Problem installing server on laptop after Linux re-installation from backup

Plex Media Server
21

when you do a df,

you’ll see the physical /dev/sdXX listed on the left column.

now, just as I show in the procedure:

sudo bash
blkid  /dev/sdXX

You’ll see the UUID value printed by blkdev
What are the names & /dev/sdxx nodes? NTFS or EXT4 ?

22

I’m going to use an ext4 partition. My question was what do I write in place of the word “media3” in that line. Do I write something specific or anything that I like?

EDIT: this is the line -

/dev/sdf3: LABEL="My-backups" UUID="ad3cd6a2-50ef-4596-809a-b997b7fc34d6" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="6a8c9f91-b24a-455e-98a6-6d35649af38d"
23

For me. it was named ‘media3’.

What do you want to call it ??? :slight_smile:

That’s the beauty of /etc/fstab.

  1. We pick the partitions ourselves
  2. Specify the formatting
  3. Tell it where to mount it

That’s all you need do here

Here’s my /etc/fstab (my workstation)

You can see, I do all kinds of crazy devices anywhere I want… but the OS is always first

# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
/dev/nvme0n1p1         /boot/efi              vfat    umask=0077               0   1
/dev/nvme0n1p2         /                      xfs     defaults,noatime         0   1
/dev/nvme0n1p3         none                   swap    sw                       0   0
/dev/nvme0n1p4         /home                  xfs     defaults,noatime         0   2

# SATA
/dev/sda1              /sata                  xfs     defaults,auto,noatime    0   3

# USB
/dev/sdb1              /usb                   xfs     defaults,auto,nofail     0   4

#LXD
/usb/lxd-common        /var/snap/lxd/common   none    defaults,bind            0   0

### NFS
```
24

OK, I’ll call it My-backups. It’s the existing name.

25

All you need remember:

  1. Create the mount directory
  2. Set permissions 755 so Plex can get into it AFTER you mount
  3. Edit /etc/fstab
  4. TEST the mount by saying sudo mount /My-backups – or wherever it is
    (mount looks up the device and mount info – verifies it’s all good)
  5. If no errors, you’re done.
  6. If errors, fix /etc/fstab and repeat the test until no errors and the mount is right
26

I get this:

mount /disks/MX-backups
mount: /disks/MX-backups: mount point does not exist.
       dmesg(1) may have more information after failed mount system call.
mount: (hint) your fstab has been modified, but systemd still uses
       the old version; use 'systemctl daemon-reload' to reload.

I used “MX-backups” in the end. :slight_smile:

27

don’t forget the sudo systemctl daemon-reload step.
Keep it all in sync

You got it all mounted now ?

df shows it cleanly?

28

I don’t see it. I don’t even see the “old” one with my File Manager.

29

use the terminal window

Skip the graphical.

  1. mount to confirm the partition is mounted
  2. cd /disks
  3. ls -la – confirm MX-backups is there
  4. ls -la MX-backups to look inside it
30

ls -la shows an empty directory!

31

type:

mount | grep -i mx

If you don’t see it listed then your /etc/fstab entry didn’t mount

If that’s the case. please show me what you have for all of /etc/fstab

32

I get
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,gid=5,mode=620,ptmxmode=000)

fstab:

UUID=b84d9028-4638-429b-a165-6148f4973cc0 / ext4 noatime 1 1
UUID=F89B-A1C5 /boot/efi vfat noatime,dmask=0002,fmask=0113 0 0
/swap/swap swap swap defaults 0 0

UUID=ad3cd6a2-50ef-4596-809a-b997b7fc34d6 /disks/MX-Plex ext4 defaults,auto,rw,nofail 0 1

I changed the name in fstab to MX-Plex to make it more relevant.

33

what disk device /dev/sdxx is that?

Let’s confirm the UUID because something has an error

34

It should be the one that I got at the beginning, the one on the external disk with the ext4 partition.
It was /dev/sdf3

Now I don’t see it at all.

Should I edit fstab again and delete the entry in it?

35

Yes, delete the entry.

Have you been unplugging & plugging them back in?

Linux hint/trick:

  1. When the system boots, it always scans the USB devices in the same order and assigns their names that way
  2. If you don’t move things around, they will always be at the same place.

You can use this to your advantage and avoid UUID labels if you want.

36

The partition is visible after I deleted the entry. (Linux amazes me for its speed!).

So, please what should I do now? I’m at a loss as to the next step.

37

I don’t blame you for being at a loss.

That Linux is behaving like Windows.

How “married” are you to it?

I ask this because it’s behaving completely illogically.

I think you’d be better off with real Debian or real Ubuntu

38

I only started using it after many decades with Windows. So everything in Linux is new to me.
I don’t have any other experience with Linux distros but I like MX because, I thought, it’s simple to use.

39

Give me a few minutes please ?

I’ll go look deeper at it.

What do you like the most ?

To share why I’m asking all this — There is another Linux, “Linux Mint” which is popular with former Windows users which is COMPLETELY unusable for Plex.

It’s so non-standard and failure-prone that it isn’t even funny.

Now, here you come along with MX and your devices aren’t visible to you.

WTF ???

40

Take all the time you need. You certainly know a lot about these things and I’m impressed by you.

I’m grateful that I didn’t install Linux Mint, because I was considering it at some point. It would frustrate me to find out that Plex wouldn’t work with it.

To clarify, after I removed the entry in fstab the device is visible again. But to repeat, Plex doesn’t see the full range, let’s say, of directories on my laptop including the external drives that have ext4 partitions. To be precise, it does see the partition, but no directories inside it.