[Resolved] Debian 12: trying to auto-mount a NTFS-formatted hard drive by making an entry in fstab. Getting the error "mount: /etc/fstab: parse error at line 18 -- ignored"

Here’s the entry in the fstab file for mounting my hard drive. I have bolded the name of the hard drive (that’s what it shows up as on the dock when it isn’t mounted):


<span style="color:#323232;">UUID=D4C0A66EC0A65710 /media/lucky/New Volume ntfs rw,auto,users,exec,nls=utf8,umask=003,gid=46,uid=1000    0   0
</span>

After making that entry in fstab, I execute the, systemctl daemon-reload, command, and then mount -a, afterwards which gives me this error.

fxt_ryknow,

Issue is with the space in “New Volume”, I bet. Should likely be /media/lucky/New\ Volume

Or, I vaguely remember having to add like \040 or something in place of the space. I’ve dealt with this in the past… And found it easier to use a “-” instead of a space… Or no space at all, obviously.

mmababes,

Using `

fxt_ryknow,

Good deal. After my post I saw someone else had also suggested the \040, prior to me… I just hadn’t read all the comments. Glad it’s sorted.

shortdorkyasian,

Does this help? superuser.com/…/how-to-mount-partition-with-space…

Looks like you need `

mmababes, (edited )

This worked.

I edited the fstab file:

`UUID=D4C0A66EC0A65710 /media/lucky/New

ozoned, (edited )

You’ve made a directory path literally called

/media/lucky/New Volume

?

That REALLY doesn’t seem like a good idea considering that *'s are wildcards for anything, and Linux isn’t really fond of spaces.

The error basically tells you that you have an error on line 18, which I’m assuming is this line you’re stating and that it’s ignored that line so that it can still go on and mount other things.

Most likely you’d want something like:

# mkdir /media/lucky/NewVol

and then your fstab would be:

UUID=D4C0A66EC0A65710 /media/lucky/NewVol ntfs rw,auto,users,exec,nls=utf8,umask=003,gid=46,uid=1000 0 0

Also do you have a lib or something for linux to handle NTFS file system types? I haven’t run Windows in 17 years now, so I don’t have a clue if Linux can natively handle NTFS.

You can also run:

# lsblk

or

# blkid

to get the storage information and verify the storage UUID is correct.

mmababes, (edited )

That REALLY doesn’t seem like a good idea considering that *'s are wildcards for anything, and Linux isn’t really fond of spaces.

There are no asterisks in the fstab file. I put them here to emphasize the name of the hdd (I edited my original post to remove them to avoid confusing people).

Also do you have a lib or something for linux to handle NTFS file system types?

I’m using the ntfs-3g driver.

Btw this is what the entry on fstab looks like now but I’m still getting the parsing error:

UUID=D4C0A66EC0A65710 “/media/lucky/New Volume” ntfs rw,auto,users,exec,nls=utf8,umask=003,gid=46,uid=1000 0 0

ozoned,

But you have a space in there. I don’t know how spaces are handled in fstab. You’ll either need to quote it or at least escape the space:

UUID=D4C0A66EC0A65710 ‘/media/lucky/New Volume’ ntfs rw,auto,users,exec,nls=utf8,umask=003,gid=46,uid=1000 0 0

OR

UUID=D4C0A66EC0A65710 /media/lucky/New\ Volume ntfs rw,auto,users,exec,nls=utf8,umask=003,gid=46,uid=1000 0 0

The space is absolutely an issue in fstab as it’s thinking “Volume” is the filesystem type and ntfs goes into your options, etc.

mmababes, (edited )

But you have a space in there. I don’t know how spaces are handled in fstab. You’ll either need to quote it or at least escape the space

Instead of using spaces or quotes (single or double), I used `

RatsOffToYa,

Is it literally named new volume? If so perhaps the space is throwing things off. Try quoting the whole path perhaps?

FigMcLargeHuge, (edited )

And dump the asterisks if that is the actual entry.

mmababes,

The asterisks are not in fstab file. I just added them here to emphasize the name of the hdd.

gregorum, (edited )

sometimes there are those times when you’ve been at it for 6-8 hours straight with no break, and you keep staring at that one line in your config, trying so hard to see this mistake. is it a comma out of place? did i missplell something? no? and you’re staring at it so long that you just don’t see the glaringly obvious:


<span style="color:#323232;">***New Volume***
</span>

it’s that one remnant that you probably copy/pasted from a tutorial page and you’re too brain-fried to consider that it’s a part of the line you should have changed, so you’re not looking at it, but there it is. but, hey, that’s why forums like this exist: to get a fresh pair of eyes on the problem.

we’ve all been there.

mmababes, (edited )

There were no asterisks in the fstab file, I just placed them here to emphasize the name of the hdd.

Btw I got Debian to automount the hdd (thanks to @shortdorkyasian) by adding this entry to the fstab file:

`UUID=D4C0A66EC0A65710 /media/lucky/New

gregorum,

lmao, ok i see.

in any case, i’m very glad that you got your drive mounted!

mmababes, (edited )

Yup, that’s the name.

I changed the entry on fstab to this (tried it with both single quotes and double quotes) and I’m stilling getting the parse error:

UUID=D4C0A66EC0A65710 “/media/lucky/New Volume” ntfs rw,auto,users,exec,nls=utf8,umask=003,gid=46,uid=1000 0 0

Btw I’m using the ntfs-3g driver, if that helps.

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