My USB drives do not automount

[JOYDECK]

When I insert a USB drive, or boot with one inserted, that drive shows as unmounted in Disks and, therefore, not in Nemo. My other PCs running Linux Mint all auto-mount USB drives. What is wrong?

This is a new install of Linux Mint 20.2, and Nemo has default settings for Edit | Preferences | Behavior | Media Handling.

Attached is a log of my my PC setup.

[Aztaroth]

Hello,
In Gnome Disks,
- select your drive or drive partition,
- click on the 2 cogwheels-gear icon (third from left, last from right) under it
- select Change mounting options
- disable user session default
- tick Mount at System Boot box.
- optionally choose another identifier than the UUID (if you gave your drive a more comprehensive name like MyDocs or somewhat else, the label identifier may prove more practical)
- enter password because your changes will be written in etc/fstab which needs admin/root privilege.

PS : not using an english version, my translation could be a bit different but you'll easily get the idea.

[JOYDECK]

...your changes will be written in etc/fstab which needs admin/root privilege

This does not help because I would need an fstab entry for every USB flash drive I might use. Besides, my other PCs have nothing extra in fstab and happily mount USB drives on insertion or boot.

Incidentally, adding an entry for a USB drive in /etc/fstab does not work. Doing so on a USB flash drive, prevents it mounting at boot, or on later insertion, because root privilege is now required to mount it!

[Aztaroth]

Drive can be a key or a HDD.
The procedure I gave is the one I use for my external HDDs and, as you put it, it has to be replicated on all computers that may host these HDDs.
About USB Keys, things are much shaky : some computers automount, some don't and some don't even read them (I'm speaking for the computers I own or manage). But this (a bit old) link of the Ubuntu forum :
https://askubuntu.com/questions/683034/ ... at-startup
agrees with me, even for flash drives.
So, if your Nemo/Edition/Preferences/Behavior/Medias properties are correctly set to automount, this probably means your drive is not correctly detected and you have to "help" the system with an fstab entry.

[JOYDECK]

Thank you Aztaroth for your excellent help.

I reinstalled Linux Mint 20.2 several times, learning that USB drives are indeed mounted following the OS install. However, after writing to a USB drive or adding it to /etc/fstab, my many USB drives will not auto-mount and show on the Desktop, ever again. Adding a USB drive to fstab only auto-mounts it at boot. Once unmounted, I would need Disks to mount that USB drive again.

This is no good to me. I'll now try MX Linux or Ubuntu.

[mikeflan]

Thank you Aztaroth for your excellent help.

I reinstalled Linux Mint 20.2 several times, learning that USB drives are indeed mounted following the OS install. However, after writing to a USB drive or adding it to /etc/fstab, my many USB drives will not auto-mount and show on the Desktop, ever again. Adding a USB drive to fstab only auto-mounts it at boot. Once unmounted, I would need Disks to mount that USB drive again.

This is no good to me. I'll now try MX Linux or Ubuntu.

This is interesting, and not expected behavior. I can write to a USB drive and it will still auto-mount every time. Any USB drive - every time. And of course I have nothing special in fstab. fstab has only one active line:

Code: Select all

$ cat /etc/fstab
# /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/sda1 during installation
UUID=328055c3-8217-4ce4-b13b-1c29631bfbe7 /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
/swapfile                                 none            swap    sw              0       0

Also note that I am on LM 19.3.

Since you can mount the USB manually, it would appear it has to do with the LM software picking up on the USB signal thrown when the USB drive is plugged in. I see quite a few people complaining about this, so obviously it is a real problem on LM 20.2.

[JOYDECK]

I see quite a few people complaining about this, so obviously it is a real problem on LM 20.2.

I too had no USB auto-mount hassles on Linux Mint 18.3,19.3 or a newer PC running 20.2.

[Jo-con-Ël]

As a Mint user having not those problems I wonder about what's different in such cases...Once confirmed browser settings are correct:

Complete inxi -Fxxxzr results usign </> code opton in forum editor.

Unplugging and re-plugging one o those USB device and posting back dmesg | tail -25

Checking USB configuration in BIOS settings it order to know what's is enabled/disabled there.

...

[decrepit]

Yep, I have 20.2 mate, a used thumb drive auto mounts shortly after insertion.
If you need details of this system for comparison, just ask

[JOYDECK]

Unplugging and re-plugging one of those USB device and posting back dmesg | tail -25

Just the help I had been seeking. I knew dmesg would be useful but didn't know how. (My USB settings in the BIOS are default.)

Water under the bridge because I am now ensconced in MX Linux.

[Jo-con-Ël]

If you have not that problem in MX Linux you can discard UEFI/BIOS Settings. Any way, now we can't debug the problem in Mint.