Desktop on usb takes over the desktop from pc

Support
1

Hello,
I have installed Manjaro xfce on my desktop pc for some 10 years and boot with legacy bios, UEFI is disabled.
The ssd is divided into several partitions, Manjaro is on partition sda3.
The other partitions are for data, music, video etc.

After trying to install Manjaro with persistence on a usb flash drive for several days, without any luck, i installed the full system on the Usb (/dev/sdd )drive.
During installation on that usb drive i made a 30GB partition for root, and another 30GB partition for /home
The first time i booted into the USB system, i was greeted (as it should) with a blank desktop.
Then i made some tweaks, installed a few apps, arranged the desktop icons to my liking, set the keyboard layout and display to fit the monitor.
At this point i have only a few icons on the desktop.
Then i shutdown the system.

So far so good.

Then a few ours later i had removed the usb and booted into the desktop pc partition on sda3.
There was my desktop with all the apps and shortcuts and links from over 10 years.
I used the browser and some apps and shutdown the system.

Then a few ours later i would like to make a few changes on the usb system, so i connected the usb and booted from there.

To my big surprise the desktop i was greeted on was the same as from the pc on sda3.
Some icons, links and shortcuts where normal, others, the one who where not installed on the usb drive where greyed out.

When i check with thunar, the desktop /home/jean/Desktop on the usb is still there and correct, just a few icons.
So for some reason, when i boot Manjaro from USB it takes over the Desktop from the pc.

Can somebody tell me what i have done wrong, or how to fix this?

Thanks for a constructive reply.
Jean

2

The only possible explanation is sharing of the home partition where all the config is. Booting the root from usb, you actually mounted the home from the hard disk without noticing.

Look once again at the fstab. Make sure you always use UUIDs to reference partitions. Also check if something scans for other partitions and automounts them besides the ones in fstab. Could be file manager, gnome disks or a systemd automount. Obviously you have to disable it.

3

check from both side ( USB / desktop)

sudo lsblk -fs
4

Thank you,
I know now what i did wrong.
I coppied the entire fstab to the /etc/fstab from the usb, where i should only have copied the lines that mount the other partitions.
That is the reason…for this strange situation.
My fault thank you for letting me know.

Now how can i restore the fstab and then add the following lines to mount these tree partitions at boot?

UUID=50AB694170879D83 /media/jean/backup ntfs defaults 0 3
UUID=8ED4D13AD4D1256D /media/jean/backup_extern ntfs defaults 0 3
UUID=cc9d82f2-c9ab-4018-bc2f-6dd25e618f44 /media/jean/audio ext4 defaults 0 3

5

/media is not the right place for permanent mounts. Make a mountpoint in your home, like /home/jean/audio etc.

6

Hello,
Thanks for the reply.
If i may ask, why is media not safe?

7

That’s entirely preference and use-case dependent.

For instance if the mounts are to be shared by multiple users then a home directory is not the correct place. For a single user it doesn’t matter, as long as the mount point is owned by the user.

Get the correct UUIDs from lsblk -f and swap them for the incorrect UUIDs in fstab. If there are any unwanted lines then remove them.

Of course make sure the mount points exist and have appropriate ownership/permissions.

It is safe, that’s where my permanent mounts are.

8

I am sorry i wasn’t very clear. It is safe, it is just usually used for automatic mounts. Besides with mountpoints under home the user automatically has the permissions, since it is his home.
If you have the necessary permissions and it is a single user system then is ok, leave it in /media.

Edit: i stand corrected - the automatic mounts are in /run/media. Just take care of the permissions which i guess you already did.

11

Thank you Teo