Partition manager and /etc/fstab

[pwabrahams]

I'm looking for a program that will create entries in /etc/fstab for existing partitions. It's easy to create such entries during installation, but how can I do it after my system is installed? I tried using partitionmanager from within an existing partition, but all the actions are greyed out. I'd prefer not to do it by editing /etc/fstab explicitly.

In fact, that raises another curious issue: of what use is the partitionmanager utility if it can't do anything? I know it's possible to use gparted externally, but that's not what I'm looking for.

[ubuntuku]

Re: Partition manager and /etc/fstab

sudo apt-get install pysdm

[kubicle]

Re: Partition manager and /etc/fstab

In fact, that raises another curious issue: of what use is the partitionmanager utility if it can't do anything? I know it's possible to use gparted externally, but that's not what I'm looking for.

You can't change mounted partitions/filesystems, which sort of rules out modifying some partitions when you're running the system from those partitions (you can't unmount the root partition while the system is running from it, for example). Partition managers can be used to modify partitions that can be unmounted at runtime. To modify other partitions, you need to run it "externally" like with a livecd.

I'm looking for a program that will create entries in /etc/fstab for existing partitions.

That should be possible with partitionmanager 1.1 (though I don't think that's available through kubuntu repositories yet, might be available from a ppa). There is also mountmanager (available at least on natty repos, not sure about maverick), that should allow modifying fstab (haven't tried it though, I prefer the manual way...so I have only myself to blame if something goes wrong). Modifying fstab is possible from a running system, but one obviously has to be very careful when changing mountpoints of system partitions.

[pwabrahams]

nfs and cifs entries for fstab

Yes, pysdm does the job very nicely -- thanks for pointing it out to me.

But now I'm wondering: is there anything around that will create fstab entries for nfs and cifs mounts? Or do those still have to be done by explicitly editing fstab? OpenSuse has something for doing this, as does (ugh) Windows, so it's not an unreasonable expectation.