Coming from other computer platforms like Windows and OSX, it seems odd that local disks do not mount automatically on Linux Ubuntu 14.04. This procedure is usually called automount. Sure there’s the distinction between partitions and volumes and all that, but it still seems rather odd to me.
Under Linux, the tried and true method of setting a volume/partion/disk to automount is to modify the /etc/fstab file and fill it in with the appropriate details. For most desktop users, and certainly those coming from other platforms, this is a way scary. It’s easy to imagine the file system being buggered by some bad entries. Me, I’m not scared but just really annoyed.
Fortunately there is a GUI app, called ‘Disks’, which may be used to interface with this file. Unfortunately there is currently a bug which will cause havoc if you set the /etc/fstab file using this tool. Here’s the video on a current workaround:
The bug has to do with the ‘Show in user interface‘ setting in the Automatic Mount Options. If you want your volume (disk) to show up in the user interface, the x-gfvs-show option must be set, which the GUI attempts to do. Unfortunately it should set the option as comment=x-gfvs-show, it actually sets it as x-gfvs-show. If the option does not contain the comment= part, when the machine boots it will stop during loading with a cryptic error message. The workaround is to add the comment= into the unlabeled option line in the Disks->Mount Options dialog box.
I’m sure there are a lot of fine points which I’m missing, but I’ll say part of my life was stolen when I tried to figure out what the screw was wrong when I went encountered this issue.
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