Hi,

I am using xubuntu feisty and I had a crazy fstab which was this:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/sda2
UUID=9688b0fb-8d73-4931-9f10-e54574073558 / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /dev/sdb5
UUID=f1b46a82-65c4-45c7-9b6a-db4a3b7b261f /home ext3 defaults 0 2
# /dev/sda3
# /dev/sdb6
# /dev/sda1
UUID=6ea675ee-7cee-4e45-beba-429d4f1f2f2c none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0
/dev/scd1 /media/cdrom1 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto 0 0
# Generated by Automatix
/dev/sda3 /media/sda3 ntfs-3g defaults,locale=en_US.utf8 0 0
/dev/sdb6 /media/sdb6 ntfs-3g defaults,locale=en_US.utf8 0 0
## End of Automatix mounted partitions

I switched it to this:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/hda2
UUID=9688b0fb-8d73-4931-9f10-e54574073558 / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1

# /dev/sda5
UUID=f1b46a82-65c4-45c7-9b6a-db4a3b7b261f /home ext3 defaults 0 2

# /dev/hda1
UUID=6ea675ee-7cee-4e45-beba-429d4f1f2f2c none swap sw 0 0

#Plextor
/dev/hdc /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0
#LG
/dev/hdd /media/cdrom1 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0

/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto 0 0

#Windows C:
/dev/hda3 /media/windows ntfs-3g defaults,locale=en_US.utf8 0 0

#Windows G:
/dev/sda6 /media/windows1 ntfs-3g defaults,locale=en_US.utf8 0 0


What is the UUID thing all about? When I was installing I had my normal PATA hd be labeled as sda and such same with the optical drives be labeled as sca and such, as you can see from my intial fstab. Does this kernel see all drives as sata in this distro? Plus I could not switch this during the install as the non-graphical setup seems to be missing.

I also have problems using dvdshrink as it will not even set the title from dvd. I seem to be able to use my / and /home partitions fine, but am having a problem with the write capabilities of the windows partitions. I used the automatix script to install the 3 g driver but it set flaky mount points so I changed them.

Can anyone help me get this working properly? I am assuming that it has something to do with the devices nodes created during install.

Disclaimer: I have used edgy but have no experience with feisty.

UUID is a Universally Unique Identifier. In the case of Linux disk partitions, it is assigned to a filesystem when the filesystem is created. Historically, fstab could use the device name (e.g. /dev/hda1), the volume label, or the UUID to specify a partition. I am a little shaky on udev, but I believe, depending on how it is set up, the traditional device names can be unreliable under udev, and they are using UUID to make sure there is no ambiguity. (I bought a notebook preloaded with edgy from System76. They had modified things so fstab was using the device names, so it can be done. But when I played around with doing a second installation of edgy, it used UUIDs in fstab. I suspect, but haven't verified, that System76 altered the udev setup to make the partition mounting reliable.)

I noticed the same thing with the above mentioned notebook. I believe it has to do with the module libata, but I have not figured everything out. But you now have a term you can plug into a search engine if you like.

I don't understand what you mean.

Sorry, this is beyond my knowledge and experience.

I believe under udev the device nodes for the drives are created dynamically at boot rather than at install. (But apparently some other device nodes aren't -- as I said I still have much to figure out about udev)

Thanks Blackhole I was wondering if it was a dynamic thing or not. And by the non graphical part I mean the install that works without booting the live disc first and then double clicking the install icon.

This type of non graphical install is found in Debian and the less recent versions of Ubuntu. Although, it may still be there and I am just missing it.

I am surprised to hear that a company would put a non-stable version of an OS on a box. Well it may have been stable, but not like an .04 or .06 release.

TMK, the edgy disk I have only has the ability to boot live CD then install. There is another disk that might do what you are talking about, but it is an entirely separate disk. I believe it goes by the not so descriptive name of alternate disk.

Ubuntu 6.06 was a long term support (LTS) release. I don't believe they have announced the next LTS yet. To my knowledge, other than LTS, there is not much to distinguish the Ubuntu releases in terms of stability. I just checked system76's website. They are now shipping with feisty installed and have posted instructions on how to update older versions to it. But I don't like to constantly be making major changes just to stay on the near bleeding edge.