Strange mount behavior.

mkudro · May 14, 2013, 3:49pm

Last night i have installed openSuse 12.3, double booting my Fedora laptop. As i was expecting KDE from suse out of box the most gorgeous and… wait, i came here with problem i’m having, oh yes - after eyeballing my new desktop i added some entries to fstab to mount my pictures, videos etc partitions.
After adding those to fstab i ran “muont -a” and as expected everything mounted nicely. Later i ran zypper update, kernel got updated and i rebooted the system. When i logged in into desktop and went into Documents directory it was empty!!! I couldn’t believe it, did i somehow deleted all my documents? I couldn’t remember doing anything stupid, i never do on my working machine, so what went wrong this time…my mind was going crazy…
Then i ran “mount” and sow that only Videos directory was mounted!!! I checked (just in case) Videos directory and indeed all my videos were there.
I mean obviously /boot, / and /home were mounted too and swap, but everything else not. I ran “mount -a” again and everything got mounted again.
Can anyone shed some light on this behavior? Did anyone ever encountered anything of this sort. I found it very strange.
Just if you are wondering this is my fstab:

UUID=a5ce3634-5ebf-4151-b06c-ecf6e49377d6 /boot     ext2 acl,user_xattr        1 2
UUID=fb75c411-ad5b-4ca6-b2bf-352cd82eb96c /          ext4 acl,user_xattr        1 1
/dev/mapper/swap    swap     swap defaults    0 0 
/dev/mapper/home    /home    ext4 acl,user_xattr,nofail 0 2
tmpfs       /tmp        tmpfs size=1G              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                                                                                                                                                                                   
/dev/mapper/Documents    /home/mkudro/Documents ext4 acl,user_xattr 0 0                                                                                                                                                                                          
UUID=84fa90fb-a490-4411-gh71-18bb023901a4 /home/mkudro/Music     ext4 acl,user_xattr 0 0                                                                                                                                                                                          
UUID=08f6c691-6b91-4308-ab1c-46a0cv23a481 /home/mkudro/Pictures  ext4 acl,user_xattr 0 0                                                                                                                                                                                          
UUID=6e869ebf-92b9-4dcd-ad90-ea7k374d59de /home/mkudro/Virtuals  ext4  acl,user_xattr 0 0                                                                                                                                                                                            
UUID=65391e79-f80e-405a-9d73-29c00585984f /home/mkudro/Videos    ext4 acl,user_xattr 0 0

dmsg didn’t gave any errors ever, just line telling me that /home/nikom/Videos got mounted and that’s all.

robin_listas · May 14, 2013, 4:28pm

On 2013-05-14 15:56, mkudro wrote:

> dmsg didn’t gave any errors ever, just line telling me that
> /home/nikom/Videos got mounted and that’s all.

Weird. :-?

Just a question: why is fsck disabled for those devices, are they external?

Have a look at syslog, or the systemd journal.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 12.1 x86_64 “Asparagus” at Telcontar)

jdmcdaniel3 · May 15, 2013, 12:20am


[FONT=courier new]UUID=a5ce3634-5ebf-4151-b06c-ecf6e49377d6 /boot                  ext2 acl,user_xattr        1 2
UUID=fb75c411-ad5b-4ca6-b2bf-352cd82eb96c /                      ext4 acl,user_xattr        1 1
UUID=84fa90fb-a490-4411-gh71-18bb023901a4 /home/mkudro/Music     ext4 acl,user_xattr        0 0                                                                                                     
UUID=08f6c691-6b91-4308-ab1c-46a0cv23a481 /home/mkudro/Pictures  ext4 acl,user_xattr        0 0                                                                                                       
UUID=6e869ebf-92b9-4dcd-ad90-ea7k374d59de /home/mkudro/Virtuals  ext4 acl,user_xattr        0 0                                                                                                       
UUID=65391e79-f80e-405a-9d73-29c00585984f /home/mkudro/Videos    ext4 acl,user_xattr        0 0
/dev/mapper/Documents                     /home/mkudro/Documents ext4 acl,user_xattr        0 0 
/dev/mapper/swap                          swap                   swap defaults              0 0 
/dev/mapper/home                          /home                  ext4 acl,user_xattr,nofail 0 2
tmpfs   /tmp              tmpfs   size=1G         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                                                                                                                                                                                   

[/FONT]

So are you using LVM by chance? Why the switch to UUID over the default of disk-by-id? Why setup a separate /boot folder? You are using several things not done by default, perhaps it is creating a problem or showing a bug of some sort?

Thank You,

arvidjaar · May 15, 2013, 5:02am

Upload output of “journalctl -b” run as root to SUSE Paste (may be large).

robin_listas · May 15, 2013, 5:43am

On 2013-05-15 00:26, jdmcdaniel3 wrote:


>   UUID=a5ce3634-5ebf-4151-b06c-ecf6e49377d6 /boot                  ext2 acl,user_xattr        1 2
>   UUID=fb75c411-ad5b-4ca6-b2bf-352cd82eb96c /                      ext4 acl,user_xattr        1 1
>   UUID=84fa90fb-a490-4411-gh71-18bb023901a4 /home/mkudro/Music     ext4 acl,user_xattr        0 0
>   UUID=08f6c691-6b91-4308-ab1c-46a0cv23a481 /home/mkudro/Pictures  ext4 acl,user_xattr        0 0
>   UUID=6e869ebf-92b9-4dcd-ad90-ea7k374d59de /home/mkudro/Virtuals  ext4 acl,user_xattr        0 0
>   UUID=65391e79-f80e-405a-9d73-29c00585984f /home/mkudro/Videos    ext4 acl,user_xattr        0 0
>   /dev/mapper/Documents                     /home/mkudro/Documents ext4 acl,user_xattr        0 0
>   /dev/mapper/swap                          swap                   swap defaults              0 0
>   /dev/mapper/home                          /home                  ext4 acl,user_xattr,nofail 0 2

....

Er… James, I wonder where you got that fstab file, is it from the OP?

:-?

Because the ordering is different than in the first post. Here, /home is
mounted last, thus the partitions such as /home/mkudro/Videos, appearing
earlier in the file, can not mount.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 12.1 x86_64 “Asparagus” at Telcontar)

mkudro · May 15, 2013, 9:28am

I’ll try to answer your questions best i can.
> Just a question: why is fsck disabled for those devices, are they external?
Disk is internal and i always thought why enable fsck on partitions that are not essential for bringing system up. Speeds things up (i know very doubtful) and if something is wrong with disk i will deal with it late when system is up and running. No other particular reasons.

> So are you using LVM by chance? Why the switch to UUID over the default of disk-by-id? Why setup a separate /boot folder?
Yes i use only LVM, well except boot partition, i guess this answers your last question as well - it’s not a separate boot folder but a separate boot partition. And as of why UUID…well i haven’t done it for long time but i had a tendency to rename my LVs and long time ago learned a lesson to use UUIDs. And besides this can not be problem right? I mean … no it can’t.
And dirs listed under /dev/mapper are actually encrypted partitions. Their are three of them from which two - /home and swap getting mounted at boot and Documents not!

>Upload output of “journalctl -b” run as root to SUSE Paste (may be large)
I will as soon as i get little time… maybe during lunch time :).

thnx guys for trying brainstorm this weird problem with me.

robin_listas · May 15, 2013, 12:13pm

On 2013-05-15 09:36, mkudro wrote:
>
> I’ll try to answer your questions best i can.
>> Just a question: why is fsck disabled for those devices, are they
>> external?
> Disk is internal and i always thought why enable fsck on partitions
> that are not essential for bringing system up. Speeds things up (i know
> very doubtful) and if something is wrong with disk i will deal with it
> late when system is up and running. No other particular reasons.

I think they should be enabled. It is a fast test nowdays, and if not
done a filesystem might not mount if the mount finds an inconsistency.
You can use a number so as 3 or 4 to push the checking to be done later
in the sequence.

With traditional systemv, if there was a problem here it would not be
reported, because mounting happened before syslog was activated. You had
to look at the text display as it went by - and a failure to fsck would
dump in emergency mode. But as you do not fsck, it will not even try.

And systemd does all of this sylently, although I’m unsure if it is
logged or not.

Just a guess.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 12.1 x86_64 “Asparagus” at Telcontar)

arvidjaar · May 15, 2013, 12:52pm

Theoretically, it should not matter with systemd (it sorts them internally).

robin_listas · May 15, 2013, 3:13pm

On 2013-05-15 12:56, arvidjaar wrote:
>
> robin_listas;2556896 Wrote:
>> Here, /home is mounted last, thus the partitions such as /home/mkudro/Videos, appearing
>> earlier in the file, can not mount.
>
> Theoretically, it should not matter with systemd (it sorts them
> internally).

Interesting… it should be good.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 12.1 x86_64 “Asparagus” at Telcontar)

jdmcdaniel3 · May 15, 2013, 11:26pm

Redoing the fstab file in a more readable manner has proved helpful to me to understand what it is doing and it has not seemed to be a problem for the mounting process either.

Thank You,

mkudro · May 20, 2013, 12:26am

Hi guys, sorry for being absent from my own thread for so long… couple of days ago i went ahead and created 3 logical volumes and entered them into fstab to be mounted under /home/mkudro/{mp1,mp2,mp3} respectively. I left other entries in fstab as is.
On reboot new LVs got nicely mounted but others did not. It seems like suse dislikes LVs created under fedora :). I find it extremely strange, considering that all volumes can be mounted by running “mount -a” but yet on boot only LVs created under suse are getting mounted.
It is very hard to believe, but this is what i’m experiencing right now.

mkudro · May 26, 2013, 1:51pm

Could anyone run this experiment for me. Fire up your system with Fedora 18 live usb and create couple of LV partitions, couple of MBs large, doesn’t have to be bigger or anything. In your suse install put them in fstab and check if they get mounted on boot.
Thnx in advance.

arvidjaar · May 26, 2013, 2:50pm

I have here VM with Fedora and openSUSE and openSUSE mounts Fedora LVs on boot, assuming they are entered in /etc/fstab.

mkudro · May 28, 2013, 11:12am

Well i reinstalled OS and re-entered my disks into fstab… they al got mounted on boot except one that was mounting during previous installation!!! This is beoynd me. I don’t even know how to troubleshoot this one. Fedora mounts everything on boot, opensuse mounts some and others not. This is crazy, i know, but this is what it is.

mkudro · May 28, 2013, 11:20am

Thnx for running test for me, normaly i wouldn’t expect anything else… now i don’t know what to expect any more…

gogalthorp · May 28, 2013, 9:15pm

On install you can set anything you want to be mounted, But not are all are automatically set to mount.

In Yast you can set mount points and you can always edit the fstbl files to set auto mounts

Note that openSUSE is not Redhat

mkudro · May 29, 2013, 9:58am

I never set any mount points on install but system ones, rest i do after installation directly in fstab.

In Yast you can set mount points and you can always edit the fstbl files to set auto mounts
Note that openSUSE is not Redhat

It shouldn’t matter if i do it directly in fstab or in YAST, right? Or your comment about lizard and heat not being same was meant to tell me exactly that. I’m not multi-distro knowledgeable, but fstab is pretty much standard across distros. And what i struggle to anderstand is how my two different openSuse installations handled very same fstab. As i have sad in my previous post first installation was mounting (on boot) different set of lvs then second installation was mounting. Nothing has changed on LVs or fstab.

robin_listas · May 29, 2013, 1:43pm

On 2013-05-29 10:06, mkudro wrote:
> And what i struggle to anderstand is how
> my two different openSuse installations handled very same fstab. As i
> have sad in my previous post first installation was mounting (on boot)
> different set of lvs then second installation was mounting. Nothing has
> changed on LVs or fstab.

Try sorting the file in mount order, plus activate filesystem check at
boot of all internal partitions.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 12.1 x86_64 “Asparagus” at Telcontar)

mkudro · May 29, 2013, 9:59pm

Check and check… Although for systemd it doesn’t really matter in what order mounts are entered in fstab, i still have done it so… just for peace of mind. I mean i’m linux (RH) sysadmin, i know thing or two about inner wokings of our beloved operating system and i’ve tried every obvious thing here. It just wierd… i mean i have used suse before and have never come across of anything this strange.

robin_listas · May 29, 2013, 11:58pm

On 2013-05-29 22:06, mkudro wrote:
>
> robin_listas;2561046 Wrote:
>>
>> Try sorting the file in mount order, plus activate filesystem check at
>> boot of all internal partitions.)
> Check and check… Although for systemd it doesn’t really matter in what
> order mounts are entered in fstab,

Yes, that’s what I have read, but as it was not so in the past, I still
have to see and believe

> i still have done it so… just for
> peace of mind. I mean i’m linux (RH) sysadmin, i know thing or two about
> inner wokings of our beloved operating system and i’ve tried every
> obvious thing here. It just wierd… i mean i have used suse before and
> have never come across of anything this strange.

Me neither.

But then, I have refused to use systemd for real till now. I have two
test systems, one virtual, another small partition in the laptop, where
I try things.

Not yet in the “production” machines. It will be soon enough, though.
Weeks at most.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 12.1 x86_64 “Asparagus” at Telcontar)