My new Ubuntu 6.10 desktop PC has an external disk drive attached, which appears as /dev/sdb1 mounted on /media/usbdisk when I boot the PC. As part of configuring Sbackup, I've created directory /var/backup, and I want the disk to be automatically mounted here on boot.

I've added entry "/dev/sdb1 /var/backup ext3 defaults 0 0 " to /etc/fstab, and re-booted. Now, "df -m" does not list the device at all. Remove the entry from fstab, and after reboot, the device reappears mounted on /media/usbdisk. I can:
# umount /media/usbdisk
# mount /dev/sdb1 /var/backup
# cd /var/backup
# ls -al
and I see what is currently on the device.

What am I doing wrong, here? On an FC6 box I have, I had no problems setting up automatic mounting of an external disk drive. Your advice to a Ubuntu newbie appreciated.

there is some daemon that does the mounting when hal/udev detects a new plugged in device. You have to reconfigure this daemon to use your desired mountpoint or disable it at all, so external devices are not automagically mounted. then your fstab line may work, but only if the mount -a command is executed after the device has been recognized.
Sorry, i don't (yet) use ubuntu, os i can't give you a concrete howto, but i'll watch this thread and come back in about 1-2 weeks, then I will accidentally have a ubuntu system set up...

until then: maybe sbackup can execute a "pre-backup-script" with which you can remount the device?

Thanx, Doc. If I find a solution myself, I'll post here.

This might help you for automatic mounts:

http://www.reactivated.net/writing_udev_rules.html
http://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/util...tplug/udev-FAQ

Thanks everyone for your assistance with this. After also having problems with configuring Sbackup on my new ubuntu box, I've decided to revert to Fedora Core 6. The auto-mount issue has now gone away, and I'm using rsnapshot as a backup solution.

Ubuntu 6.10 desktop initially looked good, but posts to the Ubuntu forums did not help me resolve these issues.