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I am using Ubuntu Minimal + LXDE. I am wondering how can I auto-mount a partition (internal) on boot automatically. Currently I do something like

mount /dev/sda3 /media/works

But I want it to be permanent. Also I have GParted, but the Partition > UnMount is greyed out (yes, unmount, even though I haven't mounted it)

1
  • How does the mount command not have a flag to just persist the mount after a reboot? Incredible. Oct 19, 2021 at 22:30

4 Answers 4

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Unmount is greyed out because the partition isn't there to be unmounted. You haven't mounted it yet.

To make the partition auto-mount, first find out the UUID of /dev/sda3 by doing:

sudo blkid

I'll assume you're using ext4 on /dev/sda3. Open up gedit like so:

sudo -H gedit /etc/fstab

(Or, in the command line, sudo vim or sudo nano instead of gksudo gedit.)

Now you want to add a line to the bottom of that file. It should look something like this (UUID will be different):

UUID=03ec5dd3-45c0-4f95-a363-61ff321a09ff /media/works ext4 defaults  0      2

For more info on fstab, this is a good resource.

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  • I have to mount 2 partitions(sda5 and sda6). Both are ntfs. How can I do it ?
    – TomJ
    Jun 4, 2014 at 14:08
  • Is a reboot required?
    – jjxtra
    Aug 28, 2019 at 19:01
  • 1
    A reboot is not reqiured, you can use mount -a. Beware that depending on the filesystem type, this may mount it with different user or permissions than what you may need.
    – jjmontes
    Oct 31, 2019 at 14:50
  • This broke my Debian 11. Could'nt even boot in recovery mode. I had to boot with a Ubuntu USB stick in live mode, and restore the fstab file. which I had saved a copy of before making the changes.
    – BERA
    Dec 18, 2021 at 9:16
  • Did this on a Raspberry Pi, then upon reboot it tried to boot from the newly mounted drive. Didn't even boot after removing the drive. Thankfully this wasn't a laptop, I could just edit the fstab file by removing the SD card. I used auto for the fileystem and nodev,nofail options and now it works. Also the UUID for me is much shorter (8 chars)
    – Nicolas
    Mar 5, 2023 at 19:48
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Use Disks utility. Select the disk, then click Additional partition options icon. Choose Edit Mount Options from drop-down menu.

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  • 3
    This is definitely the simplest way with modern operating systems Aug 1, 2019 at 17:47
  • This saved me a lot of time, thank you. Mar 24, 2020 at 17:54
  • Amazing man! This is quite helpful. Apr 24, 2022 at 12:14
2

I'm using Ubuntu Server and I made the permanent mount as follows with a disk already formatted in ext4.

I have listed my disks and partitions with

sudo fdisk -l

After that, I listed the UUID of the partition I would like to mount permanently with the following command:

sudo blkid /dev/sda2

To mount the partition I created a target location with

sudo mkdir -p /home/files

then I rode with

sudo mount /dev/sda2 /home/files

We need to put the mounted partition in the /etc/fstab file Don't forget to make a backup first. run

sudo cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.bkp

To avoid breaking the file system you need to look at the structure that is already in /etc/fstab for the disks that are already automounted. In my case it is like this

sudo cat /etc/fstab

# / was on /dev/sdb3 during curtin installation
# device                                               dir type options  dump fsck
/dev/disk/by-uuid/866f0e5d-e590-450c-beff-507620a4afbd /   ext4 defaults 0     1

On the site Arch Linux Wiki it is presented what this structure means. Below is an excerpt:

  • <device> describes the block special device or remote file system to be mounted; see #Identifying file systems.
  • <dir> describes the mount directory.
  • <type> the file system type.
  • <options> the associated mount options; see mount(8) §FILESYSTEM-INDEPENDENT_MOUNT_OPTIONS and ext4(5) §MOUNT_OPTIONS.
  • <dump> is checked by the dump(8) utility. This field is usually set to 0, which disables the check.
  • <fsck> sets the order for file system checks at boot time; see fsck(8). For the root device it should be 1. For other partitions it should be 2, or 0 to disable checking.

Edit the /fstab file with

sudo vim /etc/fstab

or

sudo nano /etc/fstab

In the file I added the following line

/dev/disk/by-uuid/6d81205-fc60-44ce-9da2-3565aa /home/files ext4 defaults 0 2

Save the file at the end

You can test by restarting the machine

0

For Booting time mount. you have to provide only auto option. It will work , provide mount id, mount place in your folder, file type, auto, 0, 1.

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