[SOLVED] fstab fails to connect linux partitions.

[ineuw]

Two of my LMC201 installations, on two different machines, developed the same problem. Fstab won't mount two ext4 partitions, while it has no problem connecting the ntfs drives.

The data below is from a desktop dual boot with which there was never a problem mounting the linux partitions. The drives in questions are dev/sdb1 and dev/sdb2

Attached is also the fstab.txt and the Inxi report on the hardware:

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System:    Kernel: 5.4.0-72-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.3.0 
           Desktop: Cinnamon 4.8.6 Distro: Linux Mint 20.1 Ulyssa 
           base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal 
Machine:   Type: Desktop Mobo: ASRock model: B360 Pro4 serial: <filter> 
           UEFI: American Megatrends v: P4.30 date: 12/06/2019 
Battery:   Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech Wireless Keyboard 
           charge: 55% (should be ignored) status: Discharging 
CPU:       Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Pentium Gold G5600 bits: 64 type: MT MCP 
           arch: Kaby Lake rev: B L2 cache: 4096 KiB 
           flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 31199 
           Speed: 800 MHz min/max: 800/3900 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 800 2: 800 3: 800 
           4: 800 
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel 8th Gen Core Processor Gaussian Mixture Model vendor: ASRock 
           driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.9 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa 
           resolution: 1536x864_59.00~59Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics 630 (CFL GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 20.2.6 
           direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel Cannon Lake PCH cAVS vendor: ASRock driver: snd_hda_intel 
           v: kernel bus ID: 00:1f.3 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-72-generic 
Network:   Device-1: Intel Ethernet I219-V vendor: ASRock driver: e1000e v: 3.2.6-k 
           port: efa0 bus ID: 00:1f.6 
           IF: eno1 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 2.90 TiB used: 143.42 GiB (4.8%) 
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: SanDisk model: SDSSDHII120G size: 111.79 GiB 
           ID-2: /dev/sdb vendor: Seagate model: ST1000DM003-1SB10C size: 931.51 GiB 
           ID-3: /dev/sdc vendor: Seagate model: ST2000DM008-2FR102 size: 1.82 TiB 
           ID-4: /dev/sdd model: SATA3 64GB SSD size: 59.63 GiB 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 54.75 GiB used: 13.55 GiB (24.7%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdd1 
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 3.75 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sdd2 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 34.0 C mobo: N/A 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Info:      Processes: 243 Uptime: 2h 05m Memory: 15.31 GiB used: 2.66 GiB (17.4%) 
           Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 9.3.0 Shell: bash v: 5.0.17 
           inxi: 3.0.38 

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ineuw@LMC201DT:~$ ls /media
ad  eltu  iso  linux-data  ta  timeshift  wikimedia

ineuw@LMC201DT:~$ lsblk -f
NAME   FSTYPE   LABEL      UUID                                 FSAVAIL FSUSE% MOUNTPOINT
loop0  squashfs                                                       0   100% /snap/core18/
loop1  squashfs                                                       0   100% /snap/authy/5
loop2  squashfs                                                       0   100% /snap/core18/
loop3  squashfs                                                       0   100% /snap/gnome-3
loop4  squashfs                                                       0   100% /snap/gtk-com
loop5  squashfs                                                       0   100% /snap/snapd/1
loop6  squashfs                                                       0   100% /snap/snapd/1
loop7  squashfs                                                       0   100% /snap/gtk-com
sda
├─sda1 vfat     EFI        14D3-62FC                              61.1M    36% /boot/efi
├─sda2
├─sda3 ntfs     ta         6C4860FB4860C584                       69.3G    38% /media/ta
└─sda4 ntfs     recovery   9A9A74369A7410CD
sdb
├─sdb1 ext4     linux-data a1b624cb-8790-4918-8bf5-64751863b6b8
├─sdb2 ext4     timeshift  fbffba3f-c249-d601-e037-ba3fc249d601  440.4G     5% /run/timeshif
└─sdb3 ntfs     wikimedia  570DA96932111B9C                      137.2G     9% /media/wikime
sdc
├─sdc1 ntfs     ad         01D671CAAF402F40                      220.6G     2% /media/ad
├─sdc2 ntfs     iso        01D671D1B9463D20                      187.9G    16% /media/iso
├─sdc3 ntfs     eltu       01D6444FB4A2C680                      505.6G     1% /media/eltu
└─sdc4 ntfs     mirrors    01D70E2B1431F580
sdd
├─sdd1 ext4                ed236d1b-4aa5-488f-9bf9-9c5e003da7f6   38.8G    24% /
└─sdd2 swap     swap       eee9ab14-fc4e-4f55-b8a5-3cbaaa758b88                [SWAP]
sr0

ineuw@LMC201DT:~$ sudo wipefs /dev/sdb1
[sudo] password for ineuw:
DEVICE OFFSET TYPE UUID                                 LABEL
sdb1   0x438  ext4 a1b624cb-8790-4918-8bf5-64751863b6b8 linux-data

ineuw@LMC201DT:~$ sudo lsblk -o name,maj:min,rm,size,ro,type,fstype,label,mountpoint
NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE FSTYPE   LABEL      MOUNTPOINT
loop0    7:0    0  55.5M  1 loop squashfs            /snap/core18/1988
loop1    7:1    0  61.3M  1 loop squashfs            /snap/authy/5
loop2    7:2    0  55.5M  1 loop squashfs            /snap/core18/1997
loop3    7:3    0 162.9M  1 loop squashfs            /snap/gnome-3-28-1804/145
loop4    7:4    0  64.8M  1 loop squashfs            /snap/gtk-common-themes/1514
loop5    7:5    0  32.3M  1 loop squashfs            /snap/snapd/11588
loop6    7:6    0  32.3M  1 loop squashfs            /snap/snapd/11402
loop7    7:7    0  65.1M  1 loop squashfs            /snap/gtk-common-themes/1515
sda      8:0    0 111.8G  0 disk
├─sda1   8:1    0   100M  0 part vfat     EFI        /boot/efi
├─sda2   8:2    0    16M  0 part
├─sda3   8:3    0 111.2G  0 part ntfs     ta         /media/ta
└─sda4   8:4    0   505M  0 part ntfs     recovery
sdb      8:16   0 931.5G  0 disk
├─sdb1   8:17   0   255G  0 part ext4     linux-data
├─sdb2   8:18   0 526.5G  0 part ext4     timeshift  /run/timeshift/backup
└─sdb3   8:19   0   150G  0 part ntfs     wikimedia  /media/wikimedia
sdc      8:32   0   1.8T  0 disk
├─sdc1   8:33   0   225G  0 part ntfs     ad         /media/ad
├─sdc2   8:34   0   225G  0 part ntfs     iso        /media/iso
├─sdc3   8:35   0   510G  0 part ntfs     eltu       /media/eltu
└─sdc4   8:36   0   903G  0 part ntfs     mirrors
sdd      8:48   0  59.6G  0 disk
├─sdd1   8:49   0  55.9G  0 part ext4                /
└─sdd2   8:50   0   3.8G  0 part swap     swap       [SWAP]
sr0     11:0    1  1024M  0 rom

[bodge99]

Hi,

Can you manually mount these partitions using their filesystem UUID's ?

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mount UUID=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx /mnt

I can remember something similar on a Suse installation. I had to copy & paste the contents of the 'fstab' to another file, delete the 'fstab' and then rename the new file back to 'fstab'. It fixed the problem.. weird!

Bodge99

[ineuw]

Hi,

Can you manually mount these partitions using their filesystem UUID's ?
[CODE
mount UUID=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx /mnt
[/CODE]

I can remember something similar on a Suse installation. I had to copy & paste the contents of the 'fstab' to another file, delete the 'fstab' and then rename the new file back to 'fstab'. It fixed the problem.. weird!

Bodge99

Now, I mount them using gParted. This always works. But I will replace the fstab as well. This is happening on two different and unrelated computers but with identical LM versions.I uploaded the info to gParted when it first appeared on an AMD laptop. Now, after a day, this Intel desktop is behaving the same way. So I think that the cause is an Mint update if it happens on both machines.

[bodge99]

Hi,

Can you try the manual mount anyway.. just to see if it works.

Bodge99

[altair4]

UUID=a1b624cb-8790-4918-8bf5-64751863b6b8 /media/linux-data ext4 windows_names,uid=1000,umask=007,gid=1000,noatime 0 2

UUID=fbffba3f-c249-d601-e037-ba3fc249d601 /media/timeshift ext4 windows_names,uid=1000,umask=007,gid=1000,noatime 0 2

You are using mounting options designed for NTFS ( windows_names, uid, gid, umask ) on an ext4 filesystem. That will not work. Remove them:

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UUID=a1b624cb-8790-4918-8bf5-64751863b6b8	/media/linux-data	ext4		defaults,nofail 0  2

UUID=fbffba3f-c249-d601-e037-ba3fc249d601	/media/timeshift	ext4	        defaults,nofail 0   2

[bodge99]

Hi,

I've just located my notes on the Suse 'fstab' problem. I had made a copy of the original 'fstab' for later analysis.

I found that the problem was caused by the presence of a couple of non-ascii (non-printing) "characters" within the 'fstab'.

The copy made to a text editor had removed them. No idea what caused this.

altair4: Good catch!!

Bodge99

[ineuw]

Hi,

Can you try the manual mount anyway.. just to see if it works.

Bodge99

I tried manual mount doesn't work, only the mount selection in gParted.

[bodge99]

Hi,

If it's not 'fstab' corruption and/or mount options then I'd look at copying the filesystem contents to another partition and adjusting the 'fstab' to suit.

If this now works, then delete the original partition(s), reformat and copy the data back, adjusting the 'fstab' to suit.
You will then have a copy of your data, "just in case". This should help rule out/fix any soft of partition table problem.

If the problem returns, then I'd look more closely at the overall drive health.

I'd now make sure that your data backups are up to date..

Bodge99

[ineuw]

Thanks to everyone. I was wrong earlier. The partitions can be mounted manually by the mount uuid command. I also rewrote fstab from blkid output, and set the ext4 drive options to defaults. The partitions are now mounted by fstab but slowly.

[bodge99]

Hi,

I don't like the word "slowly" in this context.. I personally would test another partition that is configured in the same way and run some comparison mount time tests.. Simple subjective tests should show any gross differences.

Bodge99

[ineuw]

Hi,

I don't like the word "slowly" in this context.. I personally would test another partition that is configured in the same way and run some comparison mount time tests.. Simple subjective tests should show any gross differences.

Bodge99

Thanks to all for the comments, suggestions and the sharp eyes. It's much appreciated. Everything is working fine. Being from the days of MS-DOS, I only use standard ASCII 32 - 127 characters in fstab. But, the options windows_names,uid=1000,umask=007,gid=1000,noatime, which worked since the March 2021 install, caused the failure on both machines. Now, the options is "Defaults", which mounts the drives, but I ran into another problem and wondered if they are connected.

My shell scripts, which always work, trigger the following error, but when it's pasted into the terminal, it works fine.

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#! usr/bin/bash

## 2021-05-05 - 01-res-hdmi-1536x864.sh (~/Desktop) - gedit

xrandr --newmode "1536x864_59.00"  106.50  1536 1616 1776 2016  864 867 872 897 -hsync +vsync
xrandr --addmode HDMI-1 "1536x864_59.00"
xrandr --output HDMI-1 --mode "1536x864_59.00"