[arch-general] /etc/fstab :no ext. hdd

[Alessandro Doro]

On Sun, Mar 29, 2009 at 03:07:16PM -0700, Preston C. wrote:
> > No problem :)
> >
> > You also have the HAL method, which can be handy if you remove/attach the
> > drive often. But if the drive is attached all or most of the time, good ol'
> > fstab is the easiest and most reliable. ;)
> 
> The drive hasn't been unplugged since I got it. Do I need to install
> ntfs-3g, before adding the line into fstab?
> 
> Can you tell me which one, if any, of these lines would work:
> /dev/sdc1 /media/exterhalhd   ntfs    ro,user,noauto,unhide   0      0
> /dev/sdc1 /media/exterhalhd   ntfs    ro,user,auto,unhide   0      0
> /dev/sdc1 /media/exterhalhd   auto    ro,user,noauto,unhide   0      0
> /dev/sdc1 /media/exterhalhd   ntfs    ro,user,auto,unhide   0      0
> 
> Will any of those lines work? I do not really understand whether to
> put auto or ntfs- for type, and about the options, as you can probably
> tell, :-). I read up on it, just not sure.
> 
> Thanks.

You can't be sure about the device number of your external hard drive.
I suggest you to use a line like this in fstab

UUID /media/exterhalhd ntfs-3g options....

To find your volume UUID:
ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/

For the options and further info see Gregory T Helton post.

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

"An error occured while accessing 'Free Agent Drive', the system
responded:
org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.PermissionDeniedByPolicy:
hal-storage-mount-removable-extra-options no <-- (action,result)"

This is a known hal/kde bug; inside kde you can't mount ntfs partitions!
See for example:
http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=157378
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=378041
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=297389
(google: "hal-storage-mount-fixed-extra-options"; TODO: rethink)

My approach is not fstab based; I mount my devices with gnome-mount.
As root:
gnome-mount -p device-label
or
gnome-mount -d /device/path

bye