How do I mount a second hdd in xbmcbuntu?
#1
Hi all,

Searched for this for the past hour and can't find it.

I have xbmcbuntu 12.2 installed on an old lenovo A57, which works great.

Just plugged in a new 2TB HDD, and I can't find it through xbmc or find any way of finding it.

It's presumably unformatted, but as I can't access it in any way, I can't confirm that.

I use Linux all the time, and terminal doesn't worry me.

Any thoughts?

Ta
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#2
Just log out of xbmc, and log into xbmcbuntu desktop. You can mount and format from there. XBMC should then pick it up as a source the next time it is launched.
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#3
ssh in and either manually mount it or modify your /etc/fstab to auto-mount on boot. You'll want to create a partition and a filesystem on the new HDD.

Also you could run cat /proc/partitions to see the drive.
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#4
Right, This isn't going well.

The OS does not automatically recognise the drive.

I've managed to mount the drive using gparted, but unfortunately, this doesn't give the correct permissions in order to access the drive without using sudo. I've then used SSH to get into chown and take control of the drive, which should have worked, but now I'm seeing under fstab that there are mount errors.

Can't edit fstab at the moment, as xbmcbuntu has no gedit, but I suppose I could add that.

There must be a more straightforward way to do this, and I'm shocked that a Linux based machine struggles so much to mount a hard drive.

Any more thoughts?
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#5
Edit fstab:
Code:
gksudo leafpad  /etc/fstab

But you're right, something funny going on if the drive isn't mounting properly. I guess try googleing your drive model and ubuntu to see if it throws up a compatibility issueHuh
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#6
Got it sorted. Not sure what the final problem was but this is what I did:

Open software sources, find and install gparted.
Use gparted to wipe and remount new hdd as ext2 type.
Make changes and exit gparted

Open top level folder of the new drive in the UI
Try and create a new folder. If this gives a permission error, do the following.

One of the menu drop downs gives the option to 'open this folder in terminal'
Terminal then opens up with media/username/newdrive directory selected.
Drop down one layer through cd - in this case cd /media/mediacentre
Chown username /newdrive
Drop out of terminal
Create new folder in new drive
Logout
Open XBMC
Go to file manager, select add source and select the folder that you created earlier, in your new driv. If this adds without complaint, then all is well

Thanks for the help chaps, it gave me ideas which helped me solve it.
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#7
Every linux distribution comes with 'vi'. You could always use that and I think Ubuntu comes with 'nano' as well. Instead of mounting in /media you could have made your own 'media' dir in your /home and mounted the drive there. You wouldn't have permission errors then. I'll go through my usual process so you have an idea. Lets say new drive is /dev/sdb and my home is /home/doug/. You can use 'cat /proc/partitions' to get the device name.
Code:
sudo fdisk /dev/sdb # I make a partion named /dev/sdb1
sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdb1 # Makes a ext4 filesystem on /dev/sdb1
mkdir /home/doug/media # MAkes a dir named 'media' in my /home

From there I prefer to get the UUID of the HDD incase the kernel decides to change the /dev/sdX if there is a USB or something else mounted during boot in the future
Code:
sudo blkid # Gets the UUID

Then use /etc/fstab to mount
Code:
sudo vim /etc/fstab # Opens /etc/fstab in vim to make edits

Then add this line to the bottom. (You can use other flags if needed. You would want to enable TRIM if it's a SSD)
Code:
UUID=YOUR_UUID /home/doug/media ext4 noatime,data=writeback,nobh,errors=remount-ro 0 1

Once that is all done use
Code:
sudo mount -a

That'll mount everything in your /etc/fstab and spit out errors if there is an issue. Keeps you from rebooting and then not being able to boot if there are errors in there.

Linux does not struggle mounting hard drives it just does not hold your hand in doing so
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#8
I had to login just to plus one this last post.
I wasn't sure how to mount an existing ext4 partition, in xbmc - google led me here, I ssh'ed in and, independently did the above.
because gparted is not really for mounting disks.

Quote:Linux does not struggle mounting hard drives it just does not hold your hand in doing so

Quite so.
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#9
Quite right. gparted is for partitioning. Hence the name

Gnu PARTition EDitor
If I have helped you or increased your knowledge, click the 'thumbs up' button to give thanks :) (People with less than 20 posts won't see the "thumbs up" button.)
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#10
<splitting_hairs>
ahem, Gnome PART EDitor
</splitting_hairs>
Actually I thought it was GUI parted. parted is GNU anyway 8)


funny how XBMC picks up a NFTS USB HHD straight away, but a native linux mount, nope...
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#11
My ubuntu machines mount ntfs just fine.
If I have helped you or increased your knowledge, click the 'thumbs up' button to give thanks :) (People with less than 20 posts won't see the "thumbs up" button.)
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