Partitions show as mounted, no files show in a directory listing

Support
1

I am stumped here. I have added a new partition to my /etc/fstab

# /dev/sdb2
UUID=3fefb5f5-0477-49b9-bd2d-be5ad8826c03 /mnt/4TB ext4 defaults,noatime 0 0

Before rebooting, I did a mount -a to make sure that it was working, and the partition was mounted. When I did an ls -al /mnt/4TB, I could see all of the files on the partition.

However, after a reboot, I cannot see the files on the mounted partittions.
Doing a mount -av, it shows the partitions as mounted

	robert@ryzen ~ sudo mount -av
	/                        : ignored
	/mnt/4TB                 : already mounted

If I do a mount /mnt/4TB, there are no warnings or errors from the mount command, even though it showed as mounted above. The files are visible

I check the log (journalctl) and it shows that the partition was mounted, and I see no errors

	Feb 01 20:36:08 ryzen systemd[1]: Mounting /mnt/4TB...
	...
	Feb 01 20:36:09 ryzen systemd[1]: Mounted /mnt/4TB.

There are no other messages for /mnt/4TB in the log

Any idea of what the issue could be? Any other information that would help to figure this out?

2

Maybe the UUID is the wrong one? Note that if you change the fstab, you need also run: systemctl daemon-reload, so that the “fstab-converter” catch your changes.

Let’s say, you mount sdb2 manually without fstab. Systemd knows that it is mounted. When adding a fstab entry and run mount -a, even if unmounting before, systemd remembers your old mount not the one from fstab. Therefore, you need to reload the daemon.

3

For sure, many things can go wrong when editing fstab.

The first thing I did - after rebuilding my computer - is to delete the old fstab, and then have a new one created using Gnome-disks to set my mounts.

Takes ‘Error 40’ out of the equation.

4

Please do not use slang idioms. People around the world are here, trying to solve their problems. Do not cause new ones with understanding.

5

In Danish it is called a Fejl 40, or “Error 40”, indicating that the error was 40 centimetres (16 in) from the device.

7

Thanks. I did double check the UUID, and copied and pasted it. I also did the daemon-reload each time, but did not document it in my original post.

Your explanation of the process explanation helped make it clear why I was doing it.

Just to be sure, I retested, and the results are still the same. The drive mounts when I do a mount -a after a daemon-reload, and after a reboot, the logs say the partition is mounted, but nothing shows when a do an ls -al.

8

Thanks for the hint about Gnome Disk. I did not know you could edit /etc/fstab with it.

However, that did not change anything. I removed all of my mounts, and Gnome Disk added one:
/dev/disk/by-uuid/3fefb5f5-0477-49b9-bd2d-be5ad8826c03 /mnt/4TB auto nosuid,nodev,nofail,x-gvfs-show 0 0

The disk still does not mount at boot time. the major change is that Gnome Disks does not use UUID, but the /dev/disk/by-uuid instead.

Any other thoughts?