On Tue, 2007-03-20 at 18:40 +0100, Walter Garcia-Fontes wrote: > I have an external 250 GB hard disk that I use for backup. I use Gnome > and when I log into Gnome it automounts. But if I am not > logged in Gnome it is not mounted. I'd like to have it mounted all the > time. I'd like to be able to get the backups running even if no user > is logged in. > > I have it formatted with ext3. > > One way I understand it can be done is to enter a line in /etc/fstab. > I entered the following line: > > /dev/sdb1 /media/Backup ext3 auto,hotplug,defaults 1 > > (I have a physical /media/Backup dir created with the right > permissions). > > but I got an error at the bootup process telling me that the filesytem > was not ready, it didn't like that line. What is the right syntax for > the fstab line? (I also tried once to put LABEL=Backup insted of > /dev/sdb1 since this is the label of the disk and it froze completely > at that line, had to boot in with live cd and erase manually). > > I understand that there is also a way of using autofs to have the disk > be mounted automatically when I try to access it, but I haven't been > able to figure out how to configure it (change the /etc/auto.master > file?). > > Thanks for any suggestions. > > -- > Walter Garcia-Fontes > Barcelona > I would use the same fourth argument as your other disks. defaults should be good enough. You need two numbers at the end. I would make them 1 2. Your main disk is 1 1 so this should nod conflict with that. All this is explained in man fstab. -- ======================================================================= How can you do 'New Math' problems with an 'Old Math' mind? -- Charles Schulz ======================================================================= Aaron Konstam telephone: (210) 656-0355 e-mail: akonstam@xxxxxxxxxxxxx