Playing with autofs.

Vitalka · 11-10-2005, 07:29 PM

Now I have been playing with "autofs" for two days (just for my own enjoyment) and I can't get it to work or I just don't understand something.

I made an entry in "/etc/auto.master":

Code:

/windows          /etc/auto.fat

Then I created file "auto.fat" in /etc and made following entry in it:

Code:

fat                   -fstype=vfat        :/dev/hda5

I took a look at a few tutorials and one of them says that:
- "/windows" will be my mounting point
- "fat" is my key to invoke automount action
So as far as I understand only "/windows" folder needs to be created.

Now when I start "autofs", my windows folder stays the empty. If I type

Code:

cd /windows/fat

it says that this folder doesn't exist.
If I create "fat" folder inside "/windows" and type

Code:

ls -al /windows/fat

, fat folder stays empty.

How do I make that when I go into that folder I would be able to see files on that partition.

Nawar · 11-10-2005, 08:53 PM

After you made your changes to the config files, did you restart the autofs daemons?

If not, then more than likely, your daemons are not running with up-to-date config info.

Try restarting the service, or if you're having difficulty locating it, restart the system.

HTH,

Nawar

Vitalka · 11-10-2005, 09:18 PM

I do restart the service every time I make changes.

I also solved my problem:

1. I created /windows/fat folder manually
2. I changed this:

Code:

fat                   -fstype=vfat        :/dev/hda5

to this:

Code:

fat                   -fstype=auto,rw,users,exec        :/dev/hda5

3. Restarted autofs, and finally it worked.

I just don't know if timeout option works, which i specified in "auto.master":

/windows /etc/auto.fat --timeout=10

I assume that 10 means 10 seconds and not 10 minutes, right?

Nawar · 11-10-2005, 09:22 PM

Now that makes sense.

It's always the simple things that cause problems, isn't it.

Like forgetting to have a directory available as a mount point.... <DOH!>

I know I've done it before, and WILL do it again.

Glad to hear you solved your problem.

Good work!

Vitalka · 11-10-2005, 09:41 PM

Directory thing was not the biggest problem. Because I tried creating it and autofs still wouldn't mount fat partition.

Now this apperantely caused all the problem:

fat -fstype=vfat :/dev/hda5

- for some reason it would not take "vfat" value so I replaced it with "auto" and also added a bunch of other options.

I also found this link:
http://www.linux-consulting.com/Amd_.../autofs-6.html
It states some of the mounting options, maybe it will come useful to someone, on this forum, one day.