Re: Does a bad /etc/fstab entry of a 'spare' drive prevent system booting?

Andy Smith <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> On Mon, May 25, 2026 at 12:41:30PM +0100, Chris Green wrote:
> > However it does seem a bit 'unfriendly' to make the system totally
> > unbootable if a drive that isn't needed at all for the boot process
> > can't be mounted by fstab.
> 
> You've already received answers about why you can't log in, and how to
> boot into single user mode.
> 
> I just wanted to add that if there is a filesystem that is not
> essential for system operation, you can inform systemd of this by adding
> "nofail" to the mount options in fstab. This is documented in
> systemd.mount(5).
> 
> You can also use the regular mount options "noauto" to not mount the
> thing every time, requiring a manual mount.
> 
It was a drive used for hourly 'snapshot' backups so needed to be
mounted normally.  I think the nofail mount option would fulfil what I
need though.