Automounting Not Working

Solution 1:

Following explains step by step how to configure a drive in the standard Ubuntu desktop so it automounts. Note that you must have administrator rights on the computer to be able to complete this.

Automounting the drive

1. Decide where you want that drive to be mounted. As an example, I will assume you want to mount the drive in a directory /media/datadrive.
2. Create the directory where the drive should be mounted. Because this directory will be within the system directories, you need administration priviledges to create it. Open a terminal and create that directory with the command sudo mkdir /media/datadrive.
3. Open Disks. Click your drive in the left pane. The map with partitions it contains is on the right pane. A partition contains a file system.
4. Click the partition you want to automount during startup so it is highlighted, then click the cog icon under the map. Select "Edit mount options".
5. In the dialog that appears, uncheck "User Session Defaults". That makes the fields available for editing. Next to "Mount point", enter the directory where your drive will be mounted. Uncheck "Show in user interface" if you do not want an icon for the partition in the file manager. Otherwise, leave that checked.
6. Hit OK. You will now be asked your user login password. After hitting Enter, you are finished. The partition should be automatically available in the directory you specify next time you boot.

Regulating the permissions on the partition

A drive mounted this way is by default only accessible for the root user. You will need to grant permissions to other users on the system. For example, if you want to own the partition as your own user, then open a terminal and issue the command

sudo chown $USER:$USER /media/datadrive

Your user will now own the mount point. You will therefore be able to create, modify and delete files and directories on that partition.

Links: Making the partition available from within your home directory

To make the partition part of your home folder, you can create a symbolic link anywhere in your home directory to the mount point, or to any subdirectory on the partition. For example, you could have directories /media/datadrive/Archive and /media/datadrive/Moviecollection on the partition, and then make then directly available through links called Archive and Moviecollection in your home directory.

One way to create symbolic links is:

1. Open two file manager windows, e.g. the left window showing the folder on your partition to which you want to create a symlink, and the other showing the folder where you want the links to be, e.g. your home folder.
2. Hold Shift+Alt and drag the folder "Archive" (or any other folder you want to link to) to the other pane.
3. Release the mouse: the symlink will be created.