Drive Mounting Questions

[advice1010]

MX Linux 23.3 XFCE

I have some drive mounting questions if anyone is interested.

Rather than modifying fstab directly, I was looking for an easier GUI based way to automount drives and I saw that MX provides Disk Manager.
I just discovered that you use the check boxes in the "Enable" column to do so, which is convenient.

1.) Automount Using GParted
I plan on just using MX Disk Manager but I also saw some people mentioning that this can be done in GParted, I was wondering if this was true, I didn't see a way to do this in that application.

2.) Automount At Boot
(When using MX Disk Manager or GParted if question above is possible)
I think I read this about USB drives specifically but was wondering, if you have a drive set to automount and for whatever reason that drive is disconnected / removed from system, does this cause issues when booting?

3.) Mounting Location
I know drives & media mount by default in “media” or “mnt” folders.
It is said that you can mount a drive anywhere in Linux because “everything is a file”
However I remember hearing / reading a couple Linux users in the past mention that mounting drives should be done in these default locations and that it is not a good idea / not safe / can cause issues / not good practice / etc.
I was wondering if there is any truth to any of these kind of statements, is it okay to mount a drive anywhere if desired.
Probably not something I will do but was just curious if I ever decide to have a need for this in the future.

4.) Not important but was just curious.
Usually MX puts a "MX " prefix in front of all their tool names, why not this one? Was it just because easier search in things like Whisker Menu?

Thank you to anyone who reads this and for any info shared

[nosoynadie]

3.) Mounting Location

Any directory can be mounted in any directory, but in some places it can be confusing or problematic.
The system automatically mounts external devices (e.g. USB flash drives) in /media
Users usually manually mount these devices in /mnt

But, for example, if you have a USB stick with music on it, it's okay to mount it in a subdirectory of /home/$USER/Music
But these mounts should be done in empty directories; if they are not empty, their original content is hidden. In system directories that's a problem!
There are other issues to consider, permissions... the topic is worth writing a book.

I apologize for my bad English

[advice1010]

I have added a new question to my original post if anyone is interested
Question 5

Thank you for your response.
Question 3
I wonder what kind of issues would be caused if drives were mounted in non typical locations.
I didn't really think about permissions that is a good one to consider.
What you mentioned is similar to what I thought as well.
I thought USB based media was mounted to ~/media and that actual internal drives got mounted to ~/mnt
However, Thunar mounts internal drives to ~/media/<username>/<drivename>
and MX Disk Manager mounts them to ~/media/<drivename>
Anyways thank you again

[fehlix]

I have added a new question to my original post if anyone is interested
Question 5

Don't do that. Open a new topic, with details, like QSI, and involved conf -settings like /etc/fstab.
and perhaps provide partition list like

Code: Select all

lsblk -f

And explain in detail what you have done.

I thought USB based media was mounted to ~/media and that actual internal drives got mounted to ~/mnt

Not sure what you are talking about. None of this is something, I am aware of. Kind of gibberish to me.

[nosoynadie]

I don't use xfce but

1.) Automount Using GParted
I plan on just using MX Disk Manager but I also saw some people mentioning that this can be done in GParted, I was wondering if this was true, I didn't see a way to do this in that application.

As far as I know, gparted does not manage automout. you "should" be able to mount and unmount

2.) Automount At Boot
(When using MX Disk Manager or GParted if question above is possible)
I think I read this about USB drives specifically but was wondering, if you have a drive set to automount and for whatever reason that drive is disconnected / removed from system, does this cause issues when booting?

Do it, If you have backup, who said fear?
If there is nothing important on the USB for the operation of the system... it will try to mount it, it will tell you that I cannot do it and it will continue with the boot

[advice1010]

@fehlix
Thank you for your response.
I know I agree, I do not like adding questions like this but again have been told in past by others to keep similar questions in the same post.
Typically when I do this my posts get confusing and stop getting answers right after more questions are added, so I would rather not have to do this either, but do not want to be threatened with warnings or have my posts locked.
No worries though, I figured it out and removed that extra question from my original post.
About the USB media, I know fehlix, I didn't make up the "gibberish" I am just repeating some of the "gibberish" I have heard while looking things up :)
I don't want to post a bunch of links but I have read that "media" folder is for "removable media device such as a USB thumb drive, CD, or DVD"
I have seen others mention that "mnt" is for "temporary mounting filesystems" "mounting Windows partitions" "mounting Windows partitions temporarily" "internal drives" etc.
I am not saying any of this is right, to me it is all "gibberish" that is why I am here asking these questions :)
Thank you again for your response

@nosoynadie
Good question.... who did say fear?
Again same thing as above I just heard someone mention that they setup a USB external drive to automount and that when that drive was not connected, it caused them issues at boot. I do not know for sure obviously but I would not think someone would have information on a USB external drive that would be needed for system to boot, but it is possible I guess.
Thank You

If anyone has anything else to share about the questions asked please let me know.

[fehlix]

Read again what your wrote:

I thought USB based media was mounted to ~/media and that actual internal drives got mounted to ~/mnt

The tilda "~" stands for users home. So you sentence makes no sense to me.
Otherwise yes, strongly recommend to use /mnt for internal mounts in fstab
and /media/[user-name] use for GIO-mounts e.g. when mounting with thunar
Other users like to mount on /media/drive-name for internal mounts b/c they think that's
the only way the can see the mounts within Thunar (which was true until we adjusted disk-manger
to make those visible)
When using disk manager, mounts made onto /mnt/mount-point-name
are made such that they also visible within Thunar filemanager.
The issue with /media/drive-name or /media/username/device-name,
is about that another udisk-daemon monitors those mounts, and they get removed, when user unmounts in thunar.
But using /media in fstab would not clean the mountpoint, and you quickly endup with leftover mountpoints
creating other issue, like when you manual mount again your mountpoint suddently was renamed with an addtional number at the end. Lot of confusion for the user.
Think about it.
HTH

[advice1010]

@fehlix
Ahh the main times I have to type in paths are with a couple programs that I use.
I am so used to using having to type ~/ and $HOME/ for those programs because they are required by them that I do this out of habit, often I have to correct myself with this, I was so focused on the answers I totally missed that I did this, okay you are correct that is “gibberish” :) sorry about that.
I do not understand everything about what you have mentioned yet, I will have to do some tests but you mentioned something already that I think I experienced something similar to which was mount names getting renamed. I had set some links setup to that drive and they all stopped working because the mount name became slightly different. Might not be exactly what you were saying but sounds very similar.
Anyways thank you again for this, great information thank you for taking the time to share this above.
Sorry again for the gibberish :)