/etc/fstab doesn't mount harddrive automatically AFTER boot

[bagelfire]

Hi,

I searched the forum for related entries and couldn't find any, so I apologize if I missed something obvious.

I'm a new Knoppix user and Linux administrator even though I'm a fairly competent user. My setup is: I boot Knoppix off a USB memory stick and load a persistent configuration (knoppix.sh, configs.tbz, etc.) from a harddrive.

The funny problem is, after boot when I log on as "knoppix", the hard drive is not mounted even though the knoppix.sh, configs.tbz configuration I have on the hard drive are clearly loaded successfully. The relevant lines from syslinux.cfg are:
DEFAULT linux
APPEND ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=us apm=power-off vga=791 initrd=minirt.gz nomce highres=off loglevel=0 libata.atapi_enabled=1 quiet SELINUX_INIT=NO nmi_watchdog=0 BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix myconfig=scan noswap noeject dma

After I log on and changed to the superuser, a "mount" shows:
rootfs on / type rootfs (rw)
/proc on /proc type proc (rw)
/sys on /sys type sysfs (rw)
/dev/sdb1 on /cdrom type vfat (ro,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=cp437,iocharset =iso8859-1,shortname=winnt)
/dev/cloop on /KNOPPIX type iso9660 (ro)
/ramdisk on /ramdisk type tmpfs (rw)
/UNIONFS on /UNIONFS type aufs (rw,xino=/ramdisk/.aufs.xino,br:/ramdisk=rw:/KNOPPIX=rr)
/proc/bus/usb on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw)
/dev/pts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw)
but not the "/dev/sda4 on /media/sda4" I am expecting.

So far, I have been manually mounting /dev/sda4 after logging on.

I tried adding an entry to knoppix.sh (on the harddrive) and in /etc/skel/.bashrc: "sudo mount /dev/sda4 /media/sda4" but that didn't work.
Next attempt: In /etc/fstab: "/dev/sda4 /media/sda4 ext3 auto,users,exec,umask=000,uid=knoppix,gid=knoppix 0 0" but that didn't work either.
Am a bit bemused because clearly the harddrive was mounted and accessed during boot but somehow it was unmounted?

Since then, I've googled many times without success before deciding to consult the gurus on this forum. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks in advance for the replies!

[hal8000]

You may be able to add your mount commands to /etc/init.d/boot.local
however, I think what is happening is that when syslinux.cfg loads the BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix
you have the equivalent of a live cd image.
If I can think of anything else to try I'll post back to the forum.

[bagelfire]

Hi,

Thanks for your reply.
I tried adding the mount commands to /etc/init.d/boot.local but that didn't work.
There is probably something in the boot process that I don't understand, because looking at the output of "dmesg":
"
...
EXT3-fs warning: maximal mount count reached, running e2fsck is recommended
EXT3 FS on sda4, internal journal
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
"
appears at the end, indicating that my harddrive which is identified as /dev/sda4 is mounted.

Yet afterwards somehow it got unmounted. I'm not sure what the implications of a live CD image are, but it sounds like I cannot edit whatever's mounted by that live CD image?
Tons of people out there must be mounting harddrives after booting up from a live CD, without making persistent images on their harddrives, I think.

Anyway, thanks, will keep going at it.