Can't use UUID of my partitions in fstab

[Nilangshu]

I have a strange problem. I have working gentoo system but when I define partitions in FSTAB (Filesystem tab), it fails to boot as depend phase timeout while looking for partitions. But when I use device nodes such as /dev/sdaX then it work without any problem. Is my hard disk is failing that is the reason? Please help.

[alamahant]

Hi if you need uuid naming for "/" then please use an initrd.
I think this happens because getting uuid names requires blkid or some other userspace utility which is impossible before mounting "/"

[mike155]

If alamahant's answer doesn't help, then post your /etc/fstab and the output of 'blkid', please.

[NeddySeagoon]

Nilangshu,

Check your fstab format.

Code: Select all

UUID=8d5d5691-ceb7-4e58-bed3-28803cb88bfe  /home                    ext4  noatime         1 2

works for my /home.

Code: Select all

/dev/sde1: UUID="c400b18c-0210-4338-a0fd-f437ecbaaf99" BLOCK_SIZE="1024" TYPE="ext4" PARTLABEL="ext4" PARTUUID="150e6ef1-7ba8-409c-9c3f-dbdecdc9f18b"

Don't mix up the UUID, whicd is a property of the filesystem with the PARTUUID= which is a property of the partition holding the filesystem.

fstab can work with either.

As fstab cannot be read until after root is mounted, is safe to use either for root in fstab.
On the kernel command line, the device or root=PARTUUID= works but root=UUID needs an initrd to dig the UUIDs of of the filesystems.

[Spanik]

I never use an initrd and do use UUID for / (and /root on the other pc). Only issue I ever had was that I had to use PARTUUID for a vfat /boot because that did not work with UUID for some reason. My fstab looks like this:

Code: Select all

PARTUUID=af5d23da-97e8-4ee7-9e99-864b7cffd077	/boot					vfat	noauto,noatime					0 2
UUID=5ee9cd8c-daba-48eb-ac2f-ccbb755fc5b5		none					swap	sw								0 0
UUID=65b3e5eb-04b2-4cf8-9a6a-61e6ad938397		/						xfs		noatime				0 1
UUID=5961004a-94f5-4c20-9746-7c721d22e6ec		/mnt/main_data			xfs		noatime,rw,exec,suid			0 1
UUID=94063aea-cfd4-4f05-9228-f10ba1c08ae2		/mnt/rommel				xfs		noatime,rw,exec,suid			0 1
UUID=cf9c0169-59c9-4c28-9d8c-d7a77b3897ca		/mnt/mail				xfs		noatime			0 1
UUID=377e334b-7a76-43f2-b5a9-587cd1caabed		/mnt/virtual_machines	xfs		noatime,rw,exec,suid			0 1
UUID=72be5ad8-5040-4a90-b89e-3bc934e71728		/mnt/data				xfs		noatime,rw,exec,suid			0 1

[Tony0945]

Only issue I ever had was that I had to use PARTUUID for a vfat /boot because that did not work with UUID for some reason.

This is the reason:

Don't mix up the UUID, which is a property of the filesystem with the PARTUUID= which is a property of the partition holding the filesystem.

The BIOS doesn't know about filesystems (except Fat & ntfs and it knows little about ntfs)

[pietinger]

Is my hard disk is failing that is the reason? Please help.

No. Probably you have a syntax error in your fstab.

I have a strange problem. I have working gentoo system but when I define partitions in FSTAB (Filesystem tab), it fails to boot as depend phase timeout while looking for partitions. But when I use device nodes such as /dev/sdaX then it work without any problem.

1. If your disk is partitioned with "GPT", then you can use in your fstab:

- UUID
- PARTUUID
- PARTLABEL (but NOT LABEL)

An example from my fstab:

Code: Select all

PARTLABEL=boot          /boot                   vfat    defaults,noauto,noatime                 1 2

2. If your disk is partitioned as "MBR", then you can use in your fstab:

- UUID
- LABEL (but NOT PARTLABEL)
- I am not sure about PARTUUID (I dont have any MBR since many years)

In all cases you dont need an initramfs. In all cases you DONT use inverted comma.



If you want to give your kernel the information which is the root partition (kernel command line), you can use:

root=/dev/....
root=PARTUUID=
root=PARTLABEL=

In all cases you DONT use inverted comma.



P.S.: Just look into your /dev/disk

Code: Select all

 /dev/disk # ls -l
insgesamt 0
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 400 18. Mai 10:42 by-id
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 160 18. Mai 10:42 by-partlabel
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 160 18. Mai 10:42 by-partuuid
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 160 18. Mai 10:42 by-uuid

[Tony0945]

1. If your disk is partitioned with "GPT", then you can use in your fstab:

- UUID
- PARTUUID
- PARTLABEL (but NOT LABEL)

An example from my fstab:

Code: Select all

PARTLABEL=boot          /boot                   vfat    defaults,noauto,noatime                 1 2

2. If your disk is partitioned as "MBR", then you can use in your fstab:

- UUID
- LABEL (but NOT PARTLABEL)
- I am not sure about PARTUUID (I dont have any MBR since many years)

Code: Select all

 $ cat /etc/fstab |grep -v ^#


LABEL=CT500MX_EFI	/boot/efi	 vfat	relatime	1 2
LABEL=CT500MX_PART2	/		 ext4	relatime	0 1
LABEL=SAGE_VIDEO	/video		 ext4	auto,relatime	0 1
/dev/sr0		/mnt/cdrom	 auto	user,noauto,nofail	0 0
tmpfs                   /tmp             tmpfs  rw,nosuid,noatime,nodev,size=20G,mode=1777 0 0
devpts                  /dev/pts         devpts     rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,gid=5,mode=620,ptmxmode=000 0 0


LABEL=P1-1TB		/mnt/freegentoo	 ext4		relatime,noauto  0 1
LABEL=P2-1TB		/mnt/custom	 ext4		relatime,noauto  0 1
LABEL=P3-1TB            /home/tony/.VirtualBox	ext4	relatime,auto	0 1

gpt