I also included the /etc/fstab from my personal computer. EXAMPLE: 1 #device mount point file system options dump check 2 3 /dev/hda1 / reiserfs defaults 0 1 4 /dev/hdb1 /home ext2 auto,notail 1 1
 
Old 04-05-2006, 10:14 PM   #2
michaelk
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A good start.

Quote:
column description
.
.
5 fsck order
6 dump (1= backup, 0=don't backup)
You reversed fsck and dump columns.

Your option chart mentions defaults but what does defaults really mean?
No mention of umask option. How to write to a vfat partition is one of the most asked questions on the site.
No mention of samba mount points.

Quote:
While not mandatory, it is highly recommended to define a swap partition in /etc/fstab. You should ALWAYS define a swap partition.
Your statements will be somewhat confusing to the newbie. Using swap and its size would be beyond the scope of your document. However, it depends on the amount of RAM and what applications are being used on the PC.

USB, Firewire, SATA and SCSI devices use /dev/sda type device ID.
 
Old 04-06-2006, 06:13 AM   #3
michaelk
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In addition you might want to mention that fstab file is slightly different between the different distributions.
 
Old 07-09-2007, 07:06 PM   #4
markmlinux
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What about the sys fs entries

Since /sys is so important now what about the fstab entries for that as well?

Also mention of the tmpfs as applied to /tmp - would be helpful to all.
 
Old 04-30-2008, 02:10 AM   #5
kamikaze_al
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fstab probs

Hi , As i can understand, the etc/fstab file is the blueprint for the basic components in the pc,?? right, well, i tried to check it out using MC and the terminal but to no avail, it just shows the HDD I've installed SuSE 10 on, the root the swap and the etc etc partitions..... but the other three stata 500gb disks are missing, there is no mention of them anywhere??
If i do have to manipulate the disks thru this file , how do i name them so that the 10th chameleon recognizes them? and how do I add it there if it ain't detected?
Since there is a detection problem, I can't mount them (Obviously) and cos of that I can't make use of em at all....
A hint would be of gr8 Help
Thanx
 
Old 04-30-2008, 07:59 AM   #6
michaelk
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Kamikaze al, Welcome to LinuxQuestions.

It would be better to create a new thread for your questions instead of replying to one that is almost a year old. fstab is a static file that describes filesystems. It is not a blueprint of the components in your PC and may not contain an entry for every hard drive or partition connected to your computer. Some linux distributions will add an entry for all filesystems found and some do not. I believe that SuSE does not. You will need to manually add an entry for the partitions on the other disk drives. Use any text editor but you must be root to edit files in the /etc directory. It is still possible for root to mount any filesystem on any drive even though there might not be an entry in fstab.

What do you mean by 10th chameleon?

Are the other SATA drives partitioned and formatted? Are you using them for a RAID?
 
Old 04-30-2008, 08:04 AM   #7
jay73
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Quote:
What do you mean by 10th chameleon?
What is the Suse logo?
 
Old 04-30-2008, 08:09 AM   #8
michaelk
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Angry

Quote:
Originally Posted by jay73 View Post
What is the Suse logo?
I did not get much sleep last night and I have not had my coffee yet
 
Old 05-02-2008, 12:06 AM   #9
kamikaze_al
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SuSE Logo???

Quote:
Originally Posted by jay73 View Post
What is the Suse logo?
http://bp1.blogger.com/_tM-TaPrUAaM/.../suse-logo.jpg
Is the suse logo
Of Now a part of the Novell Group and so the changes are pretty evident
 
Old 05-02-2008, 12:16 AM   #10
kamikaze_al
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Angry

What do you mean by 10th chameleon?

Well??? The 10th Chameleon....... is the SuSE 10.1 Obviously...

Are the other SATA drives partitioned and formatted? Are you using them for a RAID?[/QUOTE]

The other drives are all SATA, formatted and being used to store data in a VISTA Environment. Work fine in the Win-Lows environment(Which is absolutely of no use to me) But they are Single Partion Drives with a lotta data that I can't get onto my SuSE Environment.
No, I'm not using them in a RAID Array
 
Old 05-02-2008, 01:36 AM   #11
michaelk
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To read/write to a NTFS file system you need to install ntfs-3g. Install the driver and add an entry to the fstab file like:

/dev/sds1 /mnt/windows ntfs-3g users 0 0

The output of the following comand will display the partition information for all of the drives in your computer.
fdisk -l (that is a small L and you must be root)
 
Old 07-25-2008, 01:40 AM   #12
dreadmeat
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excuse the necro, good info! thanks =)
 
Old 12-08-2010, 10:36 AM   #13
mhwelsh
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The perfect fstab

What effect on this tutorial will the addition of uuid's have?
Can I just replace the partition details with the uuid or is it more sinister than that?
Perhaps;
/dev/sda10 /BackupStore ext3 defaults 0 2
could become
UUID=fd228948-c977-4365-a683-664b9507f52b /BackupStore ext3 defaults 0 2


regards,

martin welsh
 
Old 12-08-2010, 10:42 AM   #14
jay73
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Yes, it's as easy as that.
 
Old 12-16-2010, 01:15 PM   #15
mhwelsh
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The Perfect fstab

UUID=fd228948-c977-4365-a683-664b9507f52b /BackupStore ext3 defaults 0 2

This code has proved to be successful.
Column 4 'defaults' is reputed to control mounting activity.
If I address a file as /BackupStore/BackupStore/file.x the file is presented as mounted.

Thanks for your help.

martin welsh
 
  


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