Mepis and Mounting Partitions
Posts: 387
One of the things that Xandros has that leaves Mepis for dead is the way it automatically mounts partitions and network shares.?? Mepis, up to 2004-05-04 would let users mount partitions, but lost that ability immediately after.?? 2004-05 testing won;t let you do it, none of the 2004-06 betas will either.
The Mount Partitions Icon is still on the desktop, but it does not work.
fstab is supposed to be a static, editable (by root) file.?? One is supposed to be able to configure it.?? Somehow, Mepis overwrites this file with its own interpretation of what it wants on every boot.
Warren apparently has no idea how or why this is happening.?? I have asked him numerous times and the answer is always "no comment".
If anyone has any information on how this happens, whether there is a good reason for it,?? and how to fix it, it would be greatly appreciated.
When trying to sort out the problem I noticed that mtab is also overwritten on boot.
Well, that is pretty simila
Posts: 387
Well, that is pretty similar to the way i was approaching the problem, except that i had moved the entries from the dynamic into the regular.
This time i followed your suggestion and copied them instead.?? That leaves my fstab with duplicate entries above and below the #Dynamic Entries line.
It doesn;t seem to affect it though.?? I can reboot once and the partitions mount ok, but if I shutdown then boot, I have a nice new fstab and only root can mount the partitions.
This is with a FRESH INSTALL of Mepis 06-03 and also with the last 2004-05 and with 06-06 lite.
There is a line during the boot process that says updating fstab, that might have somethig to do with it, but I can't find where.?? I've messed with mtab, /proc/mount and even with changing permissions on a whole heap of files.
Nothing works.?? fstab is always overwritten and it always defaults to only root can mount.
That's wierd that it is doing
Posts: 43
That's wierd that it is doing for some people and not for others then.
The only other thing I can think of is if it is something to do with hardware then, but that doesn't really make sense.
can you copy the shortcut and
Posts: 111
can you copy the shortcut and add the root access thru the configuration? That would be an added step, but be better that starting a new session as root. (I'm not at my Mepis install at the moment to check before posting.) I'll check this later and post back.
It turns out that there app
Posts: 387
It turns out that there apparently was a problem (some sort of fight) between hotplu, mount and the kernel.?? Some program that was supposed to add and remove entries in fstab when USB devices were being mounted was removing more than it should - or something like that.
Warren seems to have set up the later betas so that essential entries were not removed, and that means the fstab is not editable, and that Mount partitions can only be done as root.
Apparently the problem has been addressed by someone out there in Linux land.?? Warren says he is going return Mepis to enabling users to mount partitions soon.
I'd guess that will be when he is satisfied that the problem code really has been fixed.
The lag in letting anyone know about what caused this was simply due to hi being too ill to concentrate on everything at once.
Anyway, 2004-05-04 is the last beta that does one click mounting by users, for anyone who needs it.?? For the later betas, it's just a matter of running Mount Partitions as super user (on the k-menu).
RossD
Mine has never been overwritt
Posts: 43
Mine has never been overwritten on reboot.?? One thing I do after first install, is open a terminal, su to root, run kdf, mount all of my partitions, then close kdf, open fstab in kedit as root, and copy the dynamic entries into the regular, changing noauto to auto.?? I did this before the beta problems, and still do. ?? ?? I'm running the 0606 lite right now, and did the same thing, and have rebooted a 2 or 3 times since installation, and it hasn't been overwritten once.