Mount issue

[Robert Spanjaard]

On Thu, 17 Jul 2008 08:23:04 -0700, Jim Smith wrote:

>> Can you post a copy of /etc/fstab?
>>
>>
> Here it is.
> 
> /etc/fstab:
>  
> # /etc/fstab: static file system information. #
> # <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
> proc            /proc           proc    defaults        0       0 #
> /dev/sda4 -- converted during upgrade to edgy
> UUID=c8253db2-ac0b-4664-9e3c-837ce469a95d / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
> # /dev/sda3 -- converted during upgrade to edgy
> UUID=53682bbd-4fcd-4d8c-81a6-7da4e9dc3ece none swap sw 0 0
> UUID=81c37411-73dc-470b-a908-291e03841c94 none swap sw 0 0
> /dev/cdrom      /media/cdrom0   udf,iso9660 user,noauto     0       0
> /dev/sda2       /media/Jim,s\040HD ntfs-3g defaults,locale=en_US.UTF-8 0 0
> 
> The device shows uip in the devices list in a file browser, but still
> gives the same errors when attempting to mount.

What do you mean by the "devices list"? If it shows up, doesn't that mean 
it's already mounted? What happens when you click on it? Can you view the 
properties of the device?

> I plugged it in to my
> other Ubuntu box, also running Hardy and it mounted normally. Whatever
> the problem is resides on this machine.

It does. The error is about the mount point. In the first column of
your fstab, you can see several devices/partitions which are normally
available on your computer. The second column lists the position (mount
point) where they will be added to your filesystem. Somehow, your
computer tries to add the USB-drive at an illegal position.
You could take another look at /etc/mtab after you plugged in the drive,
and see if sdb1 is listed there. (Proably not, if the mounting fails.)

Another option would be to check if you have a udev.rules file with an
illegal rule for the USB hard disk. Check it by typing

cat /etc/udev/udev.rules

(udev.rules is a bit like fstab, but then for hotswappable devices)

-- 
Regards, Robert                                      http://www.arumes.com