auto-mounting disks that might not be present (e.g. usb drives)
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From: Camaleón on 4 Feb 2010 09:30 On Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:01:17 +1030, Arthur Marsh wrote: > Camaleón wrote, on 04/02/10 03:05: >>> I would also like the machine to boot fully if it is started without >>> the USB flash drive present. >> >> That should not happen at all (if the disk is not present it should log >> a warn, but the system should keep loading). It can be a bug. > > The response I received to > http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=568200 suggest that the > responder thinks that running fsck on a non-existent device is the > proper behaviour /-:. I've also found some "opposition" from developers while reporting bugs ;-) But I still find the point valid: if a mount point defined in "fstab" is not present at boot time, it should warn the user and log the error but the boot process should not be stopped at all because the mount point is not critical (i.e., is not root "/") for the system to properly start. Greetings, -- Camaleón -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-REQUEST(a)lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster(a)lists.debian.org
From: Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. on 4 Feb 2010 10:00 In <pan.2010.02.04.14.28.16(a)gmail.com>, Camaleón wrote: >On Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:01:17 +1030, Arthur Marsh wrote: >> The response I received to >> http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=568200 suggest that the >> responder thinks that running fsck on a non-existent device is the >> proper behaviour /-:. > >I've also found some "opposition" from developers while reporting bugs ;-) > >But I still find the point valid: if a mount point defined in "fstab" is >not present at boot time, it should warn the user and log the error but >the boot process should not be stopped at all because the mount point is >not critical (i.e., is not root "/") for the system to properly start. There are filesystems other than '/' that I need to have a fully functional system: $ df -Ph Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/md0 981M 466M 515M 48% / tmpfs 2.0G 8.0K 2.0G 1% /lib/init/rw udev 10M 272K 9.8M 3% /dev tmpfs 2.0G 12K 2.0G 1% /dev/shm /tmp 2.0G 32M 2.0G 2% /tmp /dev/mapper/monster-home 1.2T 1.1T 109G 92% /home /dev/mapper/monster-media 4.3T 4.2T 120G 98% /home/bss/media /dev/mapper/monster-opt 1.0G 33M 992M 4% /opt /dev/mapper/monster-srv 1.0G 37M 988M 4% /srv /dev/mapper/monster-usr 8.0G 5.7G 2.4G 72% /usr /dev/mapper/monster-usr.local 1.0G 36M 989M 4% /usr/local /dev/mapper/monster-var 4.0G 1.3G 2.8G 31% /var /dev/mapper/monster-var.cache 8.0G 4.1G 4.0G 51% /var/cache /dev/mapper/monster-var.tmp 4.0G 398M 3.7G 10% /var/tmp -- Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. ,= ,-_-. =. bss(a)iguanasuicide.net ((_/)o o(\_)) ICQ: 514984 YM/AIM: DaTwinkDaddy `-'(. .)`-' http://iguanasuicide.net/ \_/
From: Camaleón on 4 Feb 2010 10:10 On Thu, 04 Feb 2010 08:50:58 -0600, Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. wrote: > In <pan.2010.02.04.14.28.16(a)gmail.com>, Camaleón wrote: >>But I still find the point valid: if a mount point defined in "fstab" is >>not present at boot time, it should warn the user and log the error but >>the boot process should not be stopped at all because the mount point is >>not critical (i.e., is not root "/") for the system to properly start. > > There are filesystems other than '/' that I need to have a fully > functional system: Yes, but the mount point of the OP is not critical for his system, that was what I wanted to say. And the kernel must be aware of that device is trivial and can be skipped without any drawbacks. Greetings, -- Camaleón -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-REQUEST(a)lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster(a)lists.debian.org
From: Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. on 4 Feb 2010 11:40 On Thursday 04 February 2010 09:04:08 Camaleón wrote: > On Thu, 04 Feb 2010 08:50:58 -0600, Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. wrote: > > In <pan.2010.02.04.14.28.16(a)gmail.com>, Camaleón wrote: > >>But I still find the point valid: if a mount point defined in "fstab" is > >>not present at boot time, it should warn the user and log the error but > >>the boot process should not be stopped at all because the mount point is > >>not critical (i.e., is not root "/") for the system to properly start. > > > > There are filesystems other than '/' that I need to have a fully > > functional system: > > Yes, but the mount point of the OP is not critical for his system, that > was what I wanted to say. And the kernel must be aware of that device is > trivial and can be skipped without any drawbacks. Why must the kernel be aware of that? That's a human decision, not a technical one. I can certainly see reasons that a device attached via USB might be considered to the user to be critical. In any case, /etc/fstab is for *static* file systems. It is *not* for file systems that may or may not be there when the system is booting (or otherwise in operation). -- Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. ,= ,-_-. =. bss(a)iguanasuicide.net ((_/)o o(\_)) ICQ: 514984 YM/AIM: DaTwinkDaddy `-'(. .)`-' http://iguanasuicide.net/ \_/
From: Camaleón on 4 Feb 2010 12:00
On Thu, 04 Feb 2010 10:31:10 -0600, Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. wrote: > On Thursday 04 February 2010 09:04:08 Camaleón wrote: >> Yes, but the mount point of the OP is not critical for his system, that >> was what I wanted to say. And the kernel must be aware of that device >> is trivial and can be skipped without any drawbacks. > > Why must the kernel be aware of that? That's a human decision, not a > technical one. Because (correct me if I am wrong) it is defined by the docs what are the minimal requirements for a linux system to boot. It's a hierarquical system, and so are services: there are some services you can bypass without having penalties at startup (boot process can be delayed, but not stopped), but there are other critical services that unless started, the system will refuse to boot. I think that makes sense and the same remains for fstab, at least that is my point. > I can certainly see reasons that a device attached via USB might be > considered to the user to be critical. Yes, so do I. If "/boot" partition is located there, for instance :-). But a standard linux system does not search for "/my_mount_point/ my_device" unless it is explicitly specified by the user. And you know, you cannot trust what users do so much :-P > In any case, /etc/fstab is for *static* file systems. It is *not* for > file systems that may or may not be there when the system is booting (or > otherwise in operation). Yes, I know, and I think so. But the OP found a problem with his setup and he's looking for a solution. Greetings, -- Camaleón -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-REQUEST(a)lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster(a)lists.debian.org |