Automount drives on Linux

If you are using a Linux operating system and want the system to automatically mount the drive at boot, you can do this by adding the device's unique identifier (UID) and mount point path to the fstab configuration file to achieve. fstab is a file system table file located in the /etc directory. It contains information about the file systems that need to be mounted when the system starts. By editing the fstab file, you can ensure that the required drives are loaded correctly every time the system starts, thus ensuring stable system operation.

Automatic driver installation can be easily applied to a variety of situations. For example, I plan to back up my system to an external storage device. To achieve automation, ensure that the device remains connected to the system, even at startup.

Similarly, many applications will synchronize files directly to the system drive. If the drive is unmounted, resynchronizing these files will cause great inconvenience. The autoload feature automatically identifies and loads the drive without requiring the user to manually run a load command or execute it manually through a graphical interface.

In this tutorial, I will explore how to make additional drives mount automatically on boot in Linux.

Automounting drives on Linux

Automatically mounting an attached drive on Linux requires careful steps.

Normally, Linux will not automatically mount any connected drive when booting, but will need to be manually mounted to a specified mount point to access the data. However, some Linux distributions with desktop environments automatically mount the drive for users, allowing users to quickly access data.

NOTE: The instructions given in this guide were performed on Ubuntu 22.04. However, the given command does not give any errors on other distributions either.

1. Find UID and file system type

To get the name, unique identification number (UUID) and file system type of the drive, there are two ways to do it. The first is to use the system's built-in graphical user interface application to search, and the other method is to achieve it through the command line.

I personally prefer doing it in the terminal because it's more accurate.

Sudo Blakid

The blkid command is a command line utility used to obtain information about internal and external block devices.

Now, identify the label of the drive, in my case MyDrive, and note the UUID and file system type. Don’t forget to give your storage drive a name as it will be easily identifiable.

The command output screenshot shows all the required information.

• UID = 65B1—FB17
• File system type = exfat

UID (Universally Unique Identifier) ​​is the ID of the block device MyDrive (/dev/sda1), and the file system type is exfat.

Please note that the UID can have a different number of characters depending on the file system type. For example, the FAT file system UICC has 8 alphanumeric characters with a dash (-), NTFS has 16 character strings, and EXT has 32 alphanumeric characters with a dash.

Now, let's do this on the GUI, since I'm using Ubuntu 22.04 and its Genome desktop environment has a default disk management application called Disks. Open the app and tap on the drive you can identify by storage capacity.

2. Create a mount point

To permanently mount an external drive to Linux, a mount point needs to be created. This is a one-time setting unless you choose a different mount point in the future.

The mount point is where the file system to be accessed is placed. It can be any directory anywhere on Linux; typically the /mnt or /media directories are used. I'm creating a directory called /media/MyBackup in the root directory that will be my mount point.

sudo mkdir/media/MyBackup

Now, I will permanently mount my external drive MyDrive to the /media/MyBackup mount point.

We have found the name, UUID and file system type of the connected drive and we have also created the mount point. The final step is to access and modify the fstab file.

3. Access and edit fstab files

The Fstab file is a file system configuration file in the /etc directory that contains information about mounted storage devices. It can be accessed in any text editor, but requires superuser access to modify.

Sudo vim/etc/fstab

Now, it’s time to insert the information extracted above using the following common syntax.

[Device][Mount Point][File System Type][Mount Options][Dump][Pass]

All parameters of the above syntax will be explained below.

[equipment]	DeviceUUID
[Installation point]	The mount point directory from which to access the contents of the attached drive [more information about running the man mount command]
[File system type]	File system format type, such as fat, exfat, ntfs or ext4
[Load-options]	Read and write options for the device (default is for read and write access)
[Dump]	Enable or disable backup of connected devices; if 0, backup is disabled

The fsck command is used to verify the drive for errors before initiating boot. For root devices, fsck will always be 1.

The following format is suitable for most Linux distributions, such as Arch Linux or Debian; however, the latest Ubuntu (22.04) has a different format, which is mentioned below.

UID = [UUID of device][Mount point][File system type][Mount options][Dump][Pass]

I will insert the above extracted information into the fstab file using the above format.

UID = 65B1—F446/Media/MyBackup exfat default value 0 0

Note: Use tabs instead of spaces to separate fields.

I have set [Installation Options] to default, which means the device has read and write access. The [Dump] and [Pass] options are set to 0 because I don't want to backup and do an fsck check on boot.

Ubuntu format

The latest Ubuntu (22.04) formats external drives differently in the fstab file.

/dev/disk/by—uuid/[UUID of device][mount point][file system type][mount options][dump][pass]

Because I am using Ubuntu 22.04, I will use this method.

/dev/disk/by—uuid/65B1—F446/media/MyBackup exfat default value 0 0

Now, save and exit the file; I'm using Vim, and the :wq command will write and exit the editor.

4.Verification

To verify that all the information mentioned in the fstab file is correct, use the mount-a command.

Sudo Mountain

If there are any errors, the above command will display them, otherwise, there will be no output.

No errors were encountered, which means the drive was mounted successfully.

The fstab files of various Linux distributions are given below for comparison.

Debian/etc/fstab file

Arch Linux/etc/fstab file

Ubuntu/etc/fstab file

in conclusion

If you use the drive in your daily work. Especially when you want to save files in it or access files from it to your Linux system. Alternatively, if you are interested in backing up your system and don't want to restore it after booting, this is a great way to automate this.

Automount is a method of mounting a storage drive at boot time, since many Linux distributions do not mount the drive at boot time. This can be done by placing the device's UID and mount point in the /etc/fstab file.

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