[arch-general] how to mount external hdd

[Denis Alessandro Altoe Falqueto]

On Fri, Feb 20, 2009 at 11:05 AM,  <hollunder at gmx.at> wrote:
> On Thu, 19 Feb 2009 09:33:01 +0100
> <hollunder at gmx.at> wrote:
>
>> On Wed, 18 Feb 2009 14:31:13 -0300
>> Denis Alessandro Altoe Falqueto <denisfalqueto at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> > On Wed, Feb 18, 2009 at 2:22 PM, Sergey Manucharian
>> > <sergeym at rmico.com> wrote:
>> > > On Wed, 18 Feb 2009 11:03:08 +0100
>> > > <hollunder at gmx.at> wrote:
>> > >
>> > > ..........
>> > >
>> > >> An external drive can be rather reliably identified and always
>> > >> mounted at the same place using udev.
>> > >>
>> > >> This is somewhat problematic on arch linux tough.
>> > >> For some reason the devices seem not to be created before
>> > >> mount runs although udev runs before it.
>> > >> This means that external drives do not get mounted along with all
>> > >> the other drives specified in fstab.
>> > >>
>> > >> I personally wonder what the problem is since this method has
>> > >> worked on other distributions.
>> > >>
>> > >> My workaround is simply another 'mount -a' in rc.local, at this
>> > >> point in boottime the devices are created.
>> > >>
>> > >> Still this doesn't work reliably with one of my drives but this
>> > >> is a separate problem (slowness).
>> > >>
>> > >> Philipp
>> > >>
>> > >
>> > > Folks, you are discussing how to deal with "noob questions" etc.,
>> > > but nobody paid attention to the more "deep" meaning of the
>> > > initial question arisen by Philipp.
>> > >
>> > > I confirm the problem. So, how to mount an external HDD during the
>> > > system start-up?
>> > >
>> > > Cheers,
>> > > Sergey
>> > >
>> > >
>> >
>> >
>> > If it is always connected, I would put a line on /etc/fstab so it is
>> > mounted as any other ordinary partition.
>> >
>> > If it is not always connected, I would make a script and put it in
>> > /etc/rc.d. The script would be responsible to look if the disk is
>> > attached and mount it. It would be good to use some udev rules to
>> > make a fixed symlink for the disk, so the script has a fixed target
>> > to find.
>> >
>>
>> I already do a combination of udev and fstab which doesn't work.
>>
>> Old rules that worked on my previous system:
>> BUS=="usb", KERNEL=="sd?1", SYSFS{idProduct}=="(somenumber)",
>> SYMLINK+="usbdisk200"
>>
>> BUS=="usb", KERNEL=="sd?1", SYSFS{serial}=="(somenumber)",
>> SYMLINK+="usbdisk400"
>>
>> New rules with newer udev syntax:
>> BUS=="usb", ATTRS{serial}=="(somenumber)", KERNEL=="sd?1",
>> NAME="%k", SYMLINK+="usbdisk400", GROUP="storage"
>>
>> BUS=="usb", ATTRS{idProduct}=="(somenumber)", KERNEL=="sd?1",
>> NAME="%k", SYMLINK+="usbdisk200", GROUP="storage"
>>
>> fstab:
>> /dev/usbdisk400 /media/disk400  ext3
>> rw,nodev,noexec,auto,noatime,async,users        0       0
>>
>> /dev/usbdisk200 /media/disk200  ext3
>> rw,nodev,noexec,auto,noatime,async,users        0       0
>>
>>
>> What happens is that when 'mount -a' is run at boottime it says
>> that /dev/usbdisk400 and /dev/usbdisk200 doesn't exist, consequently
>> they don't get mounted.
>> When rc.local with another 'mount -a' is executed it works (except
>> that the /dev/usbdisk400 is too slow sometimes).
>>
>> I'm looking forward to your ideas about what's happening.
>>
>> Best regards,
>>       Philipp
>
>
> I tried some more. This time I specified one of the usb harddrives by
> UUID. I can mount is, so it works, but at boottime this method doesn't
> work either.
>
> I get:
> special device UUID=number not found
>
> same as I got:
> special device /dev/usbdisk400 not found
>
> So to me this looks like udev is not the problem this time.
> So what is it, are usb devices not initialised yet when 'mount -a' is
> run?
> I added the usb_storage module to the modules array in rc.conf but this
> didn't change a thing. If I read rc.sysinit correctly the modules are
> loaded before 'mount -a'.
>
> Help is appreciated.
>
> Philipp
>

Well, I don't have an external hd, just pendrives, so to me they work
fine because I insert/remove often and when the system is already
running. But one aproach I would take is to make a script and put it
in /etc/rc.d, so you can put it in your DAEMONS array in rc.conf. This
way, i think the system will be up and running fine when the script is
run and it may mount your drive correctly. You can

-- 
-------------------------------------------
Denis A. Altoe Falqueto
-------------------------------------------
George Burns  - "I would go out with women my age, but there are no
women my age."