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

At Mon, 25 May 2026 12:16:55 +0000 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.

You can also install autofs and move these sorts of file systems to be 
automouted. *Normally* (commonly) autofs is used for [non-essential] NFS 
mounts, but can also be used for any filesystem not used regularly, including 
"removable" disks (such as USB connected external drives).

sudo apt install autofs
man autofs
man automount
man auto.master


> 
> Thanks,
> Andy
>