Is there a way to check to see if debian is looking in /etc/fstab upon boot?

[hungarianhc]

Hi there,

I'm using mgillespie's excellent pre-built debian squeeze, and I've had some fun playing with it. However, I can't get disks to automount with /etc/fstab, for some reason, and I don't see any error messages about it in dmesg.

For example, typing the following command:

Code:

mount -t ext2 /dev/sda1 /media/usb-disk

works just fine!

However, if I put the following line into /etc/fstab, it's not mounted upon bootup, but there are also no errors in dmesg.

Code:

/dev/sda1 /media/usb-disk ext2 defaults 0 0

I appreciate the help! Thanks!

[DamonHD]

There are apparently timing issues in that some media (mainly mag disc) may not actually be ready by the time fstab is read.  Could that be an issue for you?

Rgds

Damon

[hungarianhc]

There are apparently timing issues in that some media (mainly mag disc) may not actually be ready by the time fstab is read.  Could that be an issue for you?
Rgds
Damon

Well, that COULD be the issue. Only thing is that I'm guessing that if the media were not ready, I would still get an error message. It doesn't even seem to be looking in fstab, since I get no error message, and also the disk isn't mounted.... Very frustrating.

[DamonHD]

Have you tried a manual 'mount -a' when you get to some sort of shell prompt?  That will use fstab to decide what to mount and how.

Rgds

Damon

[hungarianhc]

Well,

this is odd...

Code:

mount -a

works like a charm.

So if that works, then why isn't it automounting? Hmmm not very happy about this.... Hopefully somebody knows knows the solution!

[knireis]

I had a similar thing, i think it might be because the sheevainstaller. After i used the 'official' debianinstaller, fstab worked fine.

[hungarianhc]

what is the official one? I only know of the sheevainstaller.... does the official one write to nand?

[knireis]

what is the official one? I only know of the sheevainstaller.... does the official one write to nand?

http://www.cyrius.com/debian/kirkwood/sheevaplug/

[hungarianhc]

Ah okay I have seen that one and looked at it. But i'm only interested in installing on the flash as of now...
[/quote]

http://www.cyrius.com/debian/kirkwood/sheevaplug/
[/quote]

[knireis]

Ah okay I have seen that one and looked at it. But i'm only interested in installing on the flash as of now...

http://www.cyrius.com/debian/kirkwood/sheevaplug/
[/quote]
[/quote]

ok, but why? a 2GB sd-card costs almost nothing and as pointed out a few times on this forum has only benefits.

[hungarianhc]

ok, but why? a 2GB sd-card costs almost nothing and as pointed out a few times on this forum has only benefits.

I've got an 8GB SD card so I'll go ahead and give it a shot now, but this is just because of the /etc/fstab issue. I'd much rather boot from the internal flash, which is extremely fast!

[knireis]

ok, but why? a 2GB sd-card costs almost nothing and as pointed out a few times on this forum has only benefits.

I've got an 8GB SD card so I'll go ahead and give it a shot now, but this is just because of the /etc/fstab issue. I'd much rather boot from the internal flash, which is extremely fast!

speed difference is minimal and how often do you restart a server? mine runs weeks without rebooting

[birdman]

I've got an 8GB SD card so I'll go ahead and give it a shot now, but this is just because of the /etc/fstab issue. I'd much rather boot from the internal flash, which is extremely fast!

FWIW - I've got a 16GB card, and boot (Ubuntu) from it.  From typing "reboot" to being able to login again takes 20s.  That's the same time that it took when I used NAND to boot.