hda and hdb automounts nicely, but sda does not

Navyblue · 08-15-2005, 03:04 PM

Hi guys,

I was using Ubuntu 5.04 for AMD 64 and now switched to the 32 bit version. Both my IDE and SATA disks used to automount fine. To the best of my knowledge I did not do anything different.

During startup, my IDE drives automounts nicely. However for my SATA drive, during startup the system would complain that it couldn't find the volume. However, Konqueror is able to detect them, and I can login as root to mount those drives and they would be mounted according to the path I have specified in /etc/fstab.

The same thing goes with USB drives, it detects them but not mount them, fortunately I don't need to login as root to do this.

Here is my /etc/fstab:

Code:

proc            /proc           proc    defaults        0       0
/dev/hda1       /               ext3    defaults,errors=remount-ro 0       1
/dev/hda5       /home           ext3    defaults        0       2
/dev/hda6       /storage/linux  ext3    defaults        0       2
/dev/hda7       /tmp            ext3    defaults        0       2
/dev/hda8       none            swap    sw              0       0
/dev/hdb1       /storage/transfer	vfat    umask=000
/dev/sda6       /storage/win-programs	vfat    umask=000
/dev/sda7       /storage/win-games	vfat    umask=000
/dev/sda8       /storage/win-storage	vfat    umask=000

/dev/hdc        /media/dvdrom	udf,iso9660 ro,user,noauto  0       0
/dev/hdd        /media/cdrw	udf,iso9660 ro,user,noauto  0       0
/dev/fd0        /media/fdd	auto    rw,user,noauto  0       0

Now what's wrong with these sdx? The hdx just work and the format appeared identical to me.

Thanks.

Tinkster · 08-15-2005, 03:20 PM

prepend the umask for the sda entries with a default,

Navyblue · 08-16-2005, 02:12 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Tinkster
prepend the umask for the sda entries with a default,

Just did that and it remains the same.

Btw, the error message during startup is:

Code:

mount: special device /dev/sda6 does not exist
mount: special device /dev/sda7 does not exist
mount: special device /dev/sda8 does not exist

It seems like the drive is not detected but Konqueror sees it and is able to mount it.

michaelk · 08-16-2005, 07:12 AM

Typically USB and SATA modules are not included in the initial ram disk (initrd) and therefore get loaded after the boot process mounts the filesystems via fstab. This is why you can see it in Konqueror but fails during boot.

You can add the noauto option to the fstab file so the filesystems are not mounted during bootup. Also adding the user option will let your regular users mount the filesystems too.

If you want the drives mounted at boot you can add the modules to the initrd or since Ubuntu does not use a rc.local file you can add a startup script to /etc/init.d and link to the runlevel directory. Use update-rc.d to create the proper links to rcN.d directories. Using a high number will ensure the script runs last. The defaults option automatically configures runlevels 2-5. If you look in one of the rcN.d directories you will find files like s##scriptname. The s## is the order in which the files are executed.

For example:
update-rc.d foo defaults 50

Navyblue · 08-16-2005, 01:05 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by michaelk
Typically USB and SATA modules are not included in the initial ram disk (initrd) and therefore get loaded after the boot process mounts the filesystems via fstab. This is why you can see it in Konqueror but fails during boot.

You can add the noauto option to the fstab file so the filesystems are not mounted during bootup. Also adding the user option will let your regular users mount the filesystems too.

If you want the drives mounted at boot you can add the modules to the initrd or since Ubuntu does not use a rc.local file you can add a startup script to /etc/init.d and link to the runlevel directory. Use update-rc.d to create the proper links to rcN.d directories. Using a high number will ensure the script runs last. The defaults option automatically configures runlevels 2-5. If you look in one of the rcN.d directories you will find files like s##scriptname. The s## is the order in which the files are executed.

For example:
update-rc.d foo defaults 50

Thanks a lot for your help.

Would you mind if you elaborate more on it? (pardon me for being a newbie)

Assuming that I am going the route of putting a startup script to /etc/init.d.

How do I add a startup script to /etc/init.d? Can I just name it anyhow I like? Or this file is just a link to a script somewhere in /rcN.d?

How do I make the script in /rcN.d? Which directory should I put it in? for the s##scriptname, what number would you suggest me putting? Again can I name it anyhow I like?

Thanks again.

michaelk · 08-16-2005, 05:13 PM

The script can be named anything. You do not need to create a script in any rcN.d directory because that is what the update-rc.d utility does.

Create a script to mount the SATA drive partitions using any text editor. You need to be root to save files in /etc.

Code:

#!/bin/sh
mount /storage/win-games
mount /storage/win-programs

Save it to /etc/init.d directory. You can name it anything. i.e. my_script
Change its permissions. This will change the permissions and allow the script to execute:

chmod 755 my_script

To create the links in rcN.d:
update-rc.d my_script defaults 99

The 99 will cause this script to execute last. If you look in the rc2.d,rc3.d, rc4.d directories you should see a link called s99my_script.

Navyblue · 08-17-2005, 01:30 AM

Thanks for your patient step-by-step explaination. It now works perfectly.

What about the USB drive? How do I automount it when I insert it?

Thanks.

Navyblue · 08-21-2005, 11:53 AM

Anyone?