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Running Xubuntu there are two indicators used on the RH pane of the GUI in gnome-disk-utility. There's a litle arrow/triangle which says the partition is mounted, but what does the star symbol mean? Star indicator in sda3 and sda5

More info which might help: I have a portable system on a USB stick and occasionally the kernel gets updated and the grub menu is updated. If I am doing this on the machine in question, os-probe finds the system on sda3 but not that on sda2. I then manually remove the unwanted grub menu item using grub-customizer. If I reinstall grub on sda2 or sda3, os-probe finds the other system OK.

My concern is that I want to delete the sda3 partition to use it for something else. If I do this, will it break my system?

In response to C.S.Cameron The GParted reference looks like this: GParted details sda3

I think I might be about to answer my own question but now I need to know how to fix it. /etc/fstab looks like this: fstab Does this mean that at boot-time something is pointing to sda3? And if so, should I change the entry

UUID=73c471ad-f49f-42a2-a576-089bf014d1a1

to

UUID=88ab6066-7975-4b36-b279-51819da25293

which would then point to sda2? Or would this just make things worse?

And going back to my original question, does the star really mean that the partitions with a star are those listed in fstab?

user94924
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  • The star shows that the partition is in use by the Linux OS. The triangles indicate that the partition is mounted. – C.S.Cameron Nov 01 '20 at 08:41

4 Answers4

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Gnome-Disks Stars and Triangles.

The star shows that the partition is in use by the Linux OS, (ie /, /home or swap). The triangles indicate that the partition is mounted, Clicking the triangle lower left will mount the partition and then change to a square another click on the square will unmount it.

C.S.Cameron
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The star indicates whether the partition is "configured" to be mounted by some means...

for instance:

  • /etc/fstab...
  • or shutting off user defaults in gnome-disks "mount options" (which is essentially /etc/fstab, so "configured" may just mean /etc/fstab)...
  • possibly even "autofs" (I haven't verified that one)...

...if you want to examine the theory just comment out an entry in your /etc/fstab and the star goes away immediately... Leave it out and configure the "Edit mount options" to shut off "User session defaults" in gnome-disks, the star should come back... (as a corresponding entry is added to /etc/fstab.... disable that, and it goes away....

It is kind of a not-very intuitive concept because of the wording... User session defaults doesn't seem to apply to the "user" as we would think it. By turning "User session defaults" OFF, you are actually applying what gnome-disks entry(yours) INTO /etc/fstab.... So essentially, "User Session Defaults" really seems to be what the 'system' (fstab) has. Seems backwards, not to mention the F#@#%#%@% on/off switch button (used all over ubuntu) is one of the most confusing I have EVER seen.

enter image description here

This means you have added the CDROM to your /etc/fstab

....the star is not affected by the auto/noauto option... so i don't believe it has to do with auto-mounting, just seems to be whether or not it is a configured entry.

WU-TANG
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  • Tks for this, Wu-Tang. So why is there not a star against sda1 or sda2 which are bootable and sda2 mounts as the root partition on normal boot? And do you think fstab on sda2 should point to sda2 mount point rather than sda3? – user94924 Nov 05 '20 at 07:50
  • I do like your "SOMEWHERE" !! – user94924 Nov 05 '20 at 07:58
  • no, your root is on your sda3, which has the star.... and I don't believe your sda1 is configured in(side) linux. – WU-TANG Nov 05 '20 at 08:04
  • ok... i didn't read any of what you were "doing" to your machine... yeah you are causing all kinds of confusion there... I believe the answer to your question is what I wrote there as the answer..... But the solution to your "problem" is a whole different situation.. you can't do what you're doing the way your doing it... good question though, because i truly never knew until i looked into it.. I don't even think I've ever even acknowledged the stars before... i should clarify my above comment "your root is CONFIGURED on your sda3" – WU-TANG Nov 05 '20 at 08:11
  • ok i think i am understanding, yes you want to make the switch of the UUID in /etc/fstab... as long as you are sure that you never were running on the other partition or at least that they are identical now?? First, in /etc/fstab, I would add the new entry(sda2's) and just comment out the old one(sda3), to see if it is going to boot up clean and operate without error for a few days.... that is unless you are totally confident in sda2... – WU-TANG Nov 05 '20 at 08:26
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The star shows that, particular partition is automatically mounted whenever you boot up/switch on your system. While the triangle shows to the partition/drive is mounted.

R K
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  • This puzzles me greatly as the system is booted into sda2 (mounted but no star) while sda3 is not mounted but has a star. Can someone explain this for me, pls? It was not mounted at boot as it contains another operating system. Sda2 is the default/preferred boot partition. – user94924 Nov 01 '20 at 12:31
  • @user94924: A image of this drive in GParted might help. – C.S.Cameron Nov 05 '20 at 05:08
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OK, I think I've now got to the bottom of this.

The little star DOES mean that the partition is specified in fstab. It has nothing to do with whether or not it is mounted; that's the little arrow. Removing the partition from "Edit mount options" in gnome-disks simply deletes the fstab entry. The system continues to boot fine as I assume this is all specified in the config when installing/updating grub.

Deleting an entry and adding another entry in fstab removes the little star from the deleted entry and adds a star to the new entry. Again this doesn't affect booting and can be done with any old data partition - it doesn't need to have a system and can have any file organisation as far as I can tell. I've not tried it with an encrypted partition.

I wish they'd put this sort of stuff in the --help or man-pages !!

I've solved my 'problem', if problem I had, by correcting the UUID in fstab on sda2 with a little star against sda2 and sda5 (swap). fstab on sda3 is OK, too, as it correctly puts the star in sda3 and sda5 (swap).

Tks for your help in prompting my thinking, Wu-Tang.

Happy days !!

jg1

user94924
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  • I edited my answer based on what you saw... I never saw the entry because I kept my fstab open in an editor... And also to give a bit more clarity of the behavior because I don't think it works as we initially thought... I don't know about the last sentence in your first paragraph though, remember you had a unique situation there. I wouldnt want someone thinking that removing an fstab entry would always allow their system to boot fine... a missing or simple mistake in an entry can cause a boot can drop into initramfs... you may want to revise that one – WU-TANG Nov 05 '20 at 12:57
  • I now know how this happened. I've a fairly heavily customised system and installing a new OS is a lengthy business so I keep a basic image on the shelf which I can deploy as needed. When I move to a new release, I update the stock system and roll out the image to all the PCs on the network. I change the UUIDs and set up the boot loader (usually grub) then all works OK. I've been doing this for years but never understood the little star in gnome-disks. There doesn't appear to be anything in the gnome documentation about it either. Hence my question. – user94924 Nov 05 '20 at 16:27
  • Pls don't get me wrong - the rolling out of the image is not a simple a copy/paste job but it's a lot quicker than a ground-up system install !! – user94924 Nov 05 '20 at 16:34