Let us say I have a disk located at /dev/sdb1 and I want to mount it.
Almost all distro's have a mount point called /mnt
/mnt is simply an empty directory. You create you own mount points, simply by creating directories.
Now to mount the disk, the easiest way is by the device path. This is great if you're only temporarily mounting a disk for a short time.
The only problem is, next time you reboot, the disk won't be mounted. So how do we make this more permanent?
You edit the /etc/fstab file.
Before
After
Notice I have a new line at the bottom of my fstab file. This is the quick and dirty way to do this, but it has some disadvantages.
First if my USB drive with /dev/sdb1 is missing, now my system won't reboot, I'll have to login in emergency mode and fix my fstab.
Also, if I put another USB in, the letters can move around, drive one might be sda, but drive two is is sdb, even if I remove
drive one, it will remain sdb until I reboot, then it will go back to being sda.... * sigh * too much to remember.
So one way to get around this is, to use the block ID instead of the devie path.
Now I would this line to the bottom of my /etc/fstab file.
Now it doesn't matter if my USB stick is in slot one or slow 2, or is sda. or sdb, or even sdc. Now
the OS will find it by the block id.
There is yet a third way to do this. Add this line to your /etc/fstab file.
And run this command on the disk you want to mount.
Don't forget to create your mount point.
That will "label" that disk partition as DATA.
Now when you reboot the system, it doesn't matter if the disk is at sda, sdc, sdf, or whatever. Also, because of the "nofail"
option, the computer will boot even if the disk is missing. Make sure you only have one disk labeled as DATA.
But of course you can have several disks labeled differently and have a label based mount point for them.
So we have path based mounts,
UUID based mounts,
and label based mounts.
How to unmount a disk?
or
Note that with label based mounts, you still use the mount point to mount and unmount.
Almost all distro's have a mount point called /mnt
/mnt is simply an empty directory. You create you own mount points, simply by creating directories.
Code:
mkdir /mnt2Now to mount the disk, the easiest way is by the device path. This is great if you're only temporarily mounting a disk for a short time.
Code:
mount /dev/sdb1 /mntThe only problem is, next time you reboot, the disk won't be mounted. So how do we make this more permanent?
You edit the /etc/fstab file.
Before
Code:
# /etc/fstab
# Created by anaconda on Tue Oct 29 17:21:01 2024
#
# Accessible filesystems, by reference, are maintained under '/dev/disk/'.
# See man pages fstab(5), findfs(8), mount(8) and/or blkid(8) for more info.
#
# After editing this file, run 'systemctl daemon-reload' to update systemd
# units generated from this file.
#
UUID=1d4948ad-1029-4d1f-9692-d5cbaf206a6d / xfs defaults 0 0
UUID=a82b9479-3944-461e-95d7-1128ddaaebc9 /boot xfs defaults 0 0
UUID=979C-4DC8 /boot/efi vfat umask=0077,shortname=winnt 0 2
UUID=f41546e4-5afe-4648-ae12-53b29edf0ba4 /home xfs defaults 0 0
UUID=7a1b35db-077e-4631-b877-2d31addf48ef /var xfs defaults 0 0
UUID=fc45c653-912e-4ba8-83b4-6c695ab69f1c none swap defaults 0 0After
Code:
# /etc/fstab
# Created by anaconda on Tue Oct 29 17:21:01 2024
#
# Accessible filesystems, by reference, are maintained under '/dev/disk/'.
# See man pages fstab(5), findfs(8), mount(8) and/or blkid(8) for more info.
#
# After editing this file, run 'systemctl daemon-reload' to update systemd
# units generated from this file.
#
UUID=1d4948ad-1029-4d1f-9692-d5cbaf206a6d / xfs defaults 0 0
UUID=a82b9479-3944-461e-95d7-1128ddaaebc9 /boot xfs defaults 0 0
UUID=979C-4DC8 /boot/efi vfat umask=0077,shortname=winnt 0 2
UUID=f41546e4-5afe-4648-ae12-53b29edf0ba4 /home xfs defaults 0 0
UUID=7a1b35db-077e-4631-b877-2d31addf48ef /var xfs defaults 0 0
UUID=fc45c653-912e-4ba8-83b4-6c695ab69f1c none swap defaults 0 0
/dev/sdb1 /mnt exfat defaults 0 0Notice I have a new line at the bottom of my fstab file. This is the quick and dirty way to do this, but it has some disadvantages.
First if my USB drive with /dev/sdb1 is missing, now my system won't reboot, I'll have to login in emergency mode and fix my fstab.
Also, if I put another USB in, the letters can move around, drive one might be sda, but drive two is is sdb, even if I remove
drive one, it will remain sdb until I reboot, then it will go back to being sda.... * sigh * too much to remember.
So one way to get around this is, to use the block ID instead of the devie path.
Code:
blkid /dev/sda2
/dev/sda2: UUID="ff67396f-0b29-45ec-aa46-ccce1dd3537b" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="6fed2b33-1fcd-42b1-8bb3-78cd63aa3783"Now I would this line to the bottom of my /etc/fstab file.
Code:
UUID="ff67396f-0b29-45ec-aa46-ccce1dd3537b" /mnt exfat defaults 0 0Now it doesn't matter if my USB stick is in slot one or slow 2, or is sda. or sdb, or even sdc. Now
the OS will find it by the block id.
There is yet a third way to do this. Add this line to your /etc/fstab file.
Code:
LABEL=DATA /data/ auto nosuid,nodev,nofail,x-gvfs-show 0 0And run this command on the disk you want to mount.
Code:
e2label /dev/sdb2 DATADon't forget to create your mount point.
Code:
mkdir /dataThat will "label" that disk partition as DATA.
Now when you reboot the system, it doesn't matter if the disk is at sda, sdc, sdf, or whatever. Also, because of the "nofail"
option, the computer will boot even if the disk is missing. Make sure you only have one disk labeled as DATA.
But of course you can have several disks labeled differently and have a label based mount point for them.
So we have path based mounts,
UUID based mounts,
and label based mounts.
How to unmount a disk?
Code:
/umount /mntor
Code:
umount /dataNote that with label based mounts, you still use the mount point to mount and unmount.
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