External HD won't mount itself during boot

ccincotta · December 4, 2009, 5:38am

Hi everyone!

A while back when 11.0 was recent i upgraded my computer to an hp pavilion desktop which only had SATA which wasn’t compatible with my 500gb IDE hard disk. I then decided to buy a compatible hd (500 gb as well) and use an external hard drive case to put my old one into(which plugs into the USB ports) i currently have the external 500 gb partitioned with a linux native mounted at /home, and my other with NTFS and linux native mounted at /

Prior to updating to 11.2:

I could power on my external hd(Thermaltake A2396) after grub and it would boot up no problem. if i turned it on too late or before grub was done it wouldn’t load and i would have to log in as root in repair mode, turn the hd off then back on, wait for a couple of lines to pass(I assume the drive being detected) then mount /home, and init 5

This didnt really bother me for the previous versions of suse much because i just had to remember to turn on the drive

After updating to 11.2:

the only way to boot is to wait, do the power on/off, mount /home, and init 5

this gets to be quite annoying after a while and i was wondering if anyone knew a way to get it to mount itself while its booting. let me know if you’d like me to post any more info.

thanks in advance!
-chris

hcvv · December 4, 2009, 3:14pm

I do not understand this. Why have you turned off you disk and turn it on on some auspicious moment? Normaly one turnes on periferal devices first and then starts the system. While you are thinking about this, in the meantime you could post the output of

fdisk -l

(with the disk switched on of course) and

cat /etc/fstab

for us to see something.

robopensuse · December 4, 2009, 6:43pm

Is the fact that it’s USB significant, generally USB mass storage is hotplug. Did you have to load any kernel driver modules to get the disk recognised?

vader95 · December 4, 2009, 9:13pm

What is on the NTFS. Can you boot that?

ccincotta · December 5, 2009, 8:26am

hi guys thanks for the replys,

fdisk -l:

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x1549f232

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1       21556   173140537    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2   *       21556       59133   301845254    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda3           59134       60801    13398210    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda5           21556       21817     2104483+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6           21818       22079     2104483+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7           22080       58893   295700422   83  Linux

Disk /dev/sdf: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000b8d35

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdf1   *           1        2873    23077341    5  Extended
/dev/sdf3            2874       60801   465306660   83  Linux
/dev/sdf5               1        2873    23077309+   b  W95 FAT32

cat /etc/fstab:

/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST3500620AS_5QM33CNS-part6 swap                 swap       defaults              0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST3500620AS_5QM33CNS-part7 /                    ext3       acl,user_xattr        1 1
/dev/disk/by-id/usb-WDC_WD50_00AAKB-00H8A0_D57CA3930556-0:0-part3 /home                ext3       defaults              1 2
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST3500620AS_5QM33CNS-part1 /windows/C           ntfs-3g    users,gid=users,fmask=133,dmask=022,locale=en_US.UTF-8 0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/usb-WDC_WD50_00AAKB-00H8A0_D57CA3930556-0:0-part5 /windows/FAT         vfat       users,gid=users,umask=0002,utf8=true 0 0
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

I do not understand this. Why have you turned off you disk and turn it on on some auspicious moment? Normaly one turnes on periferal devices first and then starts the system.

I have just been doing this because before if i turned it on before i boot it wouldn’t completely boot(now it wont either way). I would also like to post what all comes up during boot but i am not sure how to do this. If anyone knows a command or anything to do that i’ll post it because i think that would be very useful as well.

What is on the NTFS. Can you boot that?

I have windows vista it boots fine but i rarely use it. suse boots as well i just have to run init and mount my /home manually

Is the fact that it’s USB significant, generally USB mass storage is hotplug. Did you have to load any kernel driver modules to get the disk recognised?

I didnt load any drivers for it. honestly im really not sure how significant it is but i just thought id mention it just in case.

hcvv · December 5, 2009, 11:11am

Thanks for this. Makes it better to understand what we are talking about.

You say you mount /home by hand, but you do not show us what you did. Can you give us the exact statement you use mounting */home *by hand?

Can you please also give thee output of

ls -l /dev/disk/by-id/

P.S.
Are you aware of the fact that you have two partitions of the same size on sda to be used for Swap, but that you only use one?

ccincotta · December 7, 2009, 1:31am

exactly what i do is:
-enter root password
-turn on/restart my hard drive
-(bunch of text comes up)
-(repair filesystem)# mount /home
-(some more stuff comes up)
-(repair filesystem)# init 5
and it will boot up fine from this point forward

heres ls -l /dev/disk/by-id/:

total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  9 2009-12-06 11:56 ata-ST3500620AS_5QM33CNS -> ../../sda
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 2009-12-06 11:56 ata-ST3500620AS_5QM33CNS-part1 -> ../../sda1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 2009-12-06 11:56 ata-ST3500620AS_5QM33CNS-part2 -> ../../sda2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 2009-12-06 11:56 ata-ST3500620AS_5QM33CNS-part3 -> ../../sda3
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 2009-12-06 11:56 ata-ST3500620AS_5QM33CNS-part5 -> ../../sda5
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 2009-12-06 11:56 ata-ST3500620AS_5QM33CNS-part6 -> ../../sda6
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 2009-12-06 11:56 ata-ST3500620AS_5QM33CNS-part7 -> ../../sda7
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  9 2009-12-06 16:56 edd-int13_dev80 -> ../../sda
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 2009-12-06 16:56 edd-int13_dev80-part1 -> ../../sda1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 2009-12-06 16:56 edd-int13_dev80-part2 -> ../../sda2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 2009-12-06 16:56 edd-int13_dev80-part3 -> ../../sda3
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 2009-12-06 16:56 edd-int13_dev80-part5 -> ../../sda5
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 2009-12-06 16:56 edd-int13_dev80-part6 -> ../../sda6
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 2009-12-06 16:56 edd-int13_dev80-part7 -> ../../sda7
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  9 2009-12-06 11:56 scsi-SATA_ST3500620AS_5QM33CNS -> ../../sda
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 2009-12-06 11:56 scsi-SATA_ST3500620AS_5QM33CNS-part1 -> ../../sda1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 2009-12-06 11:56 scsi-SATA_ST3500620AS_5QM33CNS-part2 -> ../../sda2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 2009-12-06 11:56 scsi-SATA_ST3500620AS_5QM33CNS-part3 -> ../../sda3
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 2009-12-06 11:56 scsi-SATA_ST3500620AS_5QM33CNS-part5 -> ../../sda5
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 2009-12-06 11:56 scsi-SATA_ST3500620AS_5QM33CNS-part6 -> ../../sda6
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 2009-12-06 11:56 scsi-SATA_ST3500620AS_5QM33CNS-part7 -> ../../sda7
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  9 2009-12-06 16:56 usb-Generic-_Compact_Flash_20060413092100000-0:0 -> ../../sdb
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  9 2009-12-06 16:56 usb-Generic-_MS_MS-Pro_20060413092100000-0:3 -> ../../sde
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  9 2009-12-06 16:56 usb-Generic-_SD_MMC_20060413092100000-0:2 -> ../../sdd
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  9 2009-12-06 16:56 usb-Generic-_SM_xD-Picture_20060413092100000-0:1 -> ../../sdc
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  9 2009-12-06 16:56 usb-WDC_WD50_00AAKB-00H8A0_D57CA3930556-0:0 -> ../../sdf
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 2009-12-06 16:56 usb-WDC_WD50_00AAKB-00H8A0_D57CA3930556-0:0-part1 -> ../../sdf1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 2009-12-06 16:56 usb-WDC_WD50_00AAKB-00H8A0_D57CA3930556-0:0-part3 -> ../../sdf3
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 2009-12-06 16:56 usb-WDC_WD50_00AAKB-00H8A0_D57CA3930556-0:0-part5 -> ../../sdf5

thanks for the help peace out
-chris

ccincotta · December 7, 2009, 1:39am

P.S.
Are you aware of the fact that you have two partitions of the same size on sda to be used for Swap, but that you only use one?

i kind of remember this happening a while ago when i first bought my computer. ive been playing around with the partitioner and i cant figure out how to fix it.

hcvv · December 7, 2009, 11:29am

I can not say it is all clear for me, but may be when we discuss a little bit some ideas may come up either at you site or at mine.

On several other threads I advocate that the fact that a mass storage device is USB connected is no reason to see it different from an IDE one, nor from the system’s point of view, nor from your’s. Fact is that many people use USB devices as a tempory connect and disconnect device. For that reason there is software designed (e.g. HAL) to mount it on the flight on a predefined way and to communicate this with the GUI you are using. But one should use this sort of behaviour for devices that come and go and not for permanent connected ones. In other words, it is the WAY OF USAGE and not the CONNECTION TYPE that prescribes what to do.

That said, I think you are on the correct way by giving your partition an entry in /etc/fstab.

How should it work? Simply, you switch on the USB device (maybe it should be given some time to get ready), switch on the system and it should boot into runlevel 5 with all the partitions mounted.
What I think that you see (please correct me if I am wrong). The system does not boot to an end, but stops somewhere halfway leaving you with a login prompt in repair mode. Did you ever try to hit the Esc key early in the boot, so you can see what it says before going into repair mode? Those message are of course very important.
Your usb-WDC_WD50 has a bit strange partitioning IMHO.

/dev/sdf1   *           1        2873    23077341    5  Extended
/dev/sdf3            2874       60801   465306660   83  Linux
/dev/sdf5               1        2873    23077309+   b  W95 FAT32

We see that sdf1 is a type 5, which is explained as Extended, but it is NOT what we normaly call an Extended partition (that can contain logical partitions) because that has the type f (W95 Ext’d (LBA), see your sda). Next we miss sdf2 (which is not really problem in itself, but strange) which fills the rest of the disk. And then, surprise, here is sdf5 occupying the same space as sdf1 at the begin of the disk. The whole must be the result of very weird partitioning (may be over time by different people).
I do not know if this will prevent the system from mounting at boot (after all can be mounted later), but it is worth remembering this.

At this moment I think my conclusion is that I want to know the messages from the boot process before it escapes to the repair login.

PS
When you want to use sda5 for something different that is no problem (YaST > System > Partitioner, select sda5, let it be formatted at ext3 and let it be mounted somewhere you need it). But when you mean by ‘repair’ that want to rearange the whole partitioning, that is a major action because then all data must be saved first.