How to automatically mount partitions for dualusers?

General system Newbie
1

HP Laptop 15s-eq1xxx
Kernel: 6.4.12-arch1
Desktop: KDE Plasma
EndeavourOS

Hi,
I have a dualuser and multiboot system with several partitions on the same SSD. 2 ntfs partiions, WinLin and Tbird, are used by both user1 (admin) and user2 (normal). Each time either user1 or user2 logs in, he has to hit WinLin, enter the admin password, and then Tbird, to mount and use the partitions. And he has to unmount the partitions before the other user can mount them with the admin password.

How can I manage that both partitions mount automatically for both users, please?

2

Have you tried to mount the partitions via /etc/fstab?

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Fstab

Try also adding the mount option users

users
Allow any user to mount and to unmount the filesystem, even when some other ordinary user mounted it.

https://man.archlinux.org/man/mount.8

1 Like
3

Thanks, but only partial success. Since I do not undestand the contents of both your links, I just added the following two lines in /etc/tstab:
First this:
A:

# <file system>             <mount point>  <type>  <options>  <dump>  <pass>
UUID=[UUID]       /run/media/user1/Tbird  ntfs   defaults,noatime 0 2
UUID=[UUID]       /run/media/user1/WinLin  ntfs   defaults,noatime 0 2

Works fine with user1, WinLin is accessible and Thunderbird is functioning (its personal profiles are on partition Tbird). But, replacing “user1” with “users”
B:

# <file system>             <mount point>  <type>  <options>  <dump>  <pass>
UUID=[UUID]       /run/media/users/Tbird  ntfs   defaults,noatime 0 2
UUID=[UUID]       /run/media/users/WinLin  ntfs   defaults,noatime 0 2

This works fine for both user1 and user2 regarding accesssibilty of files and forlders with Dolphin. But Thunderbird complains “Your Thunderbird profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible”. TIts profiles are in Tbird. Funny though, that Dolphin can browse through these profile folders, but Thundebird cannot.

Is there anything else I could do?

4

Hmmm… what are you trying to accomplish?
First, let’s forget about partitions.
I’d guess you want both admin and normal user to be able to use the same mail account with thunderbird, right?

5

Of course not. Each one has a different mail account.
EDIT: Trying to accomplish? Each user should be able to use his mail account without entering the root password first to mount the Thunderbird partition. Like usser1 can do if I put “user1” in the fstab-line. But I want the same for user2. And “users” does not do it as outlined above. A couple of years ago I had a smooth solution for this with Ubuntu, but, I could bite my backside, I cannot remember how I did it.Sorry, I have to continue tomorrow

6

I’d suggest reading the manual page

man ntfs-3g

It includes a few useful tips like

  • disabling hibernate and fast starting on the Windows side (if you have Windows installed)
  • settings proper permissions to the ntfs mount (uid, gid, and maybe usermapping)
7

Hello,

I guess Thunderbird expect to find its profile/config in your home, you could try with a symbolic link, something like this :

ln -s ~/.thunderbird /run/media/users/Tbird/.thunderbird
8

Thanks, but it could be so easy, if I had only one user, but I have two. For one user it works like shown below beautifully; please note that partition Tbird contains seperate personal mail folders for user1 and user2 (and I am simplifying, only one partition shown here to automount, disregarding partition WinLin):

*** Add this line to /etc/fstab: ***
UUID=[UUID] /media/user1/Tbird ntfs-3g defaults,noatime 0 2

Reboot, log in as user1, enjoy your own mailaccount with Thunderbird. No luck for user2 (see my postings above).
s
*** Now replace “user1” in the above fstab line with “user2”, reboot and log in as user 2 ***
Now user2 can enjoy his mail on his own account. No luck for user1 this time, even if he unmounts with root password and mount again.

The question remains: how can both users use the partition Tbird? Without the hassle (see below, P.S.)

P.S. What has been working for me for years, but is a little bit ugly: Say, user1 logs in, enters the root password to mount the partiion(s); if user2 wants to use the PC right away, user1 logs out, user2 logs in, uses the root password to unmount the partitions mounted by user1 (if user1 forgot to unmount), and vice versa.

9

Still unsure what you are trying to do…

Why don’t you simply mount the partitions permanently, with proper rights for the users who use them?
If you want to keep .thunderbird folders in those partitions, then you can symlink them to ~/.thunderbird for each user.

10

Problem is Linux don’t manage rights and permissions for ntfs. Both users are supposed to belong to the users group :

grep users /etc/group

and users group id should be 987, try something like :

UUID=[UUID]       /media/user1/Tbird  ntfs-3g   defaults,noatime,gid=987 0 2
11

Group number can be different, here it is 984…

12

That’s why I gave the grep command for confirmation, you never know. :slightly_smiling_face:

13

Solved, at least temporarily. Neither I (user1) nor user2 has to worry about mounting/unmounting anymore and thunderbird is happy, too. I have to thank you for your comments and the posters within these three links:
[https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/users_and_groups](link 1)
[https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/NTFS-3G](link 2)
[https://wiki.ubuntuusers.de/Benutzer_und_Gruppen/](link 3/)
And I would like to have a comment, please, whether the following is ok and will not be creating difficulties for the system:

*** 1 ***
Adding these two lines to fstab:

# <file system>             <mount point>  <type>  <options>  <dump>  <pass>
UUID=[UUID of partition Tbird]       /run/media/user/Tbird  ntfs-3g gid=1000,umaks=0002 0 0
UUID=[UUID  of partition WinLin] /run/media/user/WinLin  ntfs-3g gid=1000,umask=0002 0 0

where gid=1000 refers to the main group of user1 (admin).

*** 2 ***
For thunderbird I just had to recreate the relevant two accounts anew, using the respective personal folders within Tbird, which was child’s play with
$ thunderbird -p
As for my big data partition WinLin, I will have to create all links from my /home/etc. directory to files and directories/folders within WinLin afresh. No pain, no gain!
EDIT: easier than I thought :slight_smile:

14

I am not expert enough to assess it.

15

It looks fine. :slightly_smiling_face:

As long as you are using NTFS on Linux, you are bound to periodically have issues–even if you handle the drives carefully. NTFS tends to be very fragile when handled from Linux.

Assuming you have a Windows system you can run filesystem repair from in cases where ntfsfix doesn’t cut it, you should be fine. If you do not have a Windows system associated with these drives, you should switch to another filesystem like ext4.

16

I do use bind option in fstab in such scenario…
Will make you able to mount a folder into another folder in users home p.e. so you can mount drive and mount folders from that drive in different places.

17

BluishHumility
…
It looks fine. :slightly_smiling_face:

Thank you!

As long as you are using NTFS on Linux, you are bound to periodically have issues–even if you handle the drives carefully. NTFS tends to be very fragile when handled from Linux.

I have been using Windows along with Linux ever since we had our first PC at home. No problems so far. For a few practical reasons I keep Windows; and for nostalgia :wink: because my first steps into e-mail and social media were done, decades ago, with MS DOS, Kermit and Swedish KOM.

I might be able to move our Linux mail folders onto an ext4 partition, but not the big data on partition WinLin that should be accessible by both Linux and Windows.

18

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