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    Help me clean (and understand) my fstab

    I'm not a total newbie, but there are still some things that I'm not familiar with. One of them is fstab. For the past months, I've accumulated some modifications to fstab that I have forgotten why I added or what they do. So my fstab looks like a mess. I'm not even sure if they're the correct or default values. They just worked, and didn't bother trying to find out how/why. I'm wondering if some more experienced users could help me clean it up a bit, and probably understand it.

    Here's my fstab. I've added some comments to indicated what filesystem the partitions use and which ones I want to mount at startup.

    # /etc/fstab: static file system information.
    #
    # <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
    proc /proc proc defaults 0 0

    # / (root) and swap partitions
    /dev/hdb1 / ext3 nouser,defaults,errors=remount-ro,atime,auto,rw,dev,exec,suid 0 1
    /dev/hdb2 none swap sw 0 0

    # Windowx XP (NTFS)
    /dev/hda1 /media/hda1 ntfs defaults,nls=utf8,umask=007,uid=0,gid=46,auto,ro,u ser 0 1

    # FAT32 shared partition
    # needs to be mounted at startup and files belong to me
    /dev/hda3 /media/idagurl vfat defaults,utf8,umask=007,uid=1000,gid=1000,auto,rw, owner 0 1

    # /home partition
    /dev/hdb3 /home ext3 nouser,defaults,atime,auto,rw,dev,exec,suid 0 2

    # hdb4 is an extended partition containing hdb5 and hdb6

    # extra partition (for other distros)
    /dev/hdb5 /media/other ext3 user,defaults,atime,auto,rw,dev,exec,suid 0 2

    # FAT32 shared partition
    # needs to be mounted at startup and files belong to me
    /dev/hdb6 /media/shared vfat defaults,utf8,umask=007,uid=1000,gid=1000,auto,rw, owner 0 1

    #CD-RW
    /dev/hdc /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,atime,noauto,rw,dev,exec,suid 0 0

    #CD-ROM
    /dev/hdd /media/cdrom1 udf,iso9660 user,atime,noauto,rw,dev,exec,suid 0 0
    Thanks for anyone who would have the patience and time for this.
    Jucato&#39;s Data Core

    #2
    Re: Help me clean (and understand) my fstab

    Well - If It's Not Broken, Don't Fix It ! :P

    I noticed that you have fsck order = 1 for ntfs and fat. I think this is wrong. Shouldn't it be 0 (never)

    More: (maybe these are familiar to you ?)

    How to edit and understand /etc/fstab
    http://www.tuxfiles.org/linuxhelp/fstab.html

    /etc/fstab demystified
    http://linuxhelp.blogspot.com/2006/0...mystified.html

    Fstab (wiki)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fstab
    Before you edit, BACKUP !

    Why there are dead links ?
    1. Thread: Please explain how to access old kubuntu forum posts
    2. Thread: Lost Information

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Help me clean (and understand) my fstab

      thanks! I'll try reading up on those. fstab has been one thing that I've been "afraid" of. So I'm trying to learn as much as I can.
      Jucato&#39;s Data Core

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Help me clean (and understand) my fstab

        Yeah, I wouldn't fsck NTFS or FAT32. NFTS is probably impossible, and FAT ill advised IMHO.

        I'd also swap the 'atime' option for 'noatime' unless you really, really need to know the last time a file was accessed, (that's read, not altered or written) it can speed up access times, esspecially if you have a local .maildir with lots of email in it or similar.

        Some partitions can be mounted with 'noexec' set too, if you don't need to be able to run files contained in them. This is an added security measure as it can make it harder for a user to 'inadvertantly' run things they have downloaded (viruses etc), and make it harder for people who wish to do this on purpose too. My /tmp /data (shared storage) and /backup are mounted this way.

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Help me clean (and understand) my fstab

          There would not be a ez'er way to fix my fstab like delete the file and issue a command on the command line for it to recreate the file based on my current set up would there be? I Gost my hdb kubuntu-edgy from hdb to hda2 and it complains that the fstab has some errors. I have my xp on hda1 and my kubuntu on hda2 and my freespire on hda4. Im sure a swap partition is on 3 or something and freespire I dont think uses a partition it uses a file like xp does. I can boot fine it just gives me errors when I update grub. I heard of kfstab but there is no file in adept manager to install it. anyway thanks for any ideals.

          joey

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Help me clean (and understand) my fstab

            I know 3 guis for fstab:

            As you wrote: Kfstab
            http://kfstab.sourceforge.net/

            source

            Trying to install:
            configure: error: Qt (>= Qt 3.0.1) (headers and libraries) not found. Please check your installation!
            Yup - something is missing. Didn't try to solve it. I shoud have qt development packages (i think i have them already, but maybe not > )...


            FSTabEditor
            http://www.kde-apps.org/content/show.php?content=15351
            Description:
            FSTabEdit is a control center module to edit your fstab.
            It is very basic, but easy to use as well.
            source

            Installs but does nothing (?). As said in the FSTabEditor page

            I have the same problem - this does not show up in my Control Center, and running it manually with "kcmshell fstabedit" generates an error:

            kcmshell: WARNING: Could not find module 'fstabedit'.
            Kouvert
            http://www.kde-apps.org/content/show.php?content=15185
            Description:
            Kouvert is a graphical fstab file editor. It can manage a variety of filesystems with explicits options
            python

            There is no INSTALL file because there is no install process, all work in the same directory.
            Just call './kouvert'.
            You can also run 'python kouvert.py' if you are in a root session.
            sudo python kouvert.py seems to work.
            Before you edit, BACKUP !

            Why there are dead links ?
            1. Thread: Please explain how to access old kubuntu forum posts
            2. Thread: Lost Information

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Help me clean (and understand) my fstab

              ok i'll give kouvert a try

              Comment

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