Boot Very Slow After Adding HD to fstab

**markcfernando** · 15-Dec-2009, 21:43

I have an external hard drive that I use with my laptop and I want it to be mounted at boot.

I used YaST to do this by using the Partitioner. I selected the volume, then edited then chose to have the partition mounted at boot.

On next book the computer booted up and mounted the device as I expected but the boot up process took a long time. When I would usually get the desktop I got only a black screen for about one minute, the the desktop finally loads. I tried to reboot a number of times but I still get the same delay.

When I go back and choose to have the hard drive not auto mount and then reboot there is no delay in loading the desktop. So it seems like mounting this device is delaying the loading of my desktop on boot somehow.

I googled and was unable to find anything like this. Does anyone have any idea what is causing this problem, and how I can fix it?

Below is the line that is added to my fstab file to auto mount the drive:

/dev/disk/by-id/usb-WD_10EACS_External_57442D574341553433393639343234-0:0-part1 /media/MyBook vfat users,gid=users,umask=0002,utf8=true 0 0

Here is the content of my fstab before the change:

/dev/disk/by-id/ata-Hitachi_HTS541616J9SA00_SB2481SJKEB9ZE-part5 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-Hitachi_HTS541616J9SA00_SB2481SJKEB9ZE-part1 / ext4 acl,user_xattr 1 1
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs noauto 0 0
debugfs /sys/kernel/debug debugfs noauto 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts mode=0620,gid=5 0 0

**caf4926** · 15-Dec-2009, 21:59

OK, you need to remove that entry. USB devices are not entered in fstab.

You can manually edit fstab
FSTAB - Editing Manually - openSUSE Forums

When you have done this, reboot and tell us what you see in /media

What desktop are you using BTW

**markcfernando** · 15-Dec-2009, 22:10

I have removed the line from fstab and rebooted. I do not have that delay in loading the desktop.

In the media folder I have a MyBook folder that I had created for the device being mounted but it is now empty.

I am using KDE 4.3.

**caf4926** · 15-Dec-2009, 22:17

You do not need to create a folder in /media

Check in dolphin, make sure you have 'Places' enabled from the View Menu.
Is Places showing your My Book drive?
If not, pull the drive. Go back to /media and delete the folder you created there.

Now plug the device back in. Does the device notify popup? Does it appear in Dolphin - Places?

If not open a terminal, become su and do

Code:

fdisk -l

post result

**markcfernando** · 15-Dec-2009, 22:29

I do have places enabled in the view menu and My Book is showing in the Places pane. It always has though. The problem is that none of my applications are able to read any of the contents of the drive until I navigate to it.

Is there a way to have the device mounted on boot so that applications can access the contents?

**caf4926** · 15-Dec-2009, 22:40

Originally Posted by markcfernando

I do have places enabled in the view menu and My Book is showing in the Places pane. It always has though. The problem is that none of my applications are able to read any of the contents of the drive until I navigate to it.

Is there a way to have the device mounted on boot so that applications can access the contents?

This is normal behaviour

**hcvv** · 16-Dec-2009, 05:58

Originally Posted by caf4926

OK, you need to remove that entry. USB devices are not entered in fstab.

You can manually edit fstab
FSTAB - Editing Manually - openSUSE Forums

When you have done this, reboot and tell us what you see in /media

What desktop are you using BTW

Well, as the OP has a solution (more or less), do you mind when I hop in asking a few questions?

Can anybody tell me WHY USB mass storage devices should not go into the fstab? I have advocated in these forums more then once that not the type of connection (USB, IDE, ...) must be the deciding factor, but the intended usage of the device.

. When one (including apparently the OP) wants to have this device mounted as long as the system runs, on a place of ones own whish, then use good old fstab. It will see that it mounts at boot (some people refer to this with the misnomer 'automounting').

. When the device is connected by the loged in user for his usage, then one can (must, I am afraid) use the services of HAL. HAL will mount it on a directory of its own choice (following know rules) inside the directory /media. And HAL will make the device available to (one of the loged in) user(s) by making this user the owner of the mountpoint (and then signal the DE). The whole idea of this is no doubt inspired ny the fact that the modern PC can be adorned on the flight with all sorts of devices that are called 'media'.

I do not understand why a TB disk, attached to the system at all times, having maybe several partitions that should be mounted on several places should not be handled by fstab just because it is connected by USB. My not understanding raises to suspicion of superstition (is this still correct English?) when people think that when the device is placed beside the main box, this is called 'external' and as such should be handled completely different from the device that happens to be 'internal'.

I admit that the OP has a problem, but I want to understand what his problem is. The solution given to him is just a bypass. In other threads I have made people happy by showing them the way how to use fstab for always connected USB devices.

In other words, I want to know why I am wrong and why the saying goes that one should not put USB devices in/etc/fstab.

**caf4926** · 16-Dec-2009, 07:38

I don't know the answer to this @Henk

Maybe it's OK. I do know it's not normal to use fstab in this way.

My guess is it would behave better using an entry like this

Code:

/dev/sdc1 /media/MyBook        vfat vfat users,gid=users,umask=0002,utf8 0 0

Might be worth experimenting

**hcvv** · 16-Dec-2009, 07:59

I tried to find all the differences between the entry markcfernando uses and the one you propose, but it seems that you only changed the usage of the /dev/disk/by-id/xxxx-part1 to /devsdc1 (and a typo mentioning vfat two times

). That can't be his problem. /dev/disk/by-id-part1 is only a symbolic link to /dev/sdc1 an as such represents the same. You can check this by doing

Code:

mount

It will show everything mounted by the short name, even if you have the long names in your fstab (that is what openSUSE does by default, so you can check this on your own system without changing anything).

The advantage of using by-id is that when you add more devices and after reboot the same disk is now at /dev/sdd1 (because these a, b, c, d are given out in the sequence the system detects the devices), the symbolic link in /dev/disk/by-id is now pointing to /dev/sdd1 (thanks to udev). And that is as designed to cure exactly this kind of problems of not persistent naming.

**gogalthorp** · 16-Dec-2009, 08:39

IMO it is because you have two process trying to mount the device. The forced mount at fstab and HAL. In a modern OS these process maybe running in parallel to speed up startup.

Also since the USB device is "removable" the OS has no guarantee what it will find attached if anything no matter what the users intension where when they set it up. Maybe the user forgot to turn it on....users are like that you know. Best intentions and all that.

BTW if you want to see the device at some other address the easiest way is to simply link to it. I have done that with backup software that did not want to write out side my home just set up a link in home to /media/my book