fstab in 3 operating systems

[Arran]

Hello

I am using at present 3 Operating systems. Kubuntu 14.04, Kubuntu 18.04 and Kubuntu 19.04. The two latter ones are not yet ready to become my standard work horse.

However I have created an «fstab» (19.04) to mount my 9 Data partitions at start, so they are ready when the Human becomes ready.

I now would like to copy the content with the 9 partitions into the present «fstab» in the 2 other OS.

I tried to use Kate by opening the original and then copy the part with the 9 partitions and save it again. This did not work. I did the same with Krusader (ROOT), but this did neither work, the fstabs have not accepted the changes.

Now, I am a loss and would like to get some practical step for step help how to do this with the console. Or any other way which works.

To show you the 3 fstabs, I have made 3 pics.

[oshunluvr]

You don't say why this didn't work (error messages? password not working?).

Regardless, there are a couple ways to do this.

The only reason Kate would have failed I can think of is you had 14.04 and 18.04 mounted as read-only. Otherwise, Kate would have asked you for the root password and allowed you to save the edits. You should be able to open all three fstab files in a single Kate session and edit and save them.

The command line way would be;
Boot to 19.04.
Mount 14.04 and 18.04 root partions somewhere.
Open fstab from 19.04 with kate or kwrite.
Highlight and Copy the desired parts of fstab (I assume 9 lines of mounts).
Open a terminal run the nano editor as root: sudo nano <where you mounted 14.04>/etc/fstab
Move the cursor to the bottom of fstab and paste the entries (Shift-Insert pastes in nano).
Save and exit nano (CTRL-x, y).
Repeat for 18.04.

Note that fstab files require a single blank line (trailing carriage return) at the end of the file. Also, a type in fstab can prevent your system from booting so take your time and use caution.

[Arran]

Hello and a great thank you.

1) no error messages, just not accepted.

2) how can I check how I mounted as read-only? If possible, I prefer the gui version.

[oshunluvr]

How are you mounting them?

The easiest way to tell what mount options are used is to open a terminal and type "mount"

[jlittle]

The fstab entries in the 19.04 file have a problem IMO. You've used "/media/arran", the directory used for removable media. That directory doesn't normally exist at boot time, it's created by the udev subsystem when it's needed.

For fstab mounts the usual directory is /mnt, and the mount points should exist; you can create them with sudo mkdir.

BTW, since you've put nice labels on the file systems, you could use "LABEL=" instead of "UUID=" in the fstab entries, to make them more readable.

Regards, John Little

[jlittle]

The 19.04 entry for dots_and_scribbl is not complete. I'm not sure if this is related to your original problem, but it supports my point about readability. I format my fstab files so that they're a table with the columns lining up, and some errors are easily spotted.

Regards, John Little

[Snowhog]

The 19.04 entry for dots_and_scribbl is not complete.

It's missing the "ext4 nofail,users,rw,noatime,dev 0 2" that follows after "media/arran/dots-and-scribbl". It should look like this:

UUID=f341e5ae-6476-4b08-9680-a5ff5f7a6ebc   media/arran/dots-and-scribbl   ext4  nofail,users,rw,noatime,dev  0  2

(assuming that partition is ext4)

[Arran]

The fstab entries in the 19.04 file have a problem IMO. You've used "/media/arran", the directory used for removable media. That directory doesn't normally exist at boot time, it's created by the udev subsystem when it's needed.

For fstab mounts the usual directory is /mnt, and the mount points should exist; you can create them with sudo mkdir.

BTW, since you've put nice labels on the file systems, you could use "LABEL=" instead of "UUID=" in the fstab entries, to make them more readable.

Regards, John Little

I do use this system to mount directly via /media/arran without any problems since 2014. The big change came this time as I have reorganised all my hard disks and partitions. At the same time changed from NTFS to ext4.
This system does also work perfectly with the 19.04, but I do need it at present also for the 14.04 and 18.04. Once the two newer OS run to my satisfaction, I will bury my faithful 14.04 with all possible honours.

To your second remark: I did have it similar to your suggestion but decided to keep the longer way until all works.

[Arran]

To jllittle and Snowhog:

Thanks for seeing the error. It is now corrected.

[jlittle]

Thinking about your original problem, I suggest:

1. Boot into the OS that you want to change.
2. Use dolphin to navigate to the 19.04 /etc, perhaps by clicking on kubu-1904 in the places panel, and open the fstab. You might have to right-click to choose a suitable "open with" option. Any app that lets you see the contents will do.
3. Select the lines you want to copy.
4. In a konsole, type EDITOR=kate sudoedit /etc/fstab. It might ask you for your password. Use another editor instead of kate if you prefer; nano is a simple text-mode editor that is always there.
5. Paste the text. If ctrl-v doesn't work, ctrl-shift-v or middle-click might. Check the results.
6. Save and exit.

Using sudoedit in a konsole has a good chance of showing you what goes wrong if it doesn't work.

[Arran]

Hello

Just wait a week, do not bother and a miracle happens. Since 3 days now the fstab runs smoothly. Thanks many time for your patient and your help.