How to auto-recognize drive units on boot?

Tassadar · 05-12-2014, 07:02 AM

Hi all, I have a problem with my HTPC based on Kubuntu.

I have an SSD for the OS and a 2tb drive for files. Everytimes I boot the computer I have to go to Dolphin file manager and enter on the secondary drive that appears as a device; this is because it appears with a red croos icon, and when I enter on it it changes to a green ok icon.

If I enter XBMC without having done this, I can't access to the content of this drive, so I always have to enter dolphin and open drive before opening XBMC.

It's very annoying, so... how can I make kubuntu enable this drive automatically on every startup? It also happend if a use a USB hard drive, by default I cant access to it until I open in dolphin.

I want Linux to automount? (not sure if it's the appropiate word) all units on start and show them with green ok icon instead red cross.

Many thanks in advance

schneidz · 05-12-2014, 07:42 AM

hi, while you are able to browse the files on the drive can you please copy-paste the output of these commands:

Code:

df -h
cat /etc/fstab

Tassadar · 05-12-2014, 09:13 AM

Many thanks for your interest and help, schneidz

In this PC I only the system disk, but there is an USB drive connected and the behavior is exactly the same.

Before double click the unit on Dolphin:

Quote:

elhtpc@elhtpc:/usr/share/xbmc/addons$ df -h
S.ficheros Tamaño Usados Disp Uso% Montado en
/dev/sda1 107G 27G 75G 27% /
none 4,0K 0 4,0K 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
udev 1,8G 8,0K 1,8G 1% /dev
tmpfs 366M 1,4M 365M 1% /run
none 5,0M 0 5,0M 0% /run/lock
none 1,8G 144K 1,8G 1% /run/shm
none 100M 20K 100M 1% /run/user

elhtpc@elhtpc:/usr/share/xbmc/addons$ cat /etc/fstab
# /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=928a3979-d26c-4d5a-96bc-7106314f545c / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
# swap was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=cde2c09c-0769-4bda-86aa-7ece8083e1b0 none swap sw 0 0
elhtpc@elhtpc:/usr/share/xbmc/addons$

Afer double click and access drive:

Quote:

elhtpc@elhtpc:~$ df -h
S.ficheros Tamaño Usados Disp Uso% Montado en
/dev/sda1 107G 27G 75G 27% /
none 4,0K 0 4,0K 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
udev 1,8G 8,0K 1,8G 1% /dev
tmpfs 366M 1,4M 365M 1% /run
none 5,0M 0 5,0M 0% /run/lock
none 1,8G 144K 1,8G 1% /run/shm
none 100M 20K 100M 1% /run/user
/dev/sdb1 7,6G 6,5G 1,1G 86% /media/elhtpc/PENDRIVE

elhtpc@elhtpc:~$ cat /etc/fstab
# /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=928a3979-d26c-4d5a-96bc-7106314f545c / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
# swap was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=cde2c09c-0769-4bda-86aa-7ece8083e1b0 none swap sw 0 0
elhtpc@elhtpc:~$

Many thanks

schneidz · 05-12-2014, 09:36 AM

i would add something like this to the last line of /etc/fstab

Code:

/dev/sdb1 /media/elhtpc/PENDRIVE ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 0

can you please show me the output of the mount command while you are able to access the usb drive.

also, if anyone else knows how to get the uuid of drives that would probably be the preferred way of mounting things via /etc/fstab.

spazticclown · 05-12-2014, 11:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by schneidz

also, if anyone else knows how to get the uuid of drives that would probably be the preferred way of mounting things via /etc/fstab.

Code:

ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/

Should do the trick.

Code:

ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/ | grep -i "/dev/sdb1" | awk '{print $9}'

Will print off the UUID of /dev/sdb1.

michaelk · 05-12-2014, 12:42 PM

The blkid utility will also display information for filesystems by device ID, UUID and label.

Tassadar · 05-12-2014, 01:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spazticclown

Code:

ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/

Should do the trick.

Code:

ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/ | grep -i "/dev/sdb1" | awk '{print $9}'

Will print off the UUID of /dev/sdb1.

Many Thanks,

I will do it for using samba locations since I see it's useful for this, by now I solved this problem in this way:

see systemsettings -> removable devices -> attached drives

for all removable drives:
1) -> enable automatic mounting .........., click preferences
or for only that 1 drive:
2) -> select the usb driv -> click automount on login & automount on attach

Honestly, I really really can't figure out why this option is not enabled by default, many times it looks like Linux is made to be as difficult as possible instead of easy.

Regards