[PLUG] What are fstab and mtab?

Terry Griffin griffint at pobox.com
Fri Dec 16 18:24:52 UTC 2005


> Because I think they are somehow connected to the fact that my
> iPod will not mount, although it did fine last time I tried, a couple
> months ago. Previously it auto-mounted. All I had to be careful of
> was to issue the command "umount /media/iPod" before
> disconnecting it.
>
> Now, I plug it in, its display goes to "DO NOT DISCONNECT," but
> gtkpod can't see it. "Mount" does not list it. "Umount /media/iPod"
> says it is not mounted. And /mount/media/iPod gives me "mount:
> special device /dev/sda2 does not exist."
>
> Does the last error message mean it is not listed in fstab or mtab?
> If so, how does it get in there, because I know I have never
> manually changed anything in those files. I only know of it from
> seeing references to it.
>
> One additional clue: Last time I plugged in the iPod was a couple
> months ago. Since then I've added a USB pocket hard disk, which
> was plugged in when I plugged in the iPod. I'm thinking that made
> Ubuntu Breezy think the iPod was sda2 instead of its normal
> status as sda1. I unplugged the pocket disk, but that didn't change
> the error messages with iPod.
>
> I don't dare disconnect the iPod as long as that warning message
> is on its screen, or its filesystem will become corrupted and I'll
> have to go find a Windows XP computer to restore it.
>
> This sucks.

For some reason that iPod message won't go away until you "eject"
it. Use the 'eject' utility on the device node, i.e.:

   eject /dev/sda

Terry





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