Request to mount a HDD at Login

I have an 80GB storage HDD that I put in this HP Compaq DC7700 CMT prior to installing Leap on that PCI card PATA HDD.
The past week or so I get a ‘popup’ prior to login asking for root PWD to mount it. BTW, I do Auto Login if that makes a difference.
Why? and can I disable that?

Side note: in retrospect, that is probably where I should have installed Leap 15.

for what it is worth, blkid shows this;

/dev/sda1: UUID="10eeefbd-69d9-4817-bde9-b8510b793867" TYPE="swap" PARTUUID="fb30b87c-01"/dev/sda2: UUID="4d138ffa-b9ff-4263-9518-77a5be7aadfc" TYPE="ext3" PARTUUID="fb30b87c-02"
/dev/sda3: UUID="cf6e80ae-40b3-4252-a285-45d72525695d" TYPE="ext3" PARTUUID="fb30b87c-03"
/dev/sdb1: LABEL="System Reserved" UUID="1A0CB3280CB2FE37" TYPE="ntfs" PARTUUID="00000001-01"
/dev/sdb2: LABEL="Windows 10 Home Release" UUID="0FCB1B290FCB1B29" TYPE="ntfs" PARTUUID="00000001-02"
/dev/sdb3: UUID="40888E43888E3804" TYPE="ntfs" PARTUUID="00000001-03"
/dev/sdb4: LABEL="Windows 7 64 Home" UUID="ACB2B4EEB2B4BDE0" TYPE="ntfs" PARTUUID="00000001-04"
/dev/sdc1: LABEL="Samsung 80" UUID="F2C05F71C05F3AD5" TYPE="ntfs" PARTUUID="b68bb68b-01"

And this is what fdisk -l outputs for that HDD;

**Disk /dev/sdc: 74.5 GiB, 80026361856 bytes, 156301488 sectors**
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xb68bb68b

**Device****Boot****Start****      End****  Sectors**** Size****Id****Type**
/dev/sdc1  *     2048 156299263 156297216 74.5G  7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

I don’t have an answer for you.

The disk in question appears to only have an NTFS partition.

I’m guessing that it might be your desktop that is requesting the mount. You have not indicated what desktop environment you are using on this computer.

Some desktops mount everything. XFCE is like that. But then I’m not sure why it needs the root password. Typically a desktop will mount for the user.

I am also a little bit confused by your descrption.

But when you want a file system mounted at boot (and when the disk is always connected to the system, that is probably the best to do) then you put an entry in /etc/fstab (you can do that using YaST > System > Partitioner, but of course take care: DO NOT CREATE A NEW FILE SYSTEM (DO NOT “FORMAT”), only enter the fields for mounting.

Another thing is that you do story telling like: command xxx shows this:…
It is much, much better to include the command with the copy/paste you do. If it is there, why not show it?

Thus not

The command uname -a shows

Linux boven 3.12.67-64-desktop #1 SMP PREEMPT Fri Dec 9 15:56:17 UTC 2016 (35c7b99) x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

=================================
but

henk@boven:~> uname -a
Linux boven 3.12.67-64-desktop #1 SMP PREEMPT Fri Dec 9 15:56:17 UTC 2016 (35c7b99) x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
henk@boven:~>

=================================

Desktop and display manager are:

[b]update-alternatives --config default-xsession.desktop[/b]
There are 2 choices for the alternative default-xsession.desktop (providing /usr/share/xsessions/default.desktop).

  Selection    Path                                        Priority   Status
------------------------------------------------------------
[b]* 0            /usr/share/xsessions/plasma5.desktop         25        auto mode[/b]
  1            /usr/share/xsessions/icewm-session.desktop   15        manual mode
  2            /usr/share/xsessions/plasma5.desktop         25        manual mode

Press <enter> to keep the current choice
[li], or type selection number: [/li] 
[b]update-alternatives --config default-displaymanager[/b]
There are 4 choices for the alternative default-displaymanager (providing /usr/lib/X11/displaymanagers/default-displaymanager).

  Selection    Path                                  Priority   Status
------------------------------------------------------------
[b]* 0            /usr/lib/X11/displaymanagers/sddm      25        auto mode[/b]
  1            /usr/lib/X11/displaymanagers/console   5         manual mode
  2            /usr/lib/X11/displaymanagers/lightdm   15        manual mode
  3            /usr/lib/X11/displaymanagers/sddm      25        manual mode
  4            /usr/lib/X11/displaymanagers/xdm       10        manual mode

And yes it is a NTFS formatted drive that I only use for storage and backups for things I want to keep. The Windows HDD is auto mounted and both are in the HDD slots on this computer.

Did some snipping.
I will try to do better in the future, but being a part timer in here I will never know all the little do’s and don’ts!

Opening “/etc/fstab/” in Kate shows only the linux entries.

UUID=10eeefbd-69d9-4817-bde9-b8510b793867  swap   swap  defaults                     0  0
UUID=4d138ffa-b9ff-4263-9518-77a5be7aadfc  /      ext3  acl,user_xattr               0  1
UUID=cf6e80ae-40b3-4252-a285-45d72525695d  /home  ext3  data=ordered,acl,user_xattr  0  2 

I was just curious as to why that one HDD is NOT mounted at start up and all the other drives are!.
I can do the 'etc/fstab/(using YaST > System > Partitioner), but it isn’t that hard to cancel the mount request at start up.

Because you never told it to mount and thus be added to fstab

If a HD is not always present you may want to use nofail mount option or noauto

When you mean “at boot” with “at start up”: file systems are mounted at boot when they are configured for it in /etc/fstab. Thus, when not in /etc/fstab, no mount at boot.

Sorry to be so dense, and sorry to keep extending this thread.
And I guess I mean ‘at boot’ because that is where the popup raises it’s head, while the screen is all black, AFTER the P.O.S.T and BEFORE the DM displays the desktop screen, and before any graphics are displayed.
I posted what is in /etc/fstab/ above. It only shows the PATA HHD that Leap is installed on.
I have two other drives in the machine, The Windows 10 HDD, and that 80GB Storage drive, both SATA.

SO? if drives are mounted from /etc/fstab/ ‘at boot’;
Why doesn’t the Windows 10 HDD show in /etc/fstab/?

To get further clarification here, do you mean this popup announcement is being displayed even before openSUSE is booting?

I posted what is in /etc/fstab/ above. It only shows the PATA HHD that Leap is installed on.
I have two other drives in the machine, The Windows 10 HDD, and that 80GB Storage drive, both SATA.

SO? if drives are mounted from /etc/fstab/ ‘at boot’;
Why doesn’t the Windows 10 HDD show in /etc/fstab/?

That’s down to you. If you want the Linux OS to mount it at boot then add it to /etc/fstab.

Note you can set it to mount and define a mount point in Yast-bootloader.

I think you mean Yast-partitioner.

@Bill_L,
It seems you lack some basics . Did you read and understand https://en.opensuse.org/SDB%3ABasics_of_partitions,_filesystems,_mount_points

No!
1- picked Leap from Grub2 menu
2- it goes through the booting sequence with all of that fast scrolling text lines
3- then a cursor on a black screen while something is loading/finishing/whatever
4- Now, I get the pop up asking about mounting the Samsung 80GB HDD. Before any GUI.
5- I cancel that popup.
6- Leap finishes it’s boot/start/whatever and I get the GUI.

i hope that clears things up, if not…?

Been there several times, eyes glazed from all the verbiage, gave up and posted my question.

**Folks it is not worth all this back and forth!
It takes little effort to ‘mount’ it if and when I need it.

**Thanks to all for the responses.

If I’d do decide to add the NTFS drives to /etc/fstab/ what mount point(s) do I use?
Last time I tried it ‘defaulted’ to /srv and the choice of a bunch of other places under the choices karat (or is it carat)
Can I add my descriptor(s) for the mount point? i.e. /Samsung or /win10 ?

No doubt the answer to this is somewhere in that article hcvv posted the link for above.

Ok, I can understand that. And I do not say that the answer is in that document, but that that doument explains a few basics that, when you understand them, makes communication here a lot easier.

BTW, I read somewhere above that you have automatic login. As your problem seems to happen somewhere on the baundary of boot and login, my suggestion is to switch off that automatic login as long as you are inverstigating the problem. Possibly you (and thus we) will expirence during which of those it happens.

A mount point is just a directory used as a mount point.

You can in principle use every directory as a mount point, but when you mount something on a directory, all that is already in there becomes invisible (until the unmount). Thus people prefer to use an empty directory for it.

What to choose? That depends on the usage. So, it is the system manager that decides.

And yes, YaST has a prepared list of often used mount points for ease of use, but you can type there any path you want.

When the data on that NTFS file system is to be used by a particular user, you could use e.g. /home/<username>/ntfs, or whatever.

You can also use /ntfs or whatever (that does not already exists directly in /).

When you realy are out of fantasy, there is /mnt specialy for the case. Thus use e.g. /mnt/ntfs or /mnt/sillydisk or whatever.

YasT will create that directory when it does not already exist. Take care, YaST will make root the owner, thus when you use a place in the home directory of <username> then make >username> the owner.

That’s a clearer picture than saying it happens after the (BIOS) POST. :wink: