How does one clean a messy fstab ?

Mon Apr 14 21:13:17 UTC 2008

Hi Neil, 
Thanks a lot for your effort and your extensive and interesting
feedback !
I need to learn, read, reread and unbderstand better !! ;-)
Some quick answers go into the text below:

On Mon, 2008-04-14 at 16:27 +0200, Neil wrote:
> On Mon, Apr 14, 2008 at 2:40 PM, SYNass IT Ubuntu / Linux
> <i-ubux at synass.net> wrote:
> >
> >
> >  Hi Neil,
> >  Thanks for your feedback and appreciated offer ! ;-)
> >  Last night I checked with my wife entry for entry and we had 2 more
> >  different UUID's ...
> >  ... may be I was too tired !? ;-|
> >  However today I only found the two WIN partition UUID entries missing
> >  and something very specific with /dev/sda6:
> >
> >  blkid shows UUID=E1C688 ... etc and another
> >  displays it as UUID=0E1C688 ... etc !?
> >
> >  May be one more mistake of myself ...
> >  ... or was it drag'n drop with "E1C688 ...etc !? ;-(
> >
> >  Below here are my blkid and fstab.
> >  I grouped fstab to get a better overview and recognition of the
> >  partitions plus its respective data.
> >  I also started to fill the assumed respective data for /dev/sda6 & 7 !!
> >
> >  --------------------------------
> >  sna at WS222:~$ blkid
> >  /dev/sda1: UUID="D2C47460C47448AD" LABEL="WS222C_120GB" TYPE="ntfs"
> >  /dev/sda5: LABEL="WS222_Ubuntu 7.1"
> >  UUID="edf0353d-b99b-41d6-b7aa-57fad83fab35" SEC_TYPE="ext2" TYPE="ext3"
> >  /dev/sda6: UUID="E1C68841C686923" LABEL="WS222D_ATA" TYPE="ntfs"
> >  /dev/sda7: SEC_TYPE="msdos" LABEL="WS222E_XOS" UUID="47F7-9B3D"
> >  TYPE="vfat"
> >  /dev/sda8: TYPE="swap" UUID="42b8c729-4ccd-447e-9220-5797808f4740"
> >  /dev/sda9: UUID="a27937eb-32e3-4774-88bd-27166fb722ea" SEC_TYPE="ext2"
> >  TYPE="ext3" LABEL="WU144_HOME"
> >  sna at WS222:~$
> >  --------------------------------
> >  # /etc/fstab: static file system information.
> >  #
> >  # <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
> >  proc            /proc           proc    defaults        0       0
> >  # /dev/sda5
> >  UUID=edf0353d-b99b-41d6-b7aa-57fad83fab35       /               ext3
> >  defaults,errors=remount-ro 0       1
> >  #----------
> >  # /dev/sda1
> >  UUID=D2C47460C47448AD /media/sda1     ntfs    defaults,umask=007,gid=46
> >  0       1
> >  #----------
> >  # >> /dev/sdb6 / NTFS D: Data Windows Partition
> >  # UUID=E1C68841C686923  ?       ntfs    ?       ?       ?
> >  #----------
> >  # /dev/sda7 / FAT16 E: Data Exchange Partition (for tests only and 1GB)
> >  # UUID=47F7-9B3D                        ?       vfat    ?       ?       ?
> >  #----------
> >  # /dev/sda8
> >  UUID="42b8c729-4ccd-447e-9220-43b0-5797808f4740 none            swap
> >  sw              0       0
> >  #----------
> >  # /dev/sda9
> >  UUID=a27937eb-32e3-4774-88bd-27166fb722ea       /home   ext3    0       2
> >  #----------
> >  /dev/scd0       /media/cdrom0   udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec 0       0
> >  #----------
> >  /dev/fd0        /media/floppy0  auto    rw,user,noauto,exec 0       0
> >  --------------------------------
> >
> >  TIA for your assistance to get back a clean /cleared and proper
> >  constellation ! ;-D
> >  If it helps or if needed I made a set of files from my UUIDcomp script.
> >  Let me know if you need / want more info to check !?
> >
> >  Cheers, svobi
> >
> 
> Hi Svobi
> 
> Are all of those lines in fstab commented out???? (# at the beginning
> of the line. It means it will not be used) Or is this a poblem caused
> in the copy?

Yes, all comment lines start with # !

> ALWAYS BACK THE FSTAB UP BEFORE EDITING. Your PC works, so back the
> shit up before you start editing it. A "cp /etc/fstab
> /etc/fstab.backup" would do just fine.

You are correct !
I should do it more better !!

> Before you reboot the PC you should make the directories you will be
> using. If you take all my advices you should do this:
> mkdir /media/WinC && mkdir /media/WinD && mkdir /media/test
> 
> I'd advise to set
> "# UUID=D2C47460C47448AD /media/sda1     ntfs
> defaults,umask=007,gid=46  0       1" (most probably your windows C
> disk)
> to
> "UUID=D2C47460C47448AD /media/WinC   ntfs    defaults,umask=007,gid=46
>  0       1"
> because sda1 is in windows recognised as C:/. This is not essential,
> but may help to find your files. You should NOT do this if you use
> virtualisation. I do not know if it causes problems, but it may.
> 
> and
> >> /dev/sdb6 / NTFS D: Data Windows Partition
> # UUID=E1C68841C686923  ?       ntfs    ?       ?       ?
> to
> # /dev/sdb6 / NTFS D: Data Windows Partition
> "UUID=E1C68841C686923  /media/WinD     ntfs    defaults       0       0"
> The data partition in windows wasn't mounted. This results in the data
> not being available
> 
> and
> # /dev/sda7 / FAT16 E: Data Exchange Partition (for tests only and 1GB)
> # UUID=47F7-9B3D                        ?       vfat    ?       ?       ?
> to
> # /dev/sda7 / FAT16 E: Data Exchange Partition (for tests only and 1GB)
> UUID=47F7-9B3D                        /media/test       vfat    noauto
>       0       0
> or
> # /dev/sda7 / FAT16 E: Data Exchange Partition (for tests only and 1GB)
> UUID=47F7-9B3D                        /media/test       vfat
> defaults       0       0

Well, I need more time to understand this better !
Will get back to this later !!

> Again, the disk wasn't mounted. If you do not want it to be mounted at
> boot you should use the first (noauto) if you do want it to be mounted
> you should use the second (default)

I am not clear what you mean with "disk wasn't mounted" !?
On my desktop is an icon of the WIN C: partition and I have access to
it ! ;-)

> The numbers in the last part of each entry are meant for the error
> checks. I am not sure wether Linux can check your NTFS disks for
> errors, so I'd advise you to use 0 (do not check).

Understood !

> The #'s are there to prevent the fstab read program from erroring
> because it can't read the line.

OK, knew !

> I do not work with UUID's myself, always found the /dev/sd[a-z] quite
> sufficient, but it seems the a-z can change at when a new drive is
> added at a Sata or Pata port with a lower identifier (if a mater IDE
> channel 1 drive is added this will always happen) so it may be better
> to work with UUID's.

I see and the /dev/sd(a-z) are easier to keep than these endless UUID
ID's !
Generally I try to work not touching these sys data ...
... indeed need to learn and understand their functions and
maintaining !!   
> >
> >
> >  > --
> >  > There are two kinds of people:
> >  > 1. People who start their arrays with 1.
> >  > 1. People who start their arrays with 0.
> >
> >  HaHaHa ...
> >  ... I am using both arrays !
> >  My emotional brain / as human starts the array with 1 !
> >  My rational brain / as organizer starts the array with 0 !
> >  ;-))
> 
> Then you must be schiofrenic.......:P:P:P (no insult intended)

Hehehe, perhaps may be ... not confirmed yet !!! ;-D