Automount ext4 partition with user permission/ownership (fstab?)

Question

1. I just installed Lubuntu 12.10 "Quantal Quetzal" on my Acer Aspire One D257, creating the partitions:

   $ df -h
   Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
   /dev/sda5        15G  2.1G   12G  15% /
   ...
   /dev/sda1      1008M   62M  896M   7% /boot
    /dev/sda6        15G  180M   14G   2% /home
   /dev/sda4       195G  188M  185G   1% /media/data
   

   (or see partitions.png:)

   

   (I know boot partitions were useful for old bios, but now they are also useful for encryption, LVM... (though differerent from a dedicated GRUB partition !))

2. I renamed the "data" partition (=sda4) flag/name (using utility Disks).

3. I have been trying for hours now to find a solution to:

   How to get my data partition (not my home partition!) to auto-mount at boot time somewhere (if possible in /media/data) with me (user = christophe) as owner and the permissions as rwxrwxr-x (=user:rwx, group:rwx, other:r-x)?

4. My problems are that every time I reboot:

   • /media/data is back under root ownership
   • /media/data is back under rwxr-xr-x permissions
   • /media/data content is back as just lost+found (!!!)
   • frequently, when trying options in /etc/fstab, I had "an error occurred while mounting /media/data" at boot time.

5. I tried mostly to edit my /etc/fstab file. Now it is:

   $ cat /etc/fstab
   # /etc/fstab: static file system information.
   #
   # Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
   # device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
   # that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
   #
   # <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
   # / was on /dev/sda5 during installation
   UUID=8325697c-2c27-49dd-99f8-2a1a3e1467be /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
   # /boot was on /dev/sda1 during installation
   UUID=3ba24cc6-e38b-48d9-b526-68358783d980 /boot           ext4    defaults        0       2
   # /home was on /dev/sda6 during installation
   UUID=1ef16ece-0965-4611-a2e5-dd687f4ee5ff /home           ext4    defaults        0       2
   # /media/data was on /dev/sda4 during installation
   # UUID=0598f54b-dcf8-4508-97de-94d9f2c5e2a8 /media/data   ext4    defaults        0       2
   UUID=0598f54b-dcf8-4508-97de-94d9f2c5e2a8 /media/data     ext4    rw,suid,dev,exec,auto,user,async,errors=remount-ro,relatime,uid=1000,gid=1000        0       2
   # swap was on /dev/sda2 during installation
   UUID=04f73159-479d-4a4b-a78c-37a406909225 none            swap    sw              0       0
   

6. In a way, I'd like my data partition to automount like my home partition.

7. I do not want a solution where I would have to chmod or chown or do something every time I (re)boot!

Thanks.

Solution 1

I think the key was to mount in either /mnt/data or /media/username/data (username = christophe in my case) !!! I don't know why it works, but it seems to do so...

Definition of "works" :

1. Get my data partition to auto-mount at boot time in location (media/christophe/data or /mnt/data) with user_name (= me = christophe) as owner. (Note: I have not dealt yet with the permissions (as rwxr--r-- (= user:rwx, group:r--, other:r--))).

2. Every time I reboot:

   • the owner of location is not root, but user_name (me, christophe)
   • the content of location content is not wiped-out, but is persistent
   • there is no "an error occurred while mounting ..." at boot time.
   • the solution is a one-time solution, not every-time

Solutions:

1. Solution in /mnt/.

   • Edit /etc/fstab (for example $ sudo nano /etc/fstab) and add the line:

     UUID=your_uuid_value  /mnt/data       ext4    defaults        0       2
     

   • Double check before rebooting:

     $ ls -l /mnt/
     total 0
     

   • Reboot

   • Double check after rebooting:

     $ ls -l /mnt/
     total 4
     drwxr--r-- 2 christophe christophe 4096 Dec 26 04:02 data
     $ ls -l /mnt/data/
     total 4
     -rw-rw-r-- 1 christophe christophe 6 Dec 26 04:07 1.txt
     

   • Conclusion: It does work BUT it does not appear as a media in file manager (nautilus, PCManFM, ...) [see file_manager.png]

2. Solution in /media/username:

   • In terminal:

     $ sudo mkdir -p /media/username/
     

     Or, in my case:

     $ sudo mkdir -p /media/christophe/
     

   • Double check before rebooting:

     $ ls -l /media/
     total 4
     drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Dec 26 04:25 christophe
     $ ls -l /media/christophe/
     total 0
     

   • Edit /etc/fstab (for example $ sudo nano /etc/fstab) and add the line:

     UUID=your_uuid_value  /media/christophe/data       ext4    defaults        0       2
     

   • Reboot

   • Double check after rebooting:

     $ ls -l /media/
     total 4
     drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Dec 26 04:25 christophe
     $ ls -l /media/christophe/
     total 4
     drwxr--r-- 2 christophe christophe 4096 Dec 26 04:31 data
     $ ls -l /media/christophe/data/
     total 4
     -rw-rw-r-- 1 christophe christophe 6 Dec 26 04:37 2.txt
     

   • Conclusion: It does work AND it does indeed appear as a media in file manager (nautilus, PCManFM, ...) [see file_manager.png]

Please feel free to add any comments, problems, or suggestions to this thread. I lost so many hours in that, I hope it will help others. In particular, I'd be curious to know why it works...

Cheers.

Solution 2

There are no uid options for ext[234]. If you want to change the permissions of the files, you have to use chown/chmod.

sudo chown -R myname.myname /media/data/

Comments

[Admin]

This appears different from the similar question flagged. First, it is a specific sub-case of the general question addressed in the linked question. Second, it is more easily findable via search by someone with a more limited knowledge of Linux/Ubuntu, making it more valuable, in that it addresses the particular use case likely to need this answer, instead of the actual method to be accomplished.

[Christophe]

See point 7 in question. That a solution that is not adapted to my needs.

[psusi]

@Christophe, the effect is permanent, not something you have to do repeatedly.

[Christophe]

I don't know why, but this wasn't/isn't the case for me, as I said in the question. Hopefully it is that simple for most people, but sadly it wasn't...

[psusi]

@Christophe, you need to do it while the partition is mounted, not before.

[Admin]

I tried the 2nd solution (/media/paolo/SDISO in my case) but I had to do chown paolo:paolo /media/paolo/SDISO while mounted, and one time only, as psusi said. Otherwise, after reboot and automount, I got my mountpoint owned by root, and ro for paolo. I hope this helps!