KDE Partition Manager mount point edit

[cedwin]

The mount point for an internal SSD was lost. Just disappeared from the directories. If I go to KDE Partition Manager > Edit mount point and select one, I get a warning that the disk will be overwritten. Does than mean the mount point will be overwritten, or the whole disk?

[dmt]

A mount point is just a directory, so recreate the directory.

mkdir /path/to/mountpoint

# or if the parent directory is owned by root
sudo mkdir /path/to/mountpoint

[Aragorn]

Some recommended light reading…

[Tutorial] Working with additional 'drives'

Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆ 1. INTRODUCTION Microsoft Windows started its life as a graphical user interface on top of MS-DOS, a 16-bit single-user, single-tasking operating system that in turn originated as 86DOS, an unauthorized 16-bit rewrite (by Tim Paterson of Seattle Computer) of Digital Research’s originally 8-bit CP/M operating system. Both CP/M and MS-DOS were at the time developed for computers that did not support any other storage media than floppy disks. Considering this legacy, Microsof…

[Nachlese]

@cedwin

The mount point for an internal SSD was lost. Just disappeared from the directories.

Can you elaborate?
A mount point is just a directory.
How can a directory just disappear?

Cave!
I don’t even know KDE Partition Manager.

Mount points (not only for internal disks) are usually defined in /etc/fstab

so:
look there

If there is a disk supposed to be mounted to some directory - and that directory doesn’t exist (anymore) - the mount will fail.

As @dmt said:
you can mount that disk to any directory.

If the directory it is supposed to be mounted to doesn’t exist anymore for some reason → create it (again).

[BG405]

Does the “missing” disk or partition show with e.g. sudo parted -l or blkid …?

Also, the disk or partition might be corrupted and need a file system check. Especially if it’s NTFS! ← If it is, don’t do this using Linux tools.

@cedwin

I get a warning that the disk will be overwritten.

This is where I’d stop, and (re)create the mount-point manually.

[cedwin]

BG405: Thanks for addressing the question I actually asked.
I decided yesterday to forget about changing the mount point and just remake the original directory. Tried several times but each time the directory would disappear on reboot.
Yes, in answer to your question, the attic disk does show up with parted:

Model: ATA SanDisk SSD PLUS (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 2000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    Type     File system  Flags
 1      1049kB  2000GB  2000GB  primary  ext4

Model: WD easystore 2648 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 2000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name  Flags
 1      1049kB  2000GB  2000GB  ext4


Model: Samsung SSD 980 PRO 2TB (nvme)
Disk /dev/nvme0n1: 2000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    File system     Name  Flags
 1      1049kB  538MB   537MB   fat32                 boot, esp
 2      538MB   9128MB  8590MB  linux-swap(v1)        swap
 3      9128MB  62.9GB  53.7GB  ext4
 4      62.9GB  2000GB  1938GB  ext4
```
It also appears in lsblk output:
~~~NAME        MAJ:MIN RM  SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
sda           8:0    0  1.8T  0 disk 
└─sda1        8:1    0  1.8T  0 part 
sdb           8:16   0  1.8T  0 disk 
└─sdb1        8:17   0  1.8T  0 part 
sr0          11:0    1 1024M  0 rom  
sr1          11:1    1 1024M  0 rom  
nvme0n1     259:0    0  1.8T  0 disk 
├─nvme0n1p1 259:1    0  512M  0 part /boot/efi
├─nvme0n1p2 259:2    0    8G  0 part [SWAP]
├─nvme0n1p3 259:3    0   50G  0 part /
└─nvme0n1p4 259:4    0  1.8T  0 part /home           

Before the crap hit the fan, /run/media/chas had two directories: Easystore and attic. Now there is just Easystore and it does not show up after a reboot until I click on it in the left column (under “Devices”) of Dolphin.

Blkid after selecting Easystore:

/dev/nvme0n1p1: UUID="C191-DE1A" BLOCK_SIZE="512" TYPE="vfat" PARTUUID="f02e8fbb-1c5a-40f7-9529-c2e72750d455"
/dev/nvme0n1p4: UUID="db4ac4df-c377-4d7f-a120-89b91f6f430e" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="0d419de5-063b-4ebf-bbed-c53fdca040ec"
/dev/nvme0n1p2: UUID="c6d32ee6-aa10-4c68-ae27-261ad233c02e" TYPE="swap" PARTUUID="a3259f15-16c0-4e19-b213-6d44d99cd221"
/dev/sdb1: LABEL="Easystore" UUID="c942fb5b-f39b-4fb7-bd99-ae52684aa502" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="1347b758-26b2-4df5-bd78-b2ae159b62c1"
/dev/sda1: LABEL="attic" UUID="91039440-2cde-4e0c-abe0-5d76dc558502" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="f28d334b-01"

The “attic” SSD, sda1, is listed, and so is “Easystore” (sdb1).

Negotiating the files as root on Dolphin I can access /run/media/chas and create the attic directory (/run/media/chas/attic).
Reboot and it is gone.
Also as root I can open attic and access the files because I made an “attic” directory in /root so the SSD sees that as the mount point, but of course I can only access it as root.
The /chas directory ikon has the locked symbol on it. I have not been able to change that; clearly there are ownership/permission issues here but I have not been able to find a solution after lengthy efforts.
Any insights or suggestions you have will be appreciated.

[Nachlese]

@cedwin

The mount point for an internal SSD was lost.

Where was it?
cat /etc/fstab
might tell

The necessary information is only slowly and piece wise dripping in.
for instance:
where was it supposed to be?

[Wollie]

The whole behavior looks totally normal to me. The disks are not automatically mounted just because being connected. If you want this, either realize an udev rule or set your /etc/fstab file, accordingly. Manjaro or Arch wiki are your friends.

[dmt]

@cedwin

Before the crap hit the fan, /run/media/chas had two directories: Easystore and attic. Now there is just Easystore and it does not show up after a reboot until I click on it in the left column (under “Devices”) of Dolphin.

That’s normal, it mounts it for you in a temporary filesystem. If that wasn’t the case before then how were they being mounted? ie, what software or were you using fstab?

@cedwin

(/run/media/chas/attic).
Reboot and it is gone.

/run is a temporary filesystem, so that’s normal, it’s meant to disappear on reboot. If you’re going to use that location then it needs to be recreated by something each boot.

@cedwin

Also as root I can open attic and access the files because I made an “attic” directory in /root so the SSD sees that as the mount point, but of course I can only access it as root.

Why would you put it in root’s home dir (/root)?

I put my mounts in /media, some use /data, of course neither exist unless you make them.

@cedwin

The /chas directory ikon has the locked symbol on it. I have not been able to change that; clearly there are ownership/permission issues here but I have not been able to find a solution after lengthy efforts.

That’s also normal if you don’t take ownership or change the permissions.

To change ownership:

sudo chown $USER:$USER /path/to/mountpoint

@Wollie

If you want this, either realize an udev rule or set your /etc/fstab file

Or a systemd mount unit.

[BG405]

@dmt

sudo chown $USER:$USER /path/to/mountpoint

Indeed.

Also worth noting, my data partition is mounted to /DATA directly, using fstab. This has worked well for me for years, after using the command @dmt mentioned.

Example from this system

ls -la /DATA | head -4
total 137004
-rw-r--r--  1 brian brian            0 Mar 20  2017 --no-check-certificate
drwxr-xr-x 71 brian brian         4096 Aug 17 18:48 .
drwxr-xr-x 18 root  root          4096 May 14 06:38 ..

Check the directory permissions as per above.

[cedwin]

@Wollie

Manjaro or Arch wiki are your friends.

Noted.

[cedwin]

@Wollie

The whole behavior looks totally normal to me.

I’m pretty sure it is my behavior that is not.

[cedwin]

@dmt

sudo chown $USER:$USER /path/to/mountpoint

Ah, yes, the $USER:$USER thing. Should have used it first instead of screwing things up by trying to finesse ownerships. Worked.

[cedwin]

I made a directory in /home and set the mountpoint for it and it is working fine. I should have done that in the beginning but I couldn’t get to this point without all the input from everyone, which I appreciate and for which I want to thank all of you. Sometimes I’m slow to get it.

But I still wonder about my original question, which was never answered. Does no one know for sure what this KDE Partition Manager warning fully means:

Are you sure you want to save the changes you made to the system table file ‘/etc/fstab’? Warning: This will overwrite the existing file on your hard drive now. This can not be undone

This appeared before activating changes to the mountpoint – seems like it would be worth knowing whether this applies to the whole partition, just the mountpoint element of the partition, or just the fstab file (the last two probably synonymous). I didn’t have the nerve to try it, even though the SSD was fully backed up.

[Note that Edit Mount Point is under Partition in KDE Partition Manager, an excellent program aside from this bit of vagueness.]

[soundofthunder]

@cedwin

Does no one know for sure what this KDE Partition Manager warning fully means:

Are you sure you want to save the changes you made to the system table file ‘/etc/fstab’? Warning: This will overwrite the existing file on your hard drive now. This can not be undone

In this case, the warning is expected.

When you change the content of /etc/fstab manually, you must save it. When an intermediary application (such as the KDE Partition Manager) needs to write to this file due to changes made, it gives a warning in case changes were unintentional.

Changes to /etc/fstab do not affect the partition table directly, but can affect how partitions are referenced (UUIDs, mount points, etc). If using KDE Partition Manager to make changes to partitions and filesystems, it will then update the /etc/fstab file accordingly, if needed.

You could arguably consider the warning as confirmation dialog, before the fstab file is updated.

I hope this helps. Cheers.

[dmt]

@cedwin

seems like it would be worth knowing whether this applies to the whole partition, just the mountpoint element of the partition, or just the fstab file (the last two probably synonymous).

Just fstab, which defines how partitions are mounted. Even if it wasn’t backed up it could be recreated.

[cedwin]

Good to know. Thank you.

[Nachlese]

@cedwin

Are you sure you want to save the changes you made to the system table file ‘/etc/fstab’? Warning: This will overwrite the existing file on your hard drive now. This can not be undone

Just create a copy of that file before you commit to the action.

You then have the original and can compare.
Or: go back.