UEFI /etc/fstab request

MiyoLinux · 2019-07-09 04:36:42

Hi everyone!

I'm working on a project, and I was wondering if anyone here who has an installed system (which uses UEFI) would be willing to post the contents of your /etc/fstab file?

If you don't want to share your UUIDs, that's fine, I'm mainly interested in the items that follow the UUIDs. If you have a separate /home partition listed, that would be much appreciated.

I don't have a UEFI computer, and though I've installed Devuan in UEFI in virtualbox, I would like to compare its UUIDs to an actual hardware installation's.

Thank you.

Last edited by MiyoLinux (2019-07-09 05:48:40)

Dutch_Master · 2019-07-09 08:23:21

Have a read:

https://www.funtoo.org/Successful_booting_with_UUID

I don't think booting with (U)EFI would change the use of UUIDs as the syntax is determined by that of the fstab file.

HTH!

MiyoLinux · 2019-07-09 09:48:13

Thanks Dutch_Master.

I appreciate the link, but that's not really what I was looking for. Perhaps I wasn't clear enough in what I was asking?

I'm currently working on a project; in which, a user will need to edit and make their own fstab file. In addition to BIOS instructions, I would like to include instructions for users who may be using UEFI. Since I don't have an actual UEFI computer, I can only go by the fstab files generated by Virtualbox installations. Perhaps my predicament is best understood by being visualized...

Below are the fstab files from two UEFI installations in Virtualbox. The first one is a MiyoLInux installation (based on ASCII). The second is a pure Devuan ASCII installation. The information following the UUIDs of both fstab files that were generated are very different...and confusing to me because of that. My gut tells me that the MiyoLinux fstab is closer to what would be correct on real hardware, but I'm not sure. That's why I was hoping someone with an actual UEFI installation on real hardware might be willing to share their fstab file.

The MiyoLinux UEFI fstab

UUID=a-bunch-of-letters-and-numbers	/		ext4	defaults,noatime	0	1
UUID=a-bunch-of-letters-and-numbers	/home		ext4	defaults,noatime	0	2
UUID=a-bunch-of-letters-and-numbers	swap		swap	defaults		0	0
UUID=a-few-letters-and-numbers		/boot/efi	vfat	defaults		0	1

The Devuan ASCII UEFI fstab

UUID=a-bunch-of-letters-and-numbers	/		ext4	errors=remount-ro	0	1
UUID=a-few-letters-and-numbers		/boot/efi	vfat	umask=0077		0	1
UUID=a-bunch-of-letters-and-numbers	/home		ext4	defaults		0	2
UUID=a-bunch-of-letters-and-numbers	none		swap	sw			0	0

Last edited by MiyoLinux (2019-07-09 09:50:46)

dxrobertson · 2019-07-09 10:10:54

Here is my actual fstab, from an UEFI install of Devuan ASCII, then upgraded to Beowulf.

I did make 1 manual change- I removed the UUID from the /dev/sda2 swap partition. I do this because I have another partition that I install to and the swap always gets formatted and thus its UUID changes. Removed it from fstab so I dont have to keep manually changing it.

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
# / was on /dev/sda3 during installation
UUID=a0dc904d-8dfd-4d5c-8800-584836cc979c /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# /boot/efi was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=8796-D391  /boot/efi       vfat    umask=0077      0       1
# swap was on /dev/sda2 during installation
/dev/sda2 none            swap    sw              0       0
/dev/sr0        /media/cdrom0   udf,iso9660 user,noauto     0       0

MiyoLinux · 2019-07-09 10:21:02

Ahhh...thank you dxrobertson!

So my gut feeling was wrong! LOL!

Your actual file looks exactly...well...almost exactly...like mine in Virtualbox. I edited out all of those commented out lines when I posted it here on the forum.

Thank you so much!

If anyone else is willing to post their's, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks again!

Dutch_Master · 2019-07-09 10:27:59

Ah, ok, I see where you're coming from. Your quest could be summarized as "why does a UEFI boot partition have a short/small UUID whereas normal partitions don't." Right? I'm afraid I can't answer that, but you should be able to find it in the UEFI spec somewhere

MiyoLinux · 2019-07-09 10:47:53

Well, despite my unfamiliarity with UEFI, I somewhat understand it's short UUID. My main concern was the differences under the "Options". Every example that I've found online said to "enter something like this" in the fstab file.

So, I have many BIOS fstab files to compare...but no UEFI fstab files. I couldn't find one single example of an UEFI fstab file online. So, I went the Virtualbox route...which caused confusion for me. LOL!

So, I risked embarrassing myself to ask for help.

Thank you.

kapqa · 2019-07-09 11:07:18

/etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
/dev/mapper/rich--PC--vg-root / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /boot was on /dev/sdc2 during installation
UUID=07d2061b-61ee-4196-8ed6-3ec4d40ff2c7 /boot ext2 defaults 0 2
# /boot/efi was on /dev/nvme0n1p1 during installation
UUID=0E51-C604 /boot/efi vfat umask=0077 0 1
/dev/mapper/rich--PC--vg-swap_1 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/sr0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0

Head_on_a_Stick · 2019-07-09 16:28:25

MiyoLinux wrote:

My main concern was the differences under the "Options". Every example that I've found online said to "enter something like this" in the fstab file.

The defaults entry should be fine, the kernel knows how to handle FAT filesystems.

This won't be much use 'cos I wrote it myself but here is my fstab:

/dev/nvme0n1p3 /    xfs  defaults        0 1
/dev/nvme0n1p1 /efi vfat defaults,noauto 0 0

As you can see I don't have the EFI system partition mounted automatically because of the fragile nature of FAT and also because it doesn't need to be mounted at all unless GRUB is being re-installed.

Here is how the kernel handles the defaults option:

E485:~$ grep nvme0n1p1 /proc/self/mounts 
/dev/nvme0n1p1 /efi vfat rw,relatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=437,iocharset=ascii,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro 0 0
E485:~$

You can also try the genfstab(1) script from the arch-install-scripts package, that will generate an fstab for you (as the name suggests).

Btw I do have a swap partition but I rely on systemd to mount it automatically so I don't need an fstab line

And please note that the fs_file entry (the second field in fstab) should be set to none for swap partitions, at least according to fstab(5).

MiyoLinux · 2019-07-09 20:36:34

Thanks kapqa!

...and thanks HoaS! The arch-install-scripts package looks interesting. I'll check that out. Thanks for all of the additional information too.

fsmithred · 2019-07-10 11:36:41

FYI, I'm probably going to make some changes to refractainstaller soon (partly as a result of this thread, thanks.)

- umask=0077 on /boot/efi in fstab.
- umask=0077 on initrd.img in full-disk encryption
- change swap mountpoint to "none"

If you can think of anything else I missed, let me know.

Dutch_Master · 2019-07-10 11:45:32

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

[...] but I rely on systemd [...]

Go wash your mouth with ~~soap~~ bleach you heretic!

The officially official Devuan Forum!

#1 2019-07-09 04:36:42

UEFI /etc/fstab request

#2 2019-07-09 08:23:21

Re: UEFI /etc/fstab request

#3 2019-07-09 09:48:13

Re: UEFI /etc/fstab request

#4 2019-07-09 10:10:54

Re: UEFI /etc/fstab request

#5 2019-07-09 10:21:02

Re: UEFI /etc/fstab request

#6 2019-07-09 10:27:59

Re: UEFI /etc/fstab request

#7 2019-07-09 10:47:53

Re: UEFI /etc/fstab request

#8 2019-07-09 11:07:18

Re: UEFI /etc/fstab request

#9 2019-07-09 16:28:25

Re: UEFI /etc/fstab request

#10 2019-07-09 20:36:34

Re: UEFI /etc/fstab request

#11 2019-07-10 11:36:41

Re: UEFI /etc/fstab request

#12 2019-07-10 11:45:32

Re: UEFI /etc/fstab request

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