Mounting hard-drives from external sources. [Solved]

I’m currently trying to permanently mount my NAS’s 3 hard-drives to a single directory. It won’t matter if the drives have different names as they’ll just be for storing files anyway. I need to create symlinks, but I don’t know how to do that.

Output from commands:

mount

bks@bally-server:~$ mount
/dev/sda1 on / type ext4 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
none on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
none on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)
none on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
none on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=0620)
none on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
none on /var/run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
none on /var/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
none on /lib/init/rw type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
none on /var/lib/ureadahead/debugfs type debugfs (rw,relatime)
binfmt_misc on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
/dev/sdb1 on /media/Storage type ext3 (rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=udisks)
/dev/sdc1 on /media/Storage 2 type ext3 (rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=udisks)

sudo nano /etc/fstab

[spoiler]# /etc/fstab: static file system information.

Use ‘blkid -o value -s UUID’ to print the universally unique identifier

for a device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name

devices that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).

proc /proc proc nodev,noexec,nosuid 0 0

/ was on /dev/sda1 during installation

UUID=ff0a5255-09f5-4b23-a2d2-8db9cebc726d / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1

swap was on /dev/sda5 during installation

UUID=652469de-ef92-47ea-8e42-25deb43687fe none swap sw 0 0
[/spoiler]

sudo fdisk -l

bks@bally-server:~$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000097c9

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 4661 37431296 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 4661 4866 1648641 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 4661 4866 1648640 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdb: 200.0 GB, 200049647616 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 24321 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00073313

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 24321 195358401 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdc: 20.5 GB, 20490559488 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2491 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0004827c

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 1 2491 20008926 83 Linux

Bearing in mind one of the drives is only 20GB … what do you want the mountpoints, and therefore the visible folders on the NAS to be called ?

Sommat like

Docs = 20GB
and
Main_Share = 200GB

?

Wallpapers = 20GB
Main Share = 200GB

OK, lets create the mountpoints, and the NAS-Shares directory -

mkdir ~/NAS-Shares
sudo mkdir /mnt/NAS-20GB
sudo mkdir /mnt/NAS-200GB

OK, now for the symlinks (I’ll use the suggested names above, so adjust if you wish) -

ln -s /mnt/NAS-20GB ~/NAS-Shares/Wallpapers
ln -s /mnt/NAS-200GB ~/NAS-Shares/Main_Share

Now lets make sure the ~/NAS-Shares directory ISN’T writeable …

chmod 555 ~/NAS-Shares

Now backup your /etc/fstab (just in case)

sudo cp -v /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.backup

Open fstab for editing:

sudo nano /etc/fstab

and add the two lines at the bottom so it reads:-

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid -o value -s UUID' to print the universally unique identifier
# for a device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name
# devices that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
proc            /proc           proc    nodev,noexec,nosuid 0       0
# / was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=ff0a5255-09f5-4b23-a2d2-8db9cebc726d /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# swap was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=652469de-ef92-47ea-8e42-25deb43687fe none            swap    sw              0       0
/dev/sdb1 /mnt/NAS-200GB       ext3       rw,errors=remount-ro       0       0
/dev/sdc1 /mnt/NAS-20GB       ext3       rw,errors=remount-ro       0       0

SAVE fstab …

Now run:

sudo mount -a

and post any output.

If nothing is returned … post the output from:

mount

Is there anything currently on those drives ?

IF YES … can you confirm you can see the contents with:

ls ~/NAS-Shares/Wallpapers

and

ls ~/NAS-Shares/Main_Share

/dev/sda1 on / type ext4 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
none on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
none on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)
none on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
none on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=0620)
none on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
none on /var/run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
none on /var/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
none on /lib/init/rw type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
none on /var/lib/ureadahead/debugfs type debugfs (rw,relatime)
binfmt_misc on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
/dev/sdb1 on /media/Storage type ext3 (rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=udisks)
/dev/sdc1 on /media/Storage 2 type ext3 (rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=udisks)
/dev/sdb1 on /mnt/NAS-200GB type ext3 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
/dev/sdc1 on /mnt/NAS-20GB type ext3 (rw,errors=remount-ro)

Is there anything currently on those drives ?

Nope.

I’m a bit baffled as to why they are being mounted twice … unless you’re manually mounting them.

Can you reboot the server … then send the output from:

mount

and DID you format them as ext3 or ext4 ?

bks@bally-server:~$ mount
/dev/sda1 on / type ext4 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
none on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
none on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)
none on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
none on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=0620)
none on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
none on /var/run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
none on /var/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
none on /lib/init/rw type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
none on /var/lib/ureadahead/debugfs type debugfs (rw,relatime)
/dev/sdb1 on /mnt/NAS-200GB type ext3 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
/dev/sdc1 on /mnt/NAS-20GB type ext3 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
binfmt_misc on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)

and DID you format them as ext3 or ext4 ?

i formatted them as EXT3.

OK … is samba installed ?

What are the contents of:

nano /etc/samba/smb.conf

Yes, samba is installed and working correctly, although Samba on my lappy doesn’t. It won’t find any other devices on the network. :o

And what are the contents of /etc/samba/smb.conf on the server ?

We’ll worry about your laptop later

Contents of smb.conf for the NAS:

[spoiler]#

Sample configuration file for the Samba suite for Debian GNU/Linux.

This is the main Samba configuration file. You should read the

smb.conf(5) manual page in order to understand the options listed

here. Samba has a huge number of configurable options most of which

are not shown in this example

Some options that are often worth tuning have been included as

commented-out examples in this file.

- When such options are commented with “;”, the proposed setting

differs from the default Samba behaviour

- When commented with “#”, the proposed setting is the default

behaviour of Samba but the option is considered important

enough to be mentioned here

NOTE: Whenever you modify this file you should run the command

“testparm” to check that you have not made any basic syntactic

errors.

A well-established practice is to name the original file

“smb.conf.master” and create the “real” config file with

testparm -s smb.conf.master >smb.conf

This minimizes the size of the really used smb.conf file

which, according to the Samba Team, impacts performance

However, use this with caution if your smb.conf file contains nested

“include” statements. See Debian bug #483187 for a case

where using a master file is not a good idea.

#======================= Global Settings =======================

[global]
unix charset = UTF-8

Browsing/Identification

Change this to the workgroup/NT-domain name your Samba server will part of

workgroup = WORKGROUP

server string is the equivalent of the NT Description field

server string = %h server (Samba, Ubuntu)

Windows Internet Name Serving Support Section:

WINS Support - Tells the NMBD component of Samba to enable its WINS Server

wins support = no

WINS Server - Tells the NMBD components of Samba to be a WINS Client

Note: Samba can be either a WINS Server, or a WINS Client, but NOT both

; wins server = w.x.y.z

This will prevent nmbd to search for NetBIOS names through DNS.

dns proxy = no

What naming service and in what order should we use to resolve host names

to IP addresses

; name resolve order = lmhosts host wins bcast

Networking

The specific set of interfaces / networks to bind to

This can be either the interface name or an IP address/netmask;

interface names are normally preferred

interfaces = 192.168.0.8/24 eth0

Only bind to the named interfaces and/or networks; you must use the

‘interfaces’ option above to use this.

It is recommended that you enable this feature if your Samba machine is

not protected by a firewall or is a firewall itself. However, this

option cannot handle dynamic or non-broadcast interfaces correctly.

; bind interfaces only = yes

Debugging/Accounting

This tells Samba to use a separate log file for each machine

that connects

log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m

Cap the size of the individual log files (in KiB).

max log size = 1000

If you want Samba to only log through syslog then set the following

parameter to ‘yes’.

syslog only = no

We want Samba to log a minimum amount of information to syslog. Everything

should go to /var/log/samba/log.{smbd,nmbd} instead. If you want to log

through syslog you should set the following parameter to something higher.

syslog = 0

Do something sensible when Samba crashes: mail the admin a backtrace

panic action = /usr/share/samba/panic-action %d

####### Authentication #######

“security = user” is always a good idea. This will require a Unix account

in this server for every user accessing the server. See

/usr/share/doc/samba-doc/htmldocs/Samba3-HOWTO/ServerType.html

in the samba-doc package for details.

security = share

You may wish to use password encryption. See the section on

‘encrypt passwords’ in the smb.conf(5) manpage before enabling.

encrypt passwords = true

If you are using encrypted passwords, Samba will need to know what

password database type you are using.

passdb backend = tdbsam

obey pam restrictions = yes

This boolean parameter controls whether Samba attempts to sync the Unix

password with the SMB password when the encrypted SMB password in the

passdb is changed.

unix password sync = yes

For Unix password sync to work on a Debian GNU/Linux system, the following

parameters must be set (thanks to Ian Kahan <kahan@informatik.tu-muenchen.de for

sending the correct chat script for the passwd program in Debian Sarge).

passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u
passwd chat = Enter\snew\s\spassword:* %n\n Retype\snew\s\spassword:* %n\n password\supdated\ssuccessfully .

This boolean controls whether PAM will be used for password changes

when requested by an SMB client instead of the program listed in

‘passwd program’. The default is ‘no’.

pam password change = yes

This option controls how unsuccessful authentication attempts are mapped

to anonymous connections

map to guest = bad user

########## Domains ###########

Is this machine able to authenticate users. Both PDC and BDC

must have this setting enabled. If you are the BDC you must

change the ‘domain master’ setting to no

; domain logons = yes

The following setting only takes effect if ‘domain logons’ is set

It specifies the location of the user’s profile directory

from the client point of view)

The following required a [profiles] share to be setup on the

samba server (see below)

; logon path = \%N\profiles%U

Another common choice is storing the profile in the user’s home directory

(this is Samba’s default)

logon path = \%N%U\profile

The following setting only takes effect if ‘domain logons’ is set

It specifies the location of a user’s home directory (from the client

point of view)

; logon drive = H:

logon home = \%N%U

The following setting only takes effect if ‘domain logons’ is set

It specifies the script to run during logon. The script must be stored

in the [netlogon] share

NOTE: Must be store in ‘DOS’ file format convention

; logon script = logon.cmd

This allows Unix users to be created on the domain controller via the SAMR

RPC pipe. The example command creates a user account with a disabled Unix

This allows machine accounts to be created on the domain controller via the

SAMR RPC pipe.

The following assumes a “machines” group exists on the system

; add machine script = /usr/sbin/useradd -g machines -c “%u machine account” -d /var/lib/samba -s /bin/false %u

This allows Unix groups to be created on the domain controller via the SAMR

RPC pipe.

; add group script = /usr/sbin/addgroup --force-badname %g

########## Printing ##########

If you want to automatically load your printer list rather

than setting them up individually then you’ll need this

load printers = yes

lpr(ng) printing. You may wish to override the location of the

printcap file

; printing = bsd
; printcap name = /etc/printcap

CUPS printing. See also the cupsaddsmb(8) manpage in the

cupsys-client package.

; printing = cups
; printcap name = cups

############ Misc ############

Using the following line enables you to customise your configuration

on a per machine basis. The %m gets replaced with the netbios name

of the machine that is connecting

; include = /home/samba/etc/smb.conf.%m

Most people will find that this option gives better performance.

See smb.conf(5) and /usr/share/doc/samba-doc/htmldocs/Samba3-HOWTO/speed.html

for details

You may want to add the following on a Linux system:

SO_RCVBUF=8192 SO_SNDBUF=8192

socket options = TCP_NODELAY

The following parameter is useful only if you have the linpopup package

installed. The samba maintainer and the linpopup maintainer are

working to ease installation and configuration of linpopup and samba.

; message command = /bin/sh -c ‘/usr/bin/linpopup “%f” “%m” %s; rm %s’ &

Domain Master specifies Samba to be the Domain Master Browser. If this

machine will be configured as a BDC (a secondary logon server), you

must set this to ‘no’; otherwise, the default behavior is recommended.

domain master = auto

Some defaults for winbind (make sure you’re not using the ranges

for something else.)

; idmap uid = 10000-20000
; idmap gid = 10000-20000
; template shell = /bin/bash

The following was the default behaviour in sarge,

but samba upstream reverted the default because it might induce

performance issues in large organizations.

See Debian bug #368251 for some of the consequences of not

having this setting and smb.conf(5) for details.

; winbind enum groups = yes
; winbind enum users = yes

Setup usershare options to enable non-root users to share folders

with the net usershare command.

Maximum number of usershare. 0 (default) means that usershare is disabled.

; usershare max shares = 100

Allow users who’ve been granted usershare privileges to create

public shares, not just authenticated ones

usershare allow guests = yes

#======================= Share Definitions =======================

Un-comment the following (and tweak the other settings below to suit)

to enable the default home directory shares. This will share each

user’s home directory as \server\username

;[homes]
; comment = Home Directories
; browseable = no

By default, the home directories are exported read-only. Change the

next parameter to ‘no’ if you want to be able to write to them.

; read only = yes

File creation mask is set to 0700 for security reasons. If you want to

create files with group=rw permissions, set next parameter to 0775.

; create mask = 0700

Directory creation mask is set to 0700 for security reasons. If you want to

create dirs. with group=rw permissions, set next parameter to 0775.

; directory mask = 0700

By default, \server\username shares can be connected to by anyone

with access to the samba server. Un-comment the following parameter

to make sure that only “username” can connect to \server\username

This might need tweaking when using external authentication schemes

; valid users = %S

Un-comment the following and create the netlogon directory for Domain Logons

(you need to configure Samba to act as a domain controller too.)

;[netlogon]
; comment = Network Logon Service
; path = /home/samba/netlogon
; guest ok = yes
; read only = yes
; share modes = no

Un-comment the following and create the profiles directory to store

users profiles (see the “logon path” option above)

(you need to configure Samba to act as a domain controller too.)

The path below should be writable by all users so that their

profile directory may be created the first time they log on

;[profiles]
; comment = Users profiles
; path = /home/samba/profiles
; guest ok = no
; browseable = no
; create mask = 0600
; directory mask = 0700

[printers]
comment = All Printers
browseable = no
path = /var/spool/samba
printable = yes
guest ok = no
read only = yes
create mask = 0700

[share]
path = /home/share
writeable = yes
guest ok = yes
guest only = yes
create mode = 0777
directory mode = 0777
share mode = 0777

Windows clients look for this share name as a source of downloadable

printer drivers

[print$]
comment = Printer Drivers
path = /var/lib/samba/printers
browseable = yes
read only = yes
guest ok = no

Uncomment to allow remote administration of Windows print drivers.

You may need to replace ‘lpadmin’ with the name of the group your

admin users are members of.

Please note that you also need to set appropriate Unix permissions

to the drivers directory for these users to have write rights in it

; write list = root, @lpadmin

A sample share for sharing your CD-ROM with others.

;[cdrom]
; comment = Samba server’s CD-ROM
; read only = yes
; locking = no
; path = /cdrom
; guest ok = yes

The next two parameters show how to auto-mount a CD-ROM when the

cdrom share is accesed. For this to work /etc/fstab must contain

an entry like this:

/dev/scd0 /cdrom iso9660 defaults,noauto,ro,user 0 0

The CD-ROM gets unmounted automatically after the connection to the

If you don’t want to use auto-mounting/unmounting make sure the CD

is mounted on /cdrom

; preexec = /bin/mount /cdrom
; postexec = /bin/umount /cdrom
[/spoiler]

Add a new section at the bottom that reads:-

# NAS shares - added by BkS [NAS Shares] path = /home/bks/NAS-Shares ; available = yes ; browseable = yes guest ok = yes writeable = yes

Save the file.

Restart samba:

sudo service smbd restart

Now go to your laptop … open the pcmanfm file manager … in the address bar, enter:

smb://192.168.0.8

and hit enter.

What is visible ?

I got errors.

Failed to retrieve share list from server
The specified location is not mounted

When did you get that ?

When I put smb://192.168.0.8 into the address bar in pcmanfm

Try rebooting both machines.

Then try again.

Right I’m able to access the NAS-Shares folder now, but I don’t see any system links?

I have restarted booth machines and they are there though (I tweaked the path for the NAS-shares folder because I called it NAS):

ls ~/NAS
bks@bally-server:~$ ls ~/NAS Main_Drive Wallpapers

The symlinks are the “Wallpapers” and " “Main_Drive” directories in NAS

can you navigate and write to them ?

That’s what I’m saying. When I navigate to the NAS folder, the Wallpapers & Main_Drive directories aren’t visible.

on the server, what is the output from:

ls -a /home/bks/NAS-Shares

?