Re: auto-mounting disks that might not be present (e.g. usb drives)

[Camaleón <noelamac@gmail.com>]

On Tue, 02 Feb 2010 10:41:46 -0500, Frank McCormick wrote:

> On Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:00:41 +0000 (UTC) Camaleón wrote:
> 
>> > What is the easiest way to set up Debian to automatically mount
>> > specific devices if they are present, but not cause a boot failure
>> > when they are absent?
>> 
>> "man fstab" says that if the <passno> digit is other than zero, "fsck"
>> will try to check that mount point.
> 
> 
>    I have devices (usually flashdrives and or digital cameras) that
> may or may not be present during boot and they don't cause boot failure.
> But I guess you're talking about differnt devices ??

I mean devices listed as static mount points in "/etc/fstab". Usually, 
removable media (flash drivers and SD cards) are not listed there.

I.e., if your USB drive is listed there and you have something like:

# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
/dev/sdb1	/data/backup	ext3	acl,user_xattr	1	2
                                                                ^

Then fsck will try to check that mount point, either is present or not 
(or at least that is my understanding after reading "man fstab") :-)

If you want to avoid auto-checking at all for that specific mount point, 
you can put a "0" (zero) in the last column). You'll have to do the 
checking manually.

P.S. I suggest you to use LABEL or ID mount points for hard disk USB 
devices.

Greetings,

-- 
Camaleón