Greetings,

I've got an external Maxtor 120GB USB2.0 harddrive that will primarily live on my SuSE 9.2 box, but will also be connected to my XP Pro laptop for backup and file transfer purposes. Thus I do not want to reformat the Maxtor USB disk with a Linux-only FS, and preferably keep it as it came out of the box.

When plugging the Maxtor into the desktop running SuSE 9.2 Pro, it's automagically detected and mounted on /media/usb-Y3NWSFWE:0.0.0p1 and works perfectly.

However, if I use a USB-hub or connect other devices, sometimes this name changes, which obviously causes path problems.

I have tried adding the USB disk to /etc/fstab, but with 2 problems:

1. All files are root:root and I cannot change them
2. It's currently on /dev/sda1, but might depending on other connected drives be found on /dev/sda2 (or 3 or 4) and thus mount won't find it.

So question: How do I manipulate the "automount"/plug'n'play option to mount this drive on /files, rather than /media/usb-Y3NWSFWE... ?

(I checked the HOWTO's and FAQ's, and all they describe is how to add /dev/sda1 to fstab, which for above reasons doesn't quite apply here)

Thanks for any insight!

Use udev to control your /dev entries, and set a rule that always names the USB disk the same way.

Thanks 1&1=2

I really don't feel too intelligent at the moment, but having browsed through quite a few different man pages and config pages I am somewhat at loss on which configuration file to configure, what to search for, and how to ensure that my "important" USB-harddrive is always mounted on /files, while USB memory sticks and other USB harddrives remains mounted in the defauls /media/usb-XXXXXXXXXXXX ?

If you could offer me a hint in the right direction I'd appreciate it. Right now I've just stared myself blind and entered a state of total confusion.

Thanks much!

Hi Yalla-One,

Maybe you can try this guide:

http://www.reactivated.net/udevrules.php

It had some examples, I think it's easier to understand than the official udev doc.

Thanks much nnsg - that it the spot perfectly.

As a reference to others who might have similar questions, here's what I did to make it work perfectly:

1. Locate the name, type and serial number of my important USB harddisk :
2. Copy/paste the name and serial number of the harddrive

3. Create /etc/udev/rules.d/10-local.rules with content:
4. Add the following line to my /etc/fstab:
Note the "umask=022" part, which allows root only to make changes to the drive. Having it world-writeable is somewhat risky as my girlfriend sometimes uses my Linux box (nuff said)

5. I can now mount and read my files both when it's connected to XP and to Linux. No

As stated by nnsg above, all of this is thanks to Daniel Drake's document found at http://www.reactivated.net/udevrules.php

-Y1

ok thanks for this form im just alittle lost.(still trying to get switched over) I have the same problem. I have a Usb hub that i want to use. I put in the udevinfo -a -p `udevinfo -q path -n /dev/sda` and i got bash: udevinfo: command not found
. im using red hat 9.