fstab entry issue with portable hard drive

English Hardware
#1

my portable hard drive is formatted to ext3 and i connect it to my laptop, however, if i boot the laptop without the hard disk in, it won’t boot and asks me to repair the system (so i’d have to startx as root and delete the fstab entry for it and reboot for example) but i would like it to be able to boot without the drive plugged in, and when i plug it in whilst booted, it then works. yet this doesn’t happen, if i plug it in whilst the machine is logged in, nothing happens. here is my fstab entry for the disk…

/dev/disk/by-id/usb-WD_My_Book_WU2T12036227-0:1-part2 /media/mybook ext3 user,noacl 1 2

any ideas what i need to change so it will boot with it plugged in or out, and if it is out, it will work once i plug it in?

thanks in advance.

#2

Hi
Why not use the usb automount and label the disk, then it will always
mount under /media/<disk_label>?

–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE 11.0 x86 Kernel 2.6.25.16-0.1-default
up 2:58, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.19, 0.26
GPU GeForce 6600 TE/6200 TE - Driver Version: 173.14.12

#3

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I think I did this by changing the last two fields 0 and 0.

Good luck.

thestig wrote:
> my portable hard drive is formatted to ext3 and i connect it to my
> laptop, however, if i boot the laptop without the hard disk in, it won’t
> boot and asks me to repair the system (so i’d have to startx as root and
> delete the fstab entry for it and reboot for example) but i would like
> it to be able to boot without the drive plugged in, and when i plug it
> in whilst booted, it then works. yet this doesn’t happen, if i plug it
> in whilst the machine is logged in, nothing happens. here is my fstab
> entry for the disk…
>
> /dev/disk/by-id/usb-WD_My_Book_WU2T12036227-0:1-part2 /media/mybook
> ext3 user,noacl 1 2
>
>
> any ideas what i need to change so it will boot with it plugged in or
> out, and if it is out, it will work once i plug it in?
>
> thanks in advance.
>
>
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iD8DBQFI2QAo3s42bA80+9kRApwLAJ9kWViZxnG8myPePRvzRISjkuMmtACgiUBu
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=z4G7
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#4

I got the same problem upgrading to opensuse 11. I have not at hand my laptop now, I guess that you should add some option on the fstab row telling to the kernel not to stop if the device is detached. Browse the man page of “mount” to find the correct option.
I’m sorry if I can later I’ll be more helpful.

#5

I solved the problem adding the option nofail

auto,nofail,rw....

to the row in the fstab relevant to the device

#6

thanks, i will give that a try when i can. for now i have got it to mount it auto if it’s plugged in at boot, but the machine boots with it unplugged so that’s ok, but would be nice to auto mount when i plug the thing in, if i plug the thing in i can still manually mount it of course.

i will get back to you soon and let you know. thanks.

#7

i have managed to get the laptop to start if it’s not plugged in, mount it automatically if it’s plugged in at boot, but i have to manually mount it if i plug it in after the laptop is already on. it’s not perfect but it’ll certainly do for now.