USB drive - Kate needs editing methinks.

[DavidNW]

Hi, all.

Just having a little trouble in getting my USB drive to stay 'useable' in Ubuntu (KDE ). I can set a mount point for it in disk management (see screenshots for information) - it is then fully accessible. I have full read and write permissions as you can see.

However, if I power the PC off or reboot - I lose the access to the drive. I'm certain that this is due to the fact that my etc/fstab file has no line relating to the said drive.

I have tinkered around with the file to try to edit it, but no luck. Does anyone know how to edit the file please.

Here's Kate's output for further information:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/hdb1 / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
/dev/hdb5 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/hdc /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0


Cheers,

David.

 

[Addis]

What problem do you have with Kate?

 

[DavidNW]

Hi, Addis.

Well, basically, I think I need to put the appropriate line relating to where my USB drive is mounted in Kate so that it can 'store' the information that facilitates permanent access to the drive.

I have just posted a reply to someone on a Ubuntu forum that would perhaps better explain things. Basically, it's only the KDE desktop that will not allow access to the USB drive. If I switch the desktop to GNOME (I'm still in Ubuntu, remember), access to the drive is no problem - nor is it when I boot over to Mandriva!

Anyway, here's a copy & paste of the reply I have just sent to a guy on the Ubuntu forum. It just seems weird to me that just a change of desktop - not to mention, a distro, can mean the difference between having access to the drive or not.

................................................................................................................................

This is the output from sudo fdisk -l :

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 764 6136798+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 765 4998 34009605 5 Extended
/dev/hda5 765 904 1124518+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hda6 905 4998 32885023+ 83 Linux

Disk /dev/hdb: 80.0 GB, 80000000000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9726 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdb1 * 1 9538 76613953+ 83 Linux
/dev/hdb2 9539 9726 1510110 5 Extended
/dev/hdb5 9539 9726 1510078+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sda: 40.0 GB, 40007761920 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4864 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda2 * 2 4864 39062047+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 2 4864 39062016 7 HPFS/NTFS
[root@localhost david]#

.................................................. ......................

The last line in etc/fstab is the code you gave me:

/dev/sda5 /media/sda5 vfat iocharset=utf8,umask=000 0 0

This is really weird. I have just booted over into Mandriva and the output via Kate is completely different from the Kate output in Unbuntu! Here it is:

# This file is edited by fstab-sync - see 'man fstab-sync' for details
/dev/hda1 / ext3 defaults 1 1
/dev/hda6 /home ext3 defaults 1 2
/dev/hdc /mnt/cdrom auto umask=0,user,iocharset=iso8859-15,codepage=850,noauto,ro,exec,users 0 0
/dev/hdd /mnt/cdrom2 auto umask=0,user,iocharset=iso8859-15,codepage=850,noauto,ro,exec,users 0 0
none /mnt/floppy supermount dev=/dev/fd0,fs=ext2:vfat,--,umask=0,iocharset=iso8859-15,sync,codepage=850 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/hda5 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/hdb5 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/sda5 /mnt/removable ext3 pamconsole,exec,noauto,managed 0 0
.................................................. ..................

I can fully access the USB drive here (I'm in Mandriva now), and I can fully access it in Ubuntu if I use the GNOME desktop - but not if I use KDE 3.4 I'm at a loss to understand why that should be.

I suppose I should not complain, as it's only KDE that won't allow access for some strange reason.

Thanks very much for your help.

David

 

[DavidNW]

Well, I finally did it. I added a line to my etc/fstab file which now gives me permanent read & write access to my USB drive!

I could gain temporary access to the drive by mounting a path for the device in Ubuntu's 'disk management'. However, everytime I powered off the PC or re-booted, I would not be able to access the drive again. I guess it's now 'saved' in etc/fstab, hence why now, it automatically mounts itself.

As a complete newbie, it's nice when you work things out for yourself and sometimes it's a great way to learn. Please see attached screenshot for the bottom line I added that did the trick! :spin: