Easily set drives to mount automatically at boot

[MintBean]

This is for people who to enable a second drive to auto-mount at system start up WITHOUT editing a system file by hand.

1. Open the application 'Disks' from the Mint menu. (It's under 'Accessories.')
2. In the left hand part of the window, click on the disk which contains the partition you wish to mount.
3. The partition layout of the selected disk will appear in the right hand portion of the window.
4. Select the partition you wish to auto-mount by clicking on it. The selected partition will be highlighted.
5. Optional - If you wish to immediately mount the disk, you can do so by pressing the triangular 'play' button that appears to the left below the partition display. This will NOT cause it to auto-mount on next boot.
You may unmount the partition if you wish by pressing the square 'stop' button that appears where the play button was.
6. Click the cog icon <additional partition options> and select 'edit mount options.'
7. Switch 'automatic mount options' to OFF.
8. Check the 'mount at startup' box.
9. Optional - choose a custom mount point - in the 'Mount point' box, enter the mount point. I always choose something in the /mnt directory. e.g. '/mnt/Mydiscname'
10. Optional - give your disk a nice display name. This is the name it will appear as on the desktop. Enter your chosen name in the 'display name' field.
11. Hit OK and close the disks application. The disk should automount on next boot.

[xenopeek]

Good tutorial! Stickied.

11. Optional - if the disk is a solid state (SSD) you may wish to stop the system writing the time of the last file access to files when they are used. This saves on writes which add wear to the disk. To do this, edit the field that has no label but contains a bunch of options like 'nosuid,nodev,nofail,x-gvfs-show'. Leave the existing contents intact, but add ',noatime' to the end (without the quotes, with the preceding comma as indicated.)

You already wrote it as optional but I think this is dated information. The kernel uses relatime by default and that only updates the last access time when the file is modified—at which time the file's information block is written anyway to update the last modified time. When compared to relatime, noatime doesn't further reduce disk writes.

[MintBean]

Hey, thanks for the sticky, xenopeek!
In light of your advice, I've removed the unnecessary line.

[nickname]

Excellent write-up. Still works in Linux Mint 19.1, xfce.

Thanks.

[PaulCarry]

Excellent write-up. Still works in Linux Mint 19.1, xfce.

Thanks.

+1 Was just about to confirm this too.

[deanr72]

This was one of the first majorly frustrating issues I had with a Linux distro when I first switched from Windows. A very useful sticky indeed.

[Buzzsaw]

Good tutorial! Stickied.

11. Optional - if the disk is a solid state (SSD) you may wish to stop the system writing the time of the last file access to files when they are used. This saves on writes which add wear to the disk. To do this, edit the field that has no label but contains a bunch of options like 'nosuid,nodev,nofail,x-gvfs-show'. Leave the existing contents intact, but add ',noatime' to the end (without the quotes, with the preceding comma as indicated.)

You already wrote it as optional but I think this is dated information. The kernel uses relatime by default and that only updates the last access time when the file is modified—at which time the file's information block is written anyway to update the last modified time. When compared to relatime, noatime doesn't further reduce disk writes.

I'm afraid that's incorrect.

From man mount:

Since Linux 2.6.30, the kernel defaults to the behavior provided by [relatime] (unless noatime was specified), and the strictatime option is required to obtain traditional semantics. In addition, since Linux 2.6.30, the file's last access time is always updated if it is more than 1 day old.

Therefore noatime significantly reduces disk writes compared to relatime.

[Flemur]

10. Optional - give your disk a nice display name. This is the name it will appear as on the desktop. Enter your chosen name in the 'display name' field.

Is 'display name' the same as the LABEL value in e.g.

Code: Select all

$ blkid
/dev/sda1: LABEL="MINT" UUID="2a21...d6" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="stuff...1"

?

[Fires]

I Need some help here
is this only for linux mint ?

and this is my HDD with Linux mint on it

https://imgur.com/ECxAyNk

thank u

[Sgthawker]

If you are referring to the highlighted drive in the image, it is the esp, it is required for booting on a UEFI computer. It is not for linux or windows in particular, it is for any OS to boot on a UEFI system.

[PhilAypee]

This is for people who to enable a second drive to auto-mount at system start up WITHOUT editing a system file by hand.

1. Open the application 'Disks' from the Mint menu. (It's under 'Accessories.')
2. In the left hand part of the window, click on the disk which contains the partition you wish to mount.
3. The partition layout of the selected disk will appear in the right hand portion of the window.
4. Select the partition you wish to auto-mount by clicking on it. The selected partition will be highlighted.
5. Optional - If you wish to immediately mount the disk, you can do so by pressing the triangular 'play' button that appears to the left below the partition display. This will NOT cause it to auto-mount on next boot.
You may unmount the partition if you wish by pressing the square 'stop' button that appears where the play button was.
6. Click the cog icon <additional partition options> and select 'edit mount options.'
7. Switch 'automatic mount options' to OFF.
8. Check the 'mount at startup' box.
9. Optional - choose a custom mount point - in the 'Mount point' box, enter the mount point. I always choose something in the /mnt directory. e.g. '/mnt/Mydiscname'
10. Optional - give your disk a nice display name. This is the name it will appear as on the desktop. Enter your chosen name in the 'display name' field.
11. Hit OK and close the disks application. The disk should automount on next boot.

This worked almost flawlessly for me.

The flaw was that Thunar removed the wastebasket option (it only allowed delete unless the file/files/directory/directories were moved to the wastebasket). To restore it I had to run the Configure Thunar program. It was easy but it might not be obvious to some people

[Armstrong]

Absolutely brilliant!!! I have been using Linux Mint for eight years, and dealing with partitions has been the most daunting task I have encountered to date. This made the whole process effortless. I wish this tutorial had been around in 2012. Of course, I might not have found it then, but... FWIW, it works with Linux Mint 20. Slainte!

[masternetra]

To add to tutorial if you want to mount with a specific user, after step 8. go down to where "nosuid,nodev,nofail,x-gvfs-show" is and after x-gvfs-show add a comma then add uid=InsertUserName (with InsertUserName being the user name you want of course).

You can also set the group by adding a comma then entering gid=InsertGroupName.

[ohenriquez65]

MintBean, nailed it.
The disk utility is the best way to go.
I tried it right after I opened this post and works like a charm.

[juhanjaagup]

10. Optional - give your disk a nice display name. This is the name it will appear as on the desktop. Enter your chosen name in the 'display name' field.

Is 'display name' the same as the LABEL value in e.g.

Code: Select all

$ blkid
/dev/sda1: LABEL="MINT" UUID="2a21...d6" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="stuff...1"

?

I myself have used from the quite beginning of my Linux-era to set the Labels either during the install or aftewards with GParted; and only 16 digits/letters are allowed. For example /Ev_MiMa64_h40_s3/ (It means for me ssd Evo120GB; Mint Mate 64-bit; home 40GB; sdx3.) If the "Display name" is not set by the app Disks, then my partition can be seen on desktop or menu as I set the Label. Otherwise I see it by the UUID of partition (the long "stuff" of digits and letters), and I need to guess what it contains. Whatever Name (number of letters/digits not so limited) I had set to the certain partition with help of the GParted (or also could be done with (Gnome) Disks, I see it only in it's own window, not at desktop or elsewhere.
Now, as I also have set the "Display Name" with Disks, I can see with GParted (or with Disks: The Gears > Edit Partition/Edit Filesystem) that both the Name and Label I had set earlier have not changed. It means the given Display name has not really changed the Label, nor Name -- something that is fixed to this partition. Not possible at the moment, yet If I would connect this drive to another Linux-PC, it still gets showed on desktop by this Label (or UUID, if Label is not set). The Display name can truly have meaning only in this certain Linux install, as long as the app Disks works and Automount has been switched off (point 7. by MintBean). The Name set with GParted/Gnome Disks also has meaning only in it's window (or some other partition manager program). Although, it gets sticked to this partition, and could be seen also by other Linux install. The relativeness of the Display Name gets illustrated also by the fact that I need to give it a new one, if I switch with Gnome Disks Automount in and again off -- the given Display Name gets then wiped off.

Besides, I myself get a lot of childish pleasing setting these Labels -- like putting into order the mess of wires on my table (but this I enjoy far less -- unlike the Labels they get tomorrow a mess again!:)

[vimes666]

Btw, I noticed that 7. Switch 'automatic mount options' to OFF should be rephrased as 7. Switch 'User Session Defaults' to OFF.

[AndyMH]

Not a fan of disks and I think it creates messy fstab entries, better to do it manually - it's not that difficult.

[johnkaperoniz]

Absolutely brilliant!!! I have been using Linux Mint for eight years, and dealing with partitions has been the most daunting task I have encountered to date. This made the whole process effortless. I wish this tutorial had been around in 2012. Of course, I might not have found it then, but... FWIW, it works with Linux Mint 20. Slainte!

I agree, working with partitions has been a nightmare especially with many of them. This method helps ease things flawlessly, rep to OP. Its too bad this method wasn't made mor widely known sooner.

[Meander]

The "Trash" feature doesn't work on mounted disks. is it because of their format "NTFS" or else?