/etc/fstab mentions vol_id but that has been replaced by blkid

[rupert]

The default /etc/fstab file says you can use vol_id --uuid to find out the UUID values for your disks in the comments, yet in Karmic, vol_id has been replace by blkid, so this information is incorrect and confusing.

I suppose it is not a bug, but it could result in user error/confusion.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Tue Nov 10 17:22:30 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
MachineType: Dell Inc. XPS M1330
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: usplash 0.5.49
ProcCmdLine: root=UUID=50b2512a-4d07-4a83-860e-be608a5b2cb7 ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
SourcePackage: usplash
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic i686
UsplashConf:
 # Usplash configuration file
 # These parameters will only apply after running update-initramfs.

 xres=1280
 yres=800
XsessionErrors:
 (gnome-settings-daemon:2171): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_propagate_error: assertion `src != NULL' failed
 (gnome-settings-daemon:2171): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_propagate_error: assertion `src != NULL' failed
 (polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:2294): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `initialization_value != 0' failed
 (nautilus:2265): Eel-CRITICAL **: eel_preferences_get_boolean: assertion `preferences_is_initialized ()' failed
 (gnome-panel:2261): Gtk-WARNING **: gtk_widget_size_allocate(): attempt to allocate widget with width -5 and height 24
dmi.bios.date: 11/19/2008
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: A14
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.chassis.type: 8
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA14:bd11/19/2008:svnDellInc.:pnXPSM1330:pvr:rvnDellInc.:rn:rvr:cvnDellInc.:ct8:cvr:
dmi.product.name: XPS M1330
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.

[Philip Muškovac (yofel)]

Thank you for taking your time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Did you upgrade your system from 9.04? Here on my clean 9.10 install fstabe properly mentions blkid.

[rupert (r-plumridge)]

I upgraded from 9.04, first to the RC and then to the full version (though I guess the RC was pretty much the full version). I had made no modifications to my /etc/fstab though.

This might also be the cause of the /etc/fstab error I see on every boot (the message saying not all the drives listed in /etc/fstab could be mounted, waiting.....press Esc to enter a recovery shell) (though this is never a problem, since it carrys on and loads fine).

Is there a way to force a full clean upgrade to see if that fixes it?

It's no biggie though, if a clean install of 9.10 gives the correct info, then I guess there is no issue.

[Philip Muškovac (yofel)]

Well, it's still wrong, and since many people will upgrade to the next LTS this should be considered a documentation bug. I'll leave the bug open if somebody else with an upgraded system can confirm this. I only have fresh installations here.

[Tim Tilberg (ttilberg)]

Thanks for posting this -- it just hit me, exactly as it did you.

I was going into fstab to learn to permanently mount an ntfs partition at boot, and was trying to make sense of the uuid values. I read the note above, and thought "Cool. I'll use the uuid instead of the device id..."

This installation was an upgrade into Karmic from Jaunty.

I gave it a whirl and came up with:
ttilberg@ragnarok:~$ vol_id --uuid
vol_id: command not found
ttilberg@ragnarok:~$ volid --help
volid: command not found

the text on fstab:
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'vol_id --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).

A google search led me to this bug. Unfortunately even between the man pages, and --help, I can't quite figure out how to acquire the UUID of my partition at /dev/sda1. blkid keeps exiting without printing anything.

Upon using blkid -U [uuid of one of the mounted partitions ref'd in fstab] I get the device name, /dev/sdb1
I can't figure out how to obtain the UUID, and instructions on using the command should be included as it was pre-karmic for vol_id --uuid.

ttilberg@ragnarok:~$ blkid -U 251b85ad-9f35-49d3-9b4d-0bd76c70d51e
/dev/sdb1
ttilberg@ragnarok:~$ blkid -L /dev/sdb1
ttilberg@ragnarok:~$ blkid /dev/sdb1
ttilberg@ragnarok:~$ blkid /dev/sdb1
ttilberg@ragnarok:~$ blkid /dev/sda1
ttilberg@ragnarok:~$ ls /dev/sd*
/dev/sda /dev/sdb /dev/sdb2 /dev/sdc /dev/sde
/dev/sda1 /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdb5 /dev/sdd /dev/sdf

This was about to be a cool thing, but the documentation needs to be fixed for upgraded users.
Thanks,
Tim

[Philip Muškovac (yofel)]

Confirmed then. Here's what is supposed to be at the top of fstab:

# /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)

[rupert (r-plumridge)]

It should also say that blkid only works if run as root, or by using sudo.

Just running blkid by itself returns nothing, as Tim mentions.

[Tim Tilberg (ttilberg)]

lol -- shoot me in the foot :o. I didn't even think of that.

Thanks Rupert!

[Sense Egbert Hofstede (sense)]

I'm reporting this against util-linux, which seems to be the one responsible for this file. The bug is Triaged, but has Low importance.
Thanks to everyone for contributing to this bug report!

[rupert (r-plumridge)]

No probs, glad I have helped to make the best Distro out there that little bit better ;)

[Sense Egbert Hofstede (sense)]

Newly generated fstabs seem to already have the correct comment, but old fstabs don't.
Would it be worth the trouble to write a DistUpgrade quirk that corrects the comment?