Automatically mount Linux partitions with fstab

[@bennemsi]

Was my first time to manipulate 'fstab' thanks to your guidance. My windows drive is monted to Linux now, great!

[@beginlinuxguru7354]

Many thanks. Glad I could help!

[@firstuser5448]

Great video dude. Learnt something new. Thanks!

[@frankzeppelin]

Man, what a great video. I'm new to Linux and very nervous about anything that could lose my data or brick my system, but this worked like a charm. Had to get files off my old Windows 10 disk and had no idea where to start. I watched several videos and read several articles on mounting but this was the only one that I'd recommend. It's a one stop shop. It covers everything you need in a clear, streamlined presentation, plus some key extras with the optional settings. At least one other video out there said you had to be super careful with fstab or you're in for a world of hurt, but didn't really explain what it was, or more importantly how to prevent it by testing with mount -a. Again, you broke it all down so it makes sense to noobs. Got all my files. Thanks dude, you saved the day. Like and sub! In case anyone else is in the same boat, I read that using ntfs-3g is preferred over ntfs)for the file system type if you're mounting a drive that was used for Windows. I guess it's a newer driver...? A little out of my depth and outside the scope for this tutorial but hope it helps someone.

[@beginlinuxguru7354]

I appreciate the kind words, and am glad that I could help.

[@thepianist123]

00:19:00 There is a way, there is a way. Copy and paste works between other apps and Vim. In Vim press i to switch into insert mode and then paste using "Ctrl + Shift + v" shortcut to paste from the clipboard. You just need to add an extra shift key. This is the way we can also Paste in the terminal. So, it is not a Vim specific though.

[@beginlinuxguru7354]

Yeah, the real difference isn't with vim, but with the different desktop environments. I normally use lxterminal on Fedora with LXDE, and with it I can paste into vim with just the normal right-click menu. But my video creation machine is loaded with Lubuntu, which uses another terminal that doesn't work like that. Unfortunately, I wasn't prepared for that when I made this video.

[@alphabanks]

Thanks for taking time to make a very informative video this really helped me.

[@LordPhan]

You can use the program 'Disks' to edit the fstab file for you also. Click a button and it sets it. You can also choose what it is displayed as, and can change the mount point. What I did was created mount points(folders) in /mnt such as 'storage' and chose to mount my storage drive to that folder in /mnt/storage another

[@beginlinuxguru7354]

Yeah, there are some graphical utilities that can help out. In fact, that might be a good idea for a new video.

[@janiceadriana6830]

Great tuturial. It helps me a lot.

[@beginlinuxguru7354]

Many thanks! I do appreciate the kind words.

[@shater1164]

Good one Donny, cheers!

[@beginlinuxguru7354]

Many thanks!

[@shater1164]

My pleasure.

[@Tech-Dev]

Cheers for this.

[@afzaalawan]

Excellent stuff.. very intelligent and spot on.. thanks

[@go4sens600]

Amazing! Subbed

[@grey_squirrel]

Great video, thank you!

[@mohamedhany2539]

Perfect man, thanks

[@beginlinuxguru7354]

Many thanks! I appreciate the kind words.

[@jjock3239]

Thanks for an excellent, logical, straightforward, tutorial on mounting a HD in Linux. I have been away from doing any work using the terminal for a long time, and this brought everything back quickly. I have one question, should I add the HD to the fstab if I don't want to mount that disk every time. Bob

[@beginlinuxguru7354]

Thanks for the kind words. And no, don't add an HD to the fstab if you don't want it to mount every time. Instead, just mount it manually with the "mount" command whenever you need it.

[@jjock3239]

@@beginlinuxguru7354 Thanks, i eventually remembered what i needed to do to set it up

[@jjock3239]

@@beginlinuxguru7354 My computer is a strange beast, because the hard drives are swapable. I have the hard drive for my linux, or win os, and three other ports for data drives. I will do some experimenting this winter, to figure out how I want to permanently configure the system. The joy of Linux, is that it is so flexible.

[@paulm3416]

Thanks for the good video. I'm a bit confused tho regarding the file systems. What happens if we already created a partition on a hard drive and formatted it for FAT file system for example, but inside fstab , we mount it for EXT4 type file system. Which file system will actually be used for the partition?

[@beginlinuxguru7354]

Hmmm. . . Great question. I've never tried that, but I would imagine that you'd get an error message about trying to mount the wrong type of filesystem.

[@TrueSanataniOm]

You Saved Me👍❤🕉

[@rraudales]

Good info, i been researching how to do this for a while. Does it work the same with LV and XFS file system partitions?

[@beginlinuxguru7354]

It does work pretty much the same, regardless of filesystem. The only real differences are: 1. With LVs, you won't use a UUID number. Instead, just use the regular designator for the Logical Volume. (In other words, somethin in the form of "/dev/volumegroup/logicalvolume". 2. The other difference is that the different filesystem types have different mounting options. Of course, that's a moot point if all you need is to set "defaults" as the option. But, if you need anything different, just look at the mount options for the different filesystems in the "mount" man page. Anyway, I hope that helps!

[@rraudales]

BeginLinux Guru thank for the reply. I did notice that the entries already in /etc/fstab where named as follow: /dev/mapper/sda/Vol_Group/root But when I run: lvdisplay it shows as /dev/sda/Vol_Group/root Where does “mapper” come from? When I added the partitions that I created, I was able to add them to /etc/fstab without added mapper. Cant figure out where and why mapper was added to the partitions created when the system was build.

[@beginlinuxguru7354]

Oh, yeah. I forgot about the "mapper" thing. Anyway, if you look in the "/dev/mapper" directory and do an "ls -l" command, you'll see that the normal "/dev/volumegroup/logicalvolume" names are just symbolic links to the underlying logical volume device files. So, you can use the "mapper" designations in an fstab file if you want to, but it isn't necessary.

[@saptarshiray531]

Hi can you please make video for LUKS

[@beginlinuxguru7354]

I'll put that on the agenda.

[@PeterMaddison2483]

Don't know if anyone has already mentioned it but you can still use dev/sda1 or whatever in the fstab.

[@beginlinuxguru7354]

That is true. But, the current recommended way is to use UUIDs.

[@PeterMaddison2483]

@@beginlinuxguru7354 I say, whichever way works best for the individual.

[@ejvandijk]

A huge shout out to nano for the ability to paste copied text! 😁

[@drygordspellweaver8761]

curious why you don't set your user to not require a password when using sudo?

[@beginlinuxguru7354]

It's not good security practice. In a real life business setting, you'll never see that.

[@drmabusedesporte2285]

Another great video, thank you, I've watched half the playlist and I think I'm gonna benefit from watching it to the end. One idea: isn't it possible to boot into the lower target, like rescue or something like that, and then somehow fix it?... well, actually this one: ```emergency.target A special target unit that starts an emergency shell on the main console. This target does not pull in any services or mounts.```? (didn't try it myself though and I hope I won't ever have to :-D)

[@drmabusedesporte2285]

* I mean so that an extra live-media won't be necessary to fix the things

[@beginlinuxguru7354]

Hi there! First, I do appreciate the kind words. And yes, it is possible to boot into a lower target to fix certain things, such as a lost password. But, I've never tried doing that to fix an fstab problem, so I don't know if it will work. I'll have to experiment with that, to see what I can do with it.

[@alphabennyrosy5068]

You could have just appended the UUID into fstab, no reason to copy or use a mouse or use ssh into machine.

[@janne-mans8295]

how to know how many spacebar taps are required in text editor to divide columns ? Before explaining complicated matters, pls first address the simple ones, otherwise we all drive an Indy 500 car, yet pushing it without rubber

[@beginlinuxguru7354]

There's no set number of spaces that you need to place between columns. If you can line things up so that they look good, that's all that matters.