Many thanks for your email, David. Apologies for any contradictory messages i have posted. My understanding of the automatic mount of USB devices has been rapidly evolving.
I have now seen that people have had various problems with usbmount over the years, so I can quite understand why it might not be in the most recent Debian distributions. My plan is to update my distribution very soon, but first I need to do a backup of the system to a USB portable hard drive (which uses NTFS). I would like this backup to go as smoothly as possible. On 31 Oct 2020 22:41, "David Wright" <deb...@lionunicorn.co.uk> wrote: > On Thu 29 Oct 2020 at 18:40:53 (+0000), Mick Ab wrote: > > I am fairly convinced that the USB 3 port previously mentioned has a > loose > > connection. > > > > It also seems to me that a FAT32 device such as a memory stick is > > automatically mounted when inserted in a USB port while the system > > is running, if such a device is not referenced in /etc/fstab. > > Call that paragraph ¶ 2. > > > What is not clear to me is what happens to an NTFS device such as a > > portable drive when it is inserted in a USB port while the system is > > running, if the device is not referenced in /etc/fstab. > > > > The following point is observed :- > > > > USB devices referenced in /etc/fstab are automatically mounted when the > > system is rebooted, even though their entries include the noauto option > > (the devices are already plugged in when a reboot is performed). > > As I thought, this observation contradicts the first thought expressed > in your Tue, 27 Oct 2020 20:43:52 +0000 post (the last paragraph of > quote below). I presume that although mounting is disallowed for mount -a > (by noauto), your automounter is not constrained in this way. > > > What happens to a USB device that is not referenced in /etc/fstab, > > when it is plugged into a USB port while the system is running :- > > > > If the filesystem is FAT32 (e.g. a memory stick) will it always be > > automatically mounted or will it always have to be manually mounted ? > > Isn't that just what you answered in ¶ 2 above? > > > If the filesystem is NTFS (e.g. a portable hard drive) will it always > > be automatically mounted or will it always have to be manually mounted ? > > > > The automount system appears to be usbmount. > > I guess your answer lies there then. AFAICT usbmount hasn't been > included in the last two stable distributions (stretch and buster). > I've never used it. I assume there are others here for which this > all works. (I've left it a day before replying.) I can't work out > where your questions are leading, and whether you have a problem > to solve (besides having flaky hardware). > > > On 29 Oct 2020 17:33, "David Wright" <deb...@lionunicorn.co.uk> wrote: > > > On Tue 27 Oct 2020 at 20:43:52 (+0000), Mick Ab wrote: > > > > > > > > It seems to me that the situation is as follows :- > > > > > > > > Filesystems in /etc/fstab which have the noauto option are not > > > > automatically mounted at boot time, so if these filesystems are > already > > > > plugged into USB ports at boot time, they would subsequently have to > be > > > > manually mounted in order to be used. > > > > > > Cheers, > David. > >
