Permanent USB drive with Ubuntu desktop

RickPoleshuck · 12-10-2020, 10:14 AM

I have added the proper magic to my /etc/fstab to mount my USB drive on boot and as root. But when I login to my desktop, it tries to mount the USB drive again as my user id in /media/$USERNAME. Is this is a bug or a configuration issue? I don't think its related but I am using samba, smbd to export this drive.

OS: Ubuntu 20.04
Desktop manager: default Gnome
fstab: UUID=719b83b1-8f0d-42f8-b9c6-c796832e8371 /media/backup ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 2

I think this is the right forum, but don't hesitate to correct me.
Thanks

jsbjsb001 · 12-10-2020, 10:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RickPoleshuck

I have added the proper magic to my /etc/fstab to mount my USB drive on boot and as root. But when I login to my desktop, it tries to mount the USB drive again as my user id in /media/$USERNAME. Is this is a bug or a configuration issue? I don't think its related but I am using samba, smbd to export this drive.

OS: Ubuntu 20.04
Desktop manager: default Gnome
fstab: UUID=719b83b1-8f0d-42f8-b9c6-c796832e8371 /media/backup ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 2

I think this is the right forum, but don't hesitate to correct me.
Thanks

Check the "automounter" settings in the desktop/graphical environment you're using - it's a configuration issue with that.

RickPoleshuck · 12-10-2020, 11:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jsbjsb001

Check the "automounter" settings in the desktop/graphical environment you're using - it's a configuration issue with that.

Thanks for your reply.
Unfortunately, I did not fully specify my problem. My apologies.
Using dconf-editor I can turn off automount easily by browsing to org.gnome.desktop.media, but that turns off ALL automounts which is not what I want.

ondoho · 12-10-2020, 01:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RickPoleshuck

Unfortunately, I did not fully specify my problem. My apologies.
Using dconf-editor I can turn off automount easily by browsing to org.gnome.desktop.media, but that turns off ALL automounts which is not what I want.

If you want to disable automounting only for one specific device, but not all others, a udev rule might help.

Hint: this is much harder to achieve.

jsbjsb001 · 12-10-2020, 10:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RickPoleshuck

Thanks for your reply.
Unfortunately, I did not fully specify my problem. My apologies.
Using dconf-editor I can turn off automount easily by browsing to org.gnome.desktop.media, but that turns off ALL automounts which is not what I want.

Are you sure you can't go into System > Preferences > Removable Drives and Media and set an option to not automount just your USB drive? Because reading this seems to suggest you can, under the heading "Preferences".

I'm pretty sure there is in fact an option to selectively automount removable drives in KDE. GNOME is one of the reasons I don't use Ubuntu myself, and I don't seem to have an ISO image of it to look at it for you in a VM either.

I would check in Ubuntu's Removable Drives and Media settings for an option to not automount your USB drive, without disabling automounting completely. Or you'll have to setup a udev rule as suggested to stop your USB drive being automounted.

RickPoleshuck · 12-11-2020, 10:18 AM

If the option to specify a particular drive exists in Ubuntu 20.04 Gnome, it is hidden well. :-)

After more research, I believe this is a bug. When I plugin my USB drive while logged in I do not see this problem. It only occurs after a reboot. Although I am careful to lock my screen when I walk away, I almost never log out so I hadn't been aware of this before.

I think I am pointed in the right direction. For others, this looks like a good very beginner tutorial to udev: https://opensource.com/article/18/11/udev

Thanks to all.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jsbjsb001

Are you sure you can't go into System > Preferences > Removable Drives and Media and set an option to not automount just your USB drive? Because reading this seems to suggest you can, under the heading "Preferences".

I'm pretty sure there is in fact an option to selectively automount removable drives in KDE. GNOME is one of the reasons I don't use Ubuntu myself, and I don't seem to have an ISO image of it to look at it for you in a VM either.

I would check in Ubuntu's Removable Drives and Media settings for an option to not automount your USB drive, without disabling automounting completely. Or you'll have to setup a udev rule as suggested to stop your USB drive being automounted.

ondoho · 12-11-2020, 04:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RickPoleshuck

It only occurs after a reboot.

Show us the output of

Code:

cat /etc/fstab

please.

(just a wild guess)

RickPoleshuck · 12-11-2020, 07:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ondoho

Show us the output of

Code:

cat /etc/fstab

please.

(just a wild guess)

My original post had the relevant line from my fstab, but here is the whole thing:

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/sda1 during installation
UUID=130b39ea-b957-422b-8cb7-7d760169c5b9 /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
/swapfile                                 none            swap    sw              0       0
UUID=719b83b1-8f0d-42f8-b9c6-c796832e8371 /media/backup   ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       2

ondoho · 12-12-2020, 02:59 AM

^ aw crud, you posted that in your OP. Sorry.
But it made me realise what the problem is.
In fstab, you can add an option to that drive that tells your DE to basically ignore it.
I kknow this exists but I cannot find it.
I currently have

Code:

...,comment=x-gvfs-show,...

on one internal drive, but that does the exact opposite. So maybe "x-gvfs-hide"?