Auto Mount problems (Trusty)

[Karl Auer]

On Mon, 2016-03-28 at 19:24 +0100, Grizzly wrote:
> I looked at /etc/fstab (a lot more messy than yours) but the scary
> warnings about frigging the total system if you get it wrong made me
> weary

This is a general point, not just about your issue, but your comment
above spurred me to write:

As long as you have a bootable CD, DVD or USB stick, making errors in
files like /etc/fstab is not that disastrous. You can always boot the
CD, DVD or USB stick, mount your "real" disk on /mnt, and restore the
file or edit it back to a working state.

Prepare:

1: Make a bootable CD, DVD or USB stick
   - pretty much any recent version of Ubuntu will do
2: Boot it
3: mount -t ext4 /dev/sda1 /mnt
   - substitute as needed for "sda1" and "ext4"
   - now your entire real disk is available on /mnt
3: Create, edit and delete a file in /mnt
   - this is just to check that you can
4: Reboot back to your normal system

Make the changes:

1: Make copies of any files you plan to change
2: Make the changes
3: Test the changes

If you then can't access your system normally:

1: Boot off your prepared CD, DVD or USB stick
2: mount -t ext4 /dev/sda1 /mnt
   - substitute as needed for "sda1" and "ext4"
   - now your entire real disk is available on /mnt
3: Do whatever repairs are needed
4: Reboot back to your normal system


Regards, K.

-- 
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Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)
http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer
http://twitter.com/kauer389

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