A problem with my /etc/fstab file

[Detonate]

How many of us septuagenarians are there on this forum?

[kubicle]

1. Boot into recovery mode root prompt
2. run "mount -o rw,remount /"
3. edit fstab with "nano /etc/fstab"

With high hopes I did the above and the main result was a page on "Mount".

This might have been because the fstab file was borked and mount couldn't get the necessary data to remount the root file system from it...a more complete mount command like 'mount -t ext4 -o rw,remount /dev/sda5 /' would have probably worked, but anyway, glad you got it solved regardless.

[elder73]

You got it right... Time flies when you're having fun. I drifted away from Linux as I was working so much with Windows. Over time though I got so sick of all the rubbish that lands into your system via Windows. Never could get completely in control of the pop-ups. Cheers Bill ... alias elder73

[vinnywright]

Thank you Vinny all of the above worked like a charm. elder73 (Now 77 )

you are welcome ......now tell me ,,,,,,why now 77 ?
I just had to ask is it your age and you were 73 when you made the screen name ,,,,,,,

VINNY

[elder73]

ok so make a mount point for the partition

sudo mkdir /mnt/windows

you do not half to call it windows it can be named whatever you like but if you use some thing elce use it in the chown command and the fstab line insted of windows as well!!
now give your group access to the new folder

sudo chown -hR root:you /mnt/windows

where "you" is your user name so if it were me doing this it would be "sudo chown -hR root:vinny /mnt/windows" ,,,,,,see.

open fstab for editing with kate

kdesudo kate /etc/fstab

and add this line to the bottom of the file
and change the line

UUID=416bf55c-8bb6-4e28-876e-a11091a04a42 /               ext4    errors=remoun$

to

UUID=416bf55c-8bb6-4e28-876e-a11091a04a42 /               ext4    errors=remount-ro,user_xattr 0       1

and

UUID=d906b49c-e548-4ce7-b936-9cd15fd1757b none            swap    sw           $

to

UUID=d906b49c-e548-4ce7-b936-9cd15fd1757b none            swap    sw   0    0

when you finish editing the file place the cursor on a new line at the bottom of the file and press enter twice then save and close kate.

now just do a and your windows data is in /mnt/windows

of course it should show in dolphins places panel any way without doing all this and would be accessible with a click .

VINNY

Thank you Vinny all of the above worked like a charm. elder73 (Now 77 )

[vinnywright]

ok so make a mount point for the partition

sudo mkdir /mnt/windows

you do not half to call it windows it can be named whatever you like but if you use some thing elce use it in the chown command and the fstab line insted of windows as well!!
now give your group access to the new folder

sudo chown -hR root:you /mnt/windows

where "you" is your user name so if it were me doing this it would be "sudo chown -hR root:vinny /mnt/windows" ,,,,,,see.

open fstab for editing with kate

kdesudo kate /etc/fstab

and add this line to the bottom of the file

/dev/sda2 /mnt/windows ntfs-3g defaults 0 0"

and change the line

UUID=416bf55c-8bb6-4e28-876e-a11091a04a42 /               ext4    errors=remoun$

to

UUID=416bf55c-8bb6-4e28-876e-a11091a04a42 /               ext4    errors=remount-ro,user_xattr 0       1

and

UUID=d906b49c-e548-4ce7-b936-9cd15fd1757b none            swap    sw           $

to

UUID=d906b49c-e548-4ce7-b936-9cd15fd1757b none            swap    sw   0    0

when you finish editing the file place the cursor on a new line at the bottom of the file and press enter twice then save and close kate.

now just do a

sudo mount -a

and your windows data is in /mnt/windows

of course it should show in dolphins places panel any way without doing all this and would be accessible with a click .

VINNY

[jlittle]

My windows partition gets automounted at login, and is not in /etc/fstab. System settings, hardware section, Removable devices, under device overrides, attached devices, check automount on login for the partition with windows. It's helpful if the partitions have labels.
Seems a simpler approach than modifying /etc/fstab, but only works for uses after KDE starts; I have a small boot partition that I want a boot script to update, it had to go in fstab.

Regards, John Little

[elder73]

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 1049kB 106MB 105MB primary ntfs boot
2 106MB 118GB 118GB primary ntfs
3 118GB 160GB 42.1GB extended
5 118GB 158GB 39.9GB logical ext4
6 158GB 160GB 2110MB logical linux-swap(v1)

sudo blkid

/dev/sda1: LABEL="System Reserved" UUID="1A8235DE8235BF57" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sda2: UUID="B0CA38E1CA38A60E" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sda5: UUID="416bf55c-8bb6-4e28-876e-a11091a04a42" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda6: UUID="d906b49c-e548-4ce7-b936-9cd15fd1757b" TYPE="swap"

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
# / was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=416bf55c-8bb6-4e28-876e-a11091a04a42 / ext4 errors=remoun$
# swap was on /dev/sda6 during installation
UUID=d906b49c-e548-4ce7-b936-9cd15fd1757b none swap sw $

Thank you Vinny.

[vinnywright]

post the output of

sudo parted -l

and

sudo blkid

and post your /etc/fstab as it is now ........and we will get your windows partition mounted.

VINNY

[elder73]

1. Boot into recovery mode root prompt
2. run "mount -o rw,remount /"
3. edit fstab with "nano /etc/fstab"

With high hopes I did the above and the main result was a page on "Mount".
Frustrated I went back to "Kubuntu Recover" The first choice is "Boot Normally". I had nothing to lose so I chose it and the following came up. First it told me that /media/windows was not ready of not present. Then it offered "S" to skip what I was doing of "M" for Manual Recovery. I chose "M" and a mess of stuff flew by on the screen and surprise of surprises, my login screen came up. So I logged on,went to a terminal screen and entered sudo kate /etc/fstab, it came up, I removed the offending line and was able to save it.

It only goes to prove that blind blunderers can sometimes get it right,

Now all I need is a line that will allow me to mount my Windows partition.

A big thank you to everyone who responded to my problem.

[Detonate]

This is exactly the reason I always keep at least two distros on my computer, each mounting the file system of the other. You could also boot up with a live CD and edit your fstab file from there.

[elder73]

Try to remount the root filesystem in read-write mode before editing:
1. Boot into recovery mode root prompt
2. run "mount -o rw,remount /"
3. edit fstab with "nano /etc/fstab"

Thank you I will give this a try later today. I tried a number of things but kept running up against the fact that the xserver was not running.

[kubicle]

The only problem is I am prevented from saving the change.

Try to remount the root filesystem in read-write mode before editing:
1. Boot into recovery mode root prompt
2. run "mount -o rw,remount /"
3. edit fstab with "nano /etc/fstab"

[elder73]

At the present time I cannot get into Kubuntu at all. When I select it at the Grub screen all I get is a blank screen with Kubuntu written in the middle of it. So I can't copy fstab or paste it any email message at all. That is my problem. If you re-read my first message you can see what happens.

[Snowhog]

We need to 'see' your fstab file. Press Alt+F2 and type: kate /etc/fstab. When it opens, copy the contents and paste it in your reply.