/etc/fstab under linux (RH9.0)

Okay, this is weird. I'm trying to get an fstab entry for my handy
JumpDrive pocket memory thingie. I've added lines to the /etc/fstab
several times; after some minutes, not only does the line disappear,
but the /mnt/jumpdrive *mount point* disappears.

I have to admit I'm stumped: not only does this not work this way on
other Unices I've used, but the fstab(5) man page explicitly says that
programs *only* read /etc/fstab, and never write to it.

Here's the fstab as I've got it right now:

# Modifed FSTAB 2003/8/4 -- as noted, plus made the columns make sense
# for an 80-column terminal window.
#
LABEL=/ / ext3 defaults 1 1
LABEL=/boot /boot ext3 defaults 1 2
none /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
/dev/hda2 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom udf,iso9660 noauto,owner,kudzu,ro 0 0
/dev/cdrom1 /mnt/cdrom1 udf,iso9660 noauto,owner,kudzu,ro 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto,owner,kudzu 0 0
/dev/sda1 /mnt/jumpdrive auto noauto,user 0 0
# File must end with a newline!

Questions:

(1) is this a bug or a feature I haven't tracked down yet?
(2) how do you *make* a persistent change to your fstab if it's a
"feature"?

Thanks.

Charlie Martin wrote:
> Okay, this is weird. I'm trying to get an fstab entry for my handy
> JumpDrive pocket memory thingie. I've added lines to the /etc/fstab
> several times; after some minutes, not only does the line disappear,
> but the /mnt/jumpdrive *mount point* disappears.
>
> I have to admit I'm stumped: not only does this not work this way on
> other Unices I've used, but the fstab(5) man page explicitly says that
> programs *only* read /etc/fstab, and never write to it.
>
> Here's the fstab as I've got it right now:
>
> # Modifed FSTAB 2003/8/4 -- as noted, plus made the columns make sense
> # for an 80-column terminal window.
> #
> LABEL=/ / ext3 defaults 1 1
> LABEL=/boot /boot ext3 defaults 1 2
> none /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
> none /proc proc defaults 0 0
> none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
> /dev/hda2 swap swap defaults 0 0
> /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom udf,iso9660 noauto,owner,kudzu,ro 0 0
> /dev/cdrom1 /mnt/cdrom1 udf,iso9660 noauto,owner,kudzu,ro 0 0
> /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto,owner,kudzu 0 0
> /dev/sda1 /mnt/jumpdrive auto noauto,user 0 0
> # File must end with a newline!
>
> Questions:
>
> (1) is this a bug or a feature I haven't tracked down yet?
> (2) how do you *make* a persistent change to your fstab if it's a
> "feature"?
>
> Thanks.

I believe the "kudzu" daemon does that -- when you install a removeable
device such as a digital camera, kudzu detects it and creates a fstab
entry for that device as well as a directory under /mnt.

Do you have anything in the /etc/fstab.REVOKE file?


-SIGHUP-

Charlie Martin wrote:
> SIGHUP <sighupx@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:<mHKdneIYWpe9lq2iXTWJhQ@dsli.com>...
>
>>Charlie Martin wrote:
>>
>>>Okay, this is weird. I'm trying to get an fstab entry for my handy
>>>JumpDrive pocket memory thingie. I've added lines to the /etc/fstab
>>>several times; after some minutes, not only does the line disappear,
>>>but the /mnt/jumpdrive *mount point* disappears.
>>>
>>>I have to admit I'm stumped: not only does this not work this way on
>>>other Unices I've used, but the fstab(5) man page explicitly says that
>>>programs *only* read /etc/fstab, and never write to it.
>>>
>>>Here's the fstab as I've got it right now:
>>>
>
>
>>>/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto,owner,kudzu 0 0
>>>/dev/sda1 /mnt/jumpdrive auto noauto,user 0 0
>
>
>>I believe the "kudzu" daemon does that -- when you install a removeable
>>device such as a digital camera, kudzu detects it and creates a fstab
>>entry for that device as well as a directory under /mnt.
>
>
> Good pickup. As you'll notice, I'd removed kudzu from the fstab line
> (well, you don't know I'd removed it, but it's not there) as the last
> thing before posting, and by damn, the line is still there this
> morning.
>
> Now -- you wouldn't happen to know how to set up kudzu to detect and
> automount a jumpdrive, wouldja? :-)
>
> Thanks for the help.

Have you tried manually deleting the entire jumpdrive line from your
/etc/fstab file and deleting the /mnt/device directory?

On my RH9 computer, the removable devices are not listed on the
/etc/fstab file; however, they get automatically added to the fstab file
by kudzu when I turn on the device, and a /mnt/device directory gets
automatically created. Then, when I turn off the device, kudzu
automagically removes the fstab entry as well as the /mnt/device directory.

I believe that is the way it is supposed to work. Give it a try and let
us know. As always, make sure to backup your /etc/fstab file and the
/mnt/device_name directory before farting with your system ;-)

J. Padron
---

Jorge Padron <padrong@bellsouth.net> wrote in message news:<yJhYa.3332$ta2.2326@fe05.atl2.webusenet.com> ...
> Charlie Martin wrote:
> > SIGHUP <sighupx@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:<mHKdneIYWpe9lq2iXTWJhQ@dsli.com>...
> >
> >>Charlie Martin wrote:
> >>
> >>>Okay, this is weird. I'm trying to get an fstab entry for my handy
> >>>JumpDrive pocket memory thingie. I've added lines to the /etc/fstab
> >>>several times; after some minutes, not only does the line disappear,
> >>>but the /mnt/jumpdrive *mount point* disappears.
> >>>
> >>>I have to admit I'm stumped: not only does this not work this way on
> >>>other Unices I've used, but the fstab(5) man page explicitly says that
> >>>programs *only* read /etc/fstab, and never write to it.
> >>>
> >>>Here's the fstab as I've got it right now:
> >>>
> >
> >
> >>>/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto,owner,kudzu 0 0
> >>>/dev/sda1 /mnt/jumpdrive auto noauto,user 0 0
> >
> >
> >>I believe the "kudzu" daemon does that -- when you install a removeable
> >>device such as a digital camera, kudzu detects it and creates a fstab
> >>entry for that device as well as a directory under /mnt.
> >
> >
> > Good pickup. As you'll notice, I'd removed kudzu from the fstab line
> > (well, you don't know I'd removed it, but it's not there) as the last
> > thing before posting, and by damn, the line is still there this
> > morning.
> >
> > Now -- you wouldn't happen to know how to set up kudzu to detect and
> > automount a jumpdrive, wouldja? :-)
> >
> > Thanks for the help.
>
> Have you tried manually deleting the entire jumpdrive line from your
> /etc/fstab file and deleting the /mnt/device directory?
>
> On my RH9 computer, the removable devices are not listed on the
> /etc/fstab file; however, they get automatically added to the fstab file
> by kudzu when I turn on the device, and a /mnt/device directory gets
> automatically created. Then, when I turn off the device, kudzu
> automagically removes the fstab entry as well as the /mnt/device directory.
>
> I believe that is the way it is supposed to work. Give it a try and let
> us know. As always, make sure to backup your /etc/fstab file and the
> /mnt/device_name directory before farting with your system ;-)

Thanks foir the note. Yes, I think we're indeed onto something here.
I had tried letting itautomount to start with, and nothing happened.
(At least, I tried it by accident -- I had the jumpdrive in the slot
for a while before I sorted out that I had kernel support enabled and
so on.)

But then, how would kudzu know what to do with it. My Highly Trained
Programmer Intuition suggests there must be a kudzu.conf or something
similar... I'll go off and look, but feel free to give me hints :-)