SOLVED Paths to partitions

[jollyjack]

I'm ignorant of much that I should know, if i'm to work with LM18, so please be patient.

I seem to be having problems with the address path to a partition. I have an SSD and two HDDs, split into various partitions. All have names and labels. I "think" that previously I could use the name/label to identify the partition. Usually, if memory serves, (and it doesn't, these days..) as something like /media/backintime, for example. That doesn't seem to work these days.

I set up Back In Time a few weeks ago, to take a daily snapshot of /home. It took a few, then stopped. ??. Today, I tried to take an instant snapshot, and it didn't like that path. But if I gave it /mnt/e1416cd6... (which is the same partition), off it went quite happily.

(Plex is also playing up, can't "see" the partition, but that may be something completely different)

Being a very happy user of LM18, where am I going wrong? Is there a simple explanation of how I have to define a path to partition, that works

Thanks

[Flemur]

I seem to be having problems with the address path to a partition. I have an SSD and two HDDs, split into various partitions. All have names and labels. I "think" that previously I could use the name/label to identify the partition. Usually, if memory serves, (and it doesn't, these days..) as something like /media/backintime, for example. That doesn't seem to work these days.

This will show your partitions and their labels, whether they're mounted or not:

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blkid

I have a partition labeled "MINT" (a Mint installation, but not the one I'm running); if it's NOT in /etc/fstab, it shows up under "Places" in my file browser, and mounts to /media/username/MINT. It acts just like a labelled partition on an external USB drive.

If it had no label it would mount to /media/username/goofy-number, which isn't very informative.

If it IS in /etc/fstab, like

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LABEL=MINT  /mnt/MINT  ext4 defaults,noauto,user,noatime 0 2

it will mount to /mnt/MINT (the 'noauto' means 'don't mount it at boot, mount it when I say to').
Or like this, a data parition that mounts to /mnt/DATA when I boot:

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LABEL=DATA  /mnt/DATA  ext4    defaults,noatime    0 2

You could enter

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mount /mnt/MINT

and the stuff in fstab tells it which partition to mount at /mnt/MINT, namely the one that's labelled "MINT".

FWIW, I made a couple of one-line scripts to (un)mount the partitions I define in fstab:
~/bin/mo

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#!/bin/bash
mount /mnt/$1

In a terminal, use like:

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mo MINT

to mount /mnt/MINT.

Edit: you don't have to mount them to /media or /mnt, it could be something like /home/username/Downloads as a mount-point of a separate partition; just put /home/username/Downloads in /etc/fstab rather than /mnt/whatever.

[ricardogroetaers]

... All have names and labels. ...

Sorry.
I did not understand the difference between "names and Labels ".
I think it's a language problem.

[jollyjack]

@ricardogroetaers

I think "label is short for "volume label", and with GPT, you can also give it a name (for convenience?). I keep them the same.

@flemur

According to BLKID, the partition in question is:

/dev/sdb3: LABEL="BACKINTIME" UUID="e1414dc6-dafa-4660-bc7d-860cc6346db2" TYPE="ext4" PARTLABEL="BACKINTIME" PARTUUID="c7fc95d9-7de9-43e8-8119-385e22af1f82"

And in fstab

/dev/disk/by-uuid/e1414dc6-dafa-4660-bc7d-860cc6346db2 /mnt/e1414dc6-dafa-4660-bc7d-860cc6346db2 auto nosuid,nodev,nofail,x-gvfs-show 0 0

Does this info shed any light on where I have a problem? I'd be happy if it wasn't in /etc/fstab, and just showed up in "Places", as you describe - manually mounting it is no big deal.

Thanks

[Flemur]

According to BLKID, the partition in question is:
/dev/sdb3: LABEL="BACKINTIME" UUID="e1414dc6-dafa-4660-bc7d-860cc6346db2" TYPE="ext4" PARTLABEL="BACKINTIME" PARTUUID="c7fc95d9-7de9-43e8-8119-385e22af1f82"

And in fstab
/dev/disk/by-uuid/e1414dc6-dafa-4660-bc7d-860cc6346db2 /mnt/e1414dc6-dafa-4660-bc7d-860cc6346db2 auto nosuid,nodev,nofail,x-gvfs-show 0 0

Does this info shed any light on where I have a problem?

Original problem was Backintime not finding the same partition? I dunno (I dunno anything at all about backintime!)
I'm guessing you used "disks" and it made that entry in fstab, though why it would want to define the mountpoint using the uuid rather than the label is beyond me.

I'd be happy if it wasn't in /etc/fstab, and just showed up in "Places", as you describe - manually mounting it is no big deal.

If you comment out that line in fstab (put a "#" in front of the line), I'm pretty sure the partition will show up in Places, and will mount to /media/username/BACKINTIME when you mount it (thru file browser). I don't see any PARTLABELs when I use blkid, but I'm using the most primitive (MBR and extended partition...) disk setup you can.

Just to be safe, do this before changing fstab:

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sudo cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.save

so you can recover if you mess up. It's an important file.
-- unmount that partition
-- edit /etc/fstab
-- open a new file browser - the partition should be under Places. See what happens when you double-click.

You might internet search on
PARTLABEL vs LABEL
which I think is the "name":
https://superuser.com/questions/1099232 ... el/1099292

[jollyjack]

Hi, Flemur,

Sorry for the delay in replying - the village lost telecoms (including the internet) for three days.

Well, your idea worked. That partition now shows up in "devices" in my file manager, and double-clicking opens it up. The final test will be if BackInTime works tonight. Fingers crossed

Thanks

[jollyjack]

Yippee!
BackInTime now works perfectly.

Thanks, Flemur