dmraid mirror in 8.04.1 shows up as three entries in Removable Media - should only show as one

[Dane Mutters]

I have two 500GB hard drives in a software mirror array using nVidia's RAID controller build-into my P7N-SLI Platinum motherboard.

/dev/mapper contains the following:

[code]
crw-rw---- 1 root root 10, 60 2008-10-17 02:05 control
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 254, 0 2008-10-17 02:05 nvidia_cfffhefc
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 254, 1 2008-10-17 02:05 nvidia_cfffhefc1
[/code]

The RAID 1 device is comprised of two drives:

[code]
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 16 2008-10-17 02:04 /dev/sdb
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 17 2008-10-17 02:04 /dev/sdb1
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 32 2008-10-17 02:04 /dev/sdc
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 33 2008-10-17 02:04 /dev/sdc1
[/code]

Specifically, it's using /dev/sdb1 as the primary drive, and /dev/sdc1 as the secondary drive.

I am using a custom kernel due to a bug that I previously reported having to do with slow hard drive access. It's version is '2.6.26.5'.

Here's the output of lsmod:

[code]
Module Size Used by
binfmt_misc 10316 1
rfcomm 37856 2
l2cap 22272 13 rfcomm
bluetooth 57828 4 rfcomm,l2cap
vboxdrv 1635872 0
ppdev 8712 0
acpi_cpufreq 8208 1
cpufreq_userspace 4388 0
cpufreq_powersave 2752 0
cpufreq_stats 6368 0
cpufreq_conservative 8584 0
cpufreq_ondemand 8720 1
freq_table 5568 3 acpi_cpufreq,cpufreq_stats,cpufreq_ondemand
video 20500 0
output 4288 1 video
sbs 14288 0
sbshc 6720 1 sbs
container 4672 0
battery 13128 0
iptable_filter 3904 0
ip_tables 19600 1 iptable_filter
x_tables 23624 1 ip_tables
ac 5704 0
coretemp 7936 0
f71882fg 12556 0
sbp2 22860 0
lp 11652 0
parport_serial 7936 0
nvidia 8104944 34
parport_pc 35944 2 parport_serial
parport 40496 3 ppdev,lp,parport_pc
psmouse 42204 0
serio_raw 6596 0
snd_hda_intel 448084 3
snd_pcm_oss 42144 0
snd_mixer_oss 17152 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm 85000 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm_oss
snd_page_alloc 10000 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
snd_hwdep 9032 1 snd_hda_intel
snd_seq_oss 33088 0
snd_seq_midi 7808 0
snd_rawmidi 24864 1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_midi_event 8896 2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi
snd_seq 57184 5 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
joydev 11904 0
snd_timer 23760 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device 8532 4 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
button 7968 0
shpchp 33376 0
snd 65864 16 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_hwdep,snd_seq_oss,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
pci_hotplug 30712 1 shpchp
evdev 11456 5
i2c_nforce2 7424 0
soundcore 8736 1 snd
i2c_core 26016 2 nvidia,i2c_nforce2
ipv6 286536 22
pcspkr 3584 0
ext3 132944 2
jbd 48808 1 ext3
mbcache 9668 1 ext3
dm_mirror 18752 1
dm_log 11268 2 dm_mirror
dm_mod 60848 7 dm_mirror,dm_log
usbhid 30112 0
hid 47552 1 usbhid
sr_mod 16324 0
cdrom 39208 1 sr_mod
sg 35808 0
floppy 62184 0
ohci1394 31604 0
pata_pdc2027x 9988 0
ieee1394 97208 2 sbp2,ohci1394
forcedeth 54160 0
ehci_hcd 36492 0
pata_amd 14084 2
sd_mod 28480 5
ohci_hcd 23556 0
ahci 30472 0
usbcore 157208 4 usbhid,ehci_hcd,ohci_hcd
pata_acpi 5760 0
thermal 19040 0
processor 37952 2 acpi_cpufreq,thermal
fan 5704 0
thermal_sys 13120 4 video,thermal,processor,fan
fuse 54464 3
fbcon 41728 0
tileblit 3584 1 fbcon
font 9472 1 fbcon
bitblit 6464 1 fbcon
softcursor 2816 1 bitblit
[/code]

Restarting dbus via the command, 'sudo /etc/init.d/dbus restart' seems to fix the problem, but makes some other things buggy until I restart the computer. (I don't remember which things get buggy; it's kind-of random.)

In Removable Media (Places menu), I have the following entries:

Floppy Drive
WinVista
WinXP
20.5 GB Media
PERSONAL (incorrect entry for mirror)
PERSONAL (incorrect entry for mirror)
PERSONAL (the correct entry for the mirror - automounted via fstab)

The last 'PERSONAL' entry has a different, lighter drive icon, and is mountable, while clicking on the others produces the following error:

Unable to mount the volume 'PERSONAL'.
Details
mount: /dev/sdb1 already mounted or /media/PERSONAL_ busy

This makes sense, since it's the wrong partition to be mounting.

Here's my fstab entry for the mirror:

[code]
# PERSONAL
/dev/mapper/nvidia_cfffhefc1 /media/PERSONAL ext3 defaults,relatime,acl 0 0
[/code]

This has been an annoyance, since I often forget which drive to click on and get an error message instead of the drive's contents. Any suggestions would be well-appreciated.

Please let me know if you need any more details.

Thanks.

[Dan Trevino (dantrevino)]

 Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. You reported this bug a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering if this is still an issue for you. Can you try with the latest Ubuntu release? Thanks in advance.

[Dane Mutters (dmutters)]

Thanks for taking a look at this bug. I am now running Ubuntu version 8.10 64-bit on this system, and the bug still exists. Please let me know if you need any more info.

[Alex Denvir (coldfff)]

We are closing this bug report because it has not been updated for some time. Please reopen it if you have more information to submit, and don't hesitate to submit bug reports in the future. To reopen the bug report you can click on the current status, under the Status column, and change the Status back to "New". Thanks again!

[Dane Mutters (dmutters)]

Thanks for taking the time to keep this bug up-to-date. It is still a problem in Ubuntu version 9.10. I can provide more information if you would like me to; just let me know what you would like to know.

Thanks again.

--Dane

[David Tombs (dgtombs)]

Are you still using a custom kernel? If so, can you reproduce the problem even when running the stock Ubuntu kernel? Thanks.

[Dane Mutters (dmutters)]

I am now using the stock Ubuntu kernel for 9.10 (amd64), and the problem still exists. (I have not used a custom kernel since I recently installed this version.)

[David Tombs (dgtombs)]

Assigning to devicekit-disks. Please re-assign to proper package if necessary.

[Dane Mutters (dmutters)]

Update: I have just upgraded from 9.10 (amd64) to 10.04, and immediately thereafter, to 10.10. I have reconfigured my drives so that the mirror is no longer in any kind of array (dm, or otherwise), but so that there are now 2 separate partitions (one on each drive), labeled "PERSONAL" and "PERSONAL2", respectively. I have removed mdadm and dmraid from my system using 'aptitude remove ...', and the odd drive entry still appears in the "Places" menu. PERSONAL2 does not show up as 2 drives; there is only one "Places" entry for it. I have attached a screenshot for illustration. The erroneous entry is positioned to the left of the mouse cursor, and looks like a "smooth" hard drive.

Here is my current /etc/fstab file:

[code]
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid -o value -s UUID' 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>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# / was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=6730efad-369b-40ff-ac3d-85295772bd13 / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
# swap was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=a8e4b372-85bf-452f-b51b-c7a53f2c9e23 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto,exec,sync,utf8 0 0
UUID=00e41414-2b88-47cd-9916-698606d5b2d1 /media/PERSONAL ext3 rw,user,defaults 0 2
[/code]

It may be worth noting that in /etc/fstab there is an entry for /media/PERSONAL, but not for /media/PERSONAL2. PERSONAL2 is my rdiff-backup "mirror" drive (not a mirror in the RAID sense), and has the same formatting, but a different UUID, and slightly different directory structure.

I hope this helps. Please let me know if you need any more information.

Thanks for looking into this bug!

[Dane Mutters (dmutters)]

Update (again):

I have just tried taking the entry for /media/PERSONAL out of my /etc/fstab (by commenting it out with a '#'), and the erroneous drive entry has disappeared! It would seem that this is a problem with whatever software provides entries for the "Places" menu not cross-checking its own generated data (however it does that--I'm not a developer...) with /etc/fstab entries.

This would seem to indicate that (unless there's some way that I don't know of), one cannot statically mount a non-system partition (like "/" or swap) without this bug cropping up. Do any of you know a work-around for this? Is it possible (feasible) to fix this bug without too much trouble?

Thanks again for your interest in resolving this!

[David Tombs (dgtombs)]

I'm thinking this "new" behavior might not be a bug... /media is typically for removable drives, and you're not supposed to put permanently-mounted system drives in fstab there.

Could you please run "udisks --dump > udisks-dump.txt" and attach the output here?

[David Tombs (dgtombs)]

OK, the output of those commands make sense. So when you comment it out of fstab, it auto-mounts when you login, correct? If so, why not just keep it out of fstab?

If you do need it to mount on system startup, mount it under /mnt and symlink to it from your /home directory for easy access.

[David Tombs (dgtombs)]

With your permission I will close this bug.

[Dane Mutters (dmutters)]

Thanks for looking into this bug. It looks like this was just a PEBKAC (Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair). :-) Please feel free to close this bug. Do you know if there is any documentation to the effect of where fstab mount points should/should not be? Might be good to post a link here as a resolution to this bug.

Have a good one.

[David Tombs (dgtombs)]

Thanks, Dane. The best info I could find is <http://www.pathname.com/fhs/pub/fhs-2.3.html#MEDIAMOUNTPOINT>, which states that /media is for removable media, which I suppose implies "not in fstab."