[Solved]Each partition on /etc/fstab file is listed twice.

Luliic02 · 2019-05-26 21:13:42

Hello all, after starting again and again I finally managed to get Arch Linux with KDE working. However, the boot was way too long (userspace took +3 minutes long). After looking the fstab file, I noticed that 1) Each partition is listed twice. 2) The /dev/sda2's UUIDs are different (should've checked during installation as advised by the wiki, my bad).

After commenting out the one which is wrong, the boot time went down to ~10 seconds. My questions are: Is it normal that each partition is listed twice? Should I comment out the double'd partiotions? Is it better to leave the partition with the wrong UUID commented out or to change it?

Thanks in advance.

# Static information about the filesystems.
# See fstab(5) for details.

# <file system> <dir> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
# /dev/sda4
UUID=3bab9e8b-3b42-4d57-b702-199c5982ee6c       /               ext4            rw,relatime,stripe=256  0 1

# /dev/sda3
UUID=23A7-E694          /boot           vfat            rw,relatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro       0 2

# /dev/sda2
#UUID=8ea46b80-bbab-4aa1-ac6a-0edc4cec1549      none            swap            defaults        0 0

# /dev/sda4
UUID=3bab9e8b-3b42-4d57-b702-199c5982ee6c       /               ext4            rw,relatime,stripe=256  0 1

# /dev/sda3
UUID=23A7-E694          /boot           vfat            rw,relatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro       0 2

# /dev/sda2
UUID=ddd1e8ed-f13e-4bf2-9b44-e45b0097b457       none            swap            defaults        0 0

Last edited by Luliic02 (2019-05-27 08:34:21)

Scimmia · 2019-05-26 21:14:38

It means you most likely generated fstab twice.

Luliic02 · 2019-05-26 21:31:36

@Scimmia should I comment them out/remove them?

Scimmia · 2019-05-27 00:36:24

Yes

Luliic02 · 2019-05-27 08:34:03

Alright, thank you!

Head_on_a_Stick · 2019-05-27 09:26:11

Fun fact: you don't need an fstab at all for that configuration.

And without an fstab file systemd will keep the ESP unmounted except for when it is needed.

Luliic02 · 2019-05-27 09:33:54

@Head_on_a_Stick Why isn't it needed? What do you recommend me to do? When is it necessary? Also, I have installed Arch Linux on an external SSD, does that change anything? If you could point what to look for it would be awesome. Thanks in advance.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2019-05-27 09:45:52

Luliic02 wrote:

Why isn't it needed?

Because systemd can mount both the ESP & swap partitions automagically with GPT drives.

See systemd-gpt-auto-generator(8) for more on this.

Luliic02 wrote:

What do you recommend me to do?

# mv /etc/fstab{,.bak}
# reboot

More of a suggestion than a recommendation though

Luliic02 wrote:

I have installed Arch Linux on an external SSD, does that change anything?

The only thing that would make a difference is your applied stripe=256 mount option for /dev/sda4, are you using that for any specific reason?

Luliic02 · 2019-05-27 11:41:21

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

The only thing that would make a difference is your applied stripe=256 mount option for /dev/sda4, are you using that for any specific reason?

It was generated automatically by:

# genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab

It did not seem to be harmful, so I didn't remove/change it. Should I do it?

Head_on_a_Stick · 2019-05-27 11:55:55

Luliic02 wrote:

Should I do it?

It's up to you but I can claim no specific advantage for running fstab-less.

Check the mount options after rebooting with

grep sda /proc/self/mounts

If anything goes wrong then you can always just restore /etc/fstab.bak to it's original location.

Scimmia · 2019-05-27 14:23:27

And yet we have a whole lot of people who update the kernel and the ESP never gets mounted. Don't do that.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2019-05-27 14:29:35

Scimmia wrote:

And yet we have a whole lot of people who update the kernel and the ESP never gets mounted

I have always found that systemd mounts the ESP automatically during kernel upgrades.

Arch Linux

#1 2019-05-26 21:13:42

[Solved]Each partition on /etc/fstab file is listed twice.

#2 2019-05-26 21:14:38

Re: [Solved]Each partition on /etc/fstab file is listed twice.

#3 2019-05-26 21:31:36

Re: [Solved]Each partition on /etc/fstab file is listed twice.

#4 2019-05-27 00:36:24

Re: [Solved]Each partition on /etc/fstab file is listed twice.

#5 2019-05-27 08:34:03

Re: [Solved]Each partition on /etc/fstab file is listed twice.

#6 2019-05-27 09:26:11

Re: [Solved]Each partition on /etc/fstab file is listed twice.

#7 2019-05-27 09:33:54

Re: [Solved]Each partition on /etc/fstab file is listed twice.

#8 2019-05-27 09:45:52

Re: [Solved]Each partition on /etc/fstab file is listed twice.

#9 2019-05-27 11:41:21

Re: [Solved]Each partition on /etc/fstab file is listed twice.

#10 2019-05-27 11:55:55

Re: [Solved]Each partition on /etc/fstab file is listed twice.

#11 2019-05-27 14:23:27

Re: [Solved]Each partition on /etc/fstab file is listed twice.

#12 2019-05-27 14:29:35

Re: [Solved]Each partition on /etc/fstab file is listed twice.

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