Re: FW: Thumbdrive

["Jared L. Black" <jaybee bendcable com>]

On Sat, 2003-11-01 at 14:34, Bob McClure Jr wrote:
> On Sat, Nov 01, 2003 at 11:30:56AM -0800, Jared L. Black wrote:
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Bob McClure Jr [mailto:robertmcclure earthlink net] 
> > > Sent: Thursday, October 30, 2003 7:26 AM
> > > To: Jared L. Black
> > > Subject: Re: Thumbdrive
> > > 
> > > On Wed, Oct 29, 2003 at 09:09:43PM -0800, Jared L. Black wrote:
> > > > I got your response regarding my question about mounting a thumbdrive.
> > > 
> > > > Thanks very much.  
> > > > 
> > > > I still have a question.  While I can mount the thumbdrive as root, I 
> > > > have to do the mount as root after each boot (I guess) because the
> > > fstab 
> > > > file doesn't have the /dev/sda1 line in it.  Should I just edit the 
> > > > fstab file by adding the following?
> > > > 
> > > > /dev/sda1                /mnt/thumbdrive                    auto
> > > 
> > > > noauto, user,kuduz, rw  0  0
> > > 
> > > No, for two reasons.
> > > 
> > > 1. The existence of the kudzu (not kuduz) option indicates that kudzu
> > >    (the device detector) made the entry and will remove it when you
> > >    remove the thumbdrive.
> > > 
> > > 2. You could add the entry without "kudzu" and kudzu will leave it
> > >    alone, but the device assignment is done dynamically, and if you
> > >    plug in other devices, the thumbdrive may get another assignment.
> > > 
> > > BTW, the line above doesn't make any sense because it has both the
> > > auto and noauto options which are in conflict.  "man mount" for more
> > > information.
> > > 
> > > If that is the only thing you plug in, you could put this line into
> > > /etc/fstab:
> > > 
> > > /dev/sda1        /mnt/thumbdrive         auto,user  rw  0 0
> > > 
> > > Change "auto" to "noauto" if you don't want the thumbdrive mounted at
> > > boot time.
> > > 
> > > 
> > > > Thanks in advance,
> > > > Jared Black
> > > 
> > > Cheers,
> > > -- 
> > > Bob McClure, Jr.             Bobcat Open Systems, Inc.
> > > robertmcclure earthlink net  http://www.bobcatos.com
> > > What if God is asking _us_ for a sign?
> > > 
> > 
> > Some strange things happen when I edit the fstab file.  I insert the
> > line as suggested above, but the next time I boot, the mount
> > /mnt/thumbdrive doesn't work (except for root as it always has).  When I
> > do a "cat /etc/fstab" the added line for the thumbdrive is missing;
> > something deletes it.  The original fstab listing is below (with some
> > spaces removed to avoid wrapping) and it returns to this form after
> > inserting the line for the thumbdrive and rebooting.
> > 
> > Is there a utility for adding the thumbdrive so that all the modules
> > that might be offended by manual editing of the fstab file are
> > satisfied?
> > 
> > LABEL=/             /                ext3    defaults        1 1
> > LABEL=/boot         /boot            ext3    defaults        1 2
> > none                /dev/pts         devpts  gid=5,mode=620  0 0
> > none                /proc            proc    defaults        0 0
> > none                /dev/shm         tmpfs   defaults        0 0
> > /dev/hda6           swap             swap    defaults        0 0
> > /dev/fd0            /mnt/floppy      auto    noauto,owner,kudzu 0 0
> > /dev/cdrom          /mnt/cdrom       iso9660 noauto,owner,kudzu,ro 0 0
> > 
> > The added line looked like this but gets deleted on reboot:
> > 
> > /dev/sda1           /mnt/thumbdrive  auto,user rw 0 0
> > 
> > Thanks for any help
> > J Black
> 
> Hmm.  I was under the impression that if you left "kudzu" out of the
> option list, that kudzu would not mess with it.  I think kudzu is
> removing the line.
> 
> Unfortunately, I'm out of ideas.  Sorry.
> 
> Cheers,
> -- 
> Bob McClure, Jr.             Bobcat Open Systems, Inc.
> robertmcclure earthlink net  http://www.bobcatos.com
> Man's disappointments are sometimes God's appointments.
> 
> 
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After a little trial and lots of error, I find that adding the line
noted below works.  It allows a user to mount and umount the
thumbdrive.  I've called it usbkey and also did a mkdir /mnt/usbkey.
The added line in fstab is 

/dev/sda1      /mnt/usbkey      vfat    noauto,user,rw 0 0

Thanks Robert, your advice pushed me in the right direction.
J Black