Linux Mint: Setup autofs to mount automatically NFS-shares from a Synology

Objective

I installed Linux Mint 17.1 Rebecca on a new computer and I want to access the NFS shares from my Synology Disk Station.

Motivation

As my Synology is not always running 24/7 it would be nice just to mount the NFS shares on my client computers on access and to avoid to integrate the shares statically in fstab. Integrating the shares in fstab would work, but I will always have to wait until a timeout is fullfilled while booting my computer, when the Synology is not running. I already set-up autofs for this "mount on demand" purpose on my laptop, which eves not always in the same network as my Synology.

Prerequisites

• Linux Mint 17.1 Rebecca
• DS209+II

Solution

Install the autofs package

Download and install the autofs package via the following command from a shell:

$> sudo apt-get install autofs

you'll see some output like this:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Recommended packages:
nfs-common
The following NEW packages will be installed:
autofs
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 281 kB of archives.
After this operation, 1.671 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty-updates/main autofs amd64 5.0.7-3ubuntu3.1 [281 kB]
Fetched 281 kB in 0s (496 kB/s)
Selecting previously unselected package autofs.
(Reading database ... 158913 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../autofs_5.0.7-3ubuntu3.1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking autofs (5.0.7-3ubuntu3.1) ...
Processing triggers for ureadahead (0.100.0-16) ...
ureadahead will be reprofiled on next reboot
Processing triggers for man-db (2.6.7.1-1ubuntu1) ...
Setting up autofs (5.0.7-3ubuntu3.1) ...
Creating config file /etc/auto.master with new version
Creating config file /etc/auto.net with new version
Creating config file /etc/auto.misc with new version
Creating config file /etc/auto.smb with new version
Creating config file /etc/default/autofs with new version
autofs start/running, process 3481
Processing triggers for ureadahead (0.100.0-16) ...

Additionally install the nfs-common package, otherwise you won't be able to access the NFS shares.

$> sudo apt-get install nfs-common

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
libgssglue1 libnfsidmap2 libtirpc1 rpcbind
Suggested packages:
open-iscsi watchdog
The following NEW packages will be installed:
libgssglue1 libnfsidmap2 libtirpc1 nfs-common rpcbind
0 upgraded, 5 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 342 kB of archives.
After this operation, 1.375 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] Y
Get:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty/main libgssglue1 amd64 0.4-2ubuntu1 [19,7 kB]
Get:2 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty/main libnfsidmap2 amd64 0.25-5 [32,2 kB]
Get:3 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty/main libtirpc1 amd64 0.2.2-5ubuntu2 [71,3 kB]
Get:4 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty-updates/main rpcbind amd64 0.2.1-2ubuntu2.1 [37,0 kB]
Get:5 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty-updates/main nfs-common amd64 1:1.2.8-6ubuntu1.1 [182 kB]
Fetched 342 kB in 1s (288 kB/s)
Selecting previously unselected package libgssglue1:amd64.
(Reading database ... 158963 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../libgssglue1_0.4-2ubuntu1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking libgssglue1:amd64 (0.4-2ubuntu1) ...
Selecting previously unselected package libnfsidmap2:amd64.
Preparing to unpack .../libnfsidmap2_0.25-5_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking libnfsidmap2:amd64 (0.25-5) ...
Selecting previously unselected package libtirpc1:amd64.
Preparing to unpack .../libtirpc1_0.2.2-5ubuntu2_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking libtirpc1:amd64 (0.2.2-5ubuntu2) ...
Selecting previously unselected package rpcbind.
Preparing to unpack .../rpcbind_0.2.1-2ubuntu2.1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking rpcbind (0.2.1-2ubuntu2.1) ...
Selecting previously unselected package nfs-common.
Preparing to unpack .../nfs-common_1%3a1.2.8-6ubuntu1.1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking nfs-common (1:1.2.8-6ubuntu1.1) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.6.7.1-1ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for ureadahead (0.100.0-16) ...
Setting up libgssglue1:amd64 (0.4-2ubuntu1) ...
Setting up libnfsidmap2:amd64 (0.25-5) ...
Setting up libtirpc1:amd64 (0.2.2-5ubuntu2) ...
Setting up rpcbind (0.2.1-2ubuntu2.1) ...
Removing any system startup links for /etc/init.d/rpcbind ...
rpcbind start/running, process 5972
Processing triggers for ureadahead (0.100.0-16) ...
Setting up nfs-common (1:1.2.8-6ubuntu1.1) ...
Creating config file /etc/idmapd.conf with new version
Creating config file /etc/default/nfs-common with new version
Adding system user `statd' (UID 115) ...
Adding new user `statd' (UID 115) with group `nogroup' ...
Not creating home directory `/var/lib/nfs'.
statd start/running, process 6205
gssd stop/pre-start, process 6239
idmapd start/running, process 6286
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.19-0ubuntu6.6) ...
Processing triggers for ureadahead (0.100.0-16) ...

Configure autofs

First create the destination directory where you want to mount the directories of your NFS server into. In my case this is below /mnt/DiskStation



$> sudo mkdir -p /mnt/DiskStation

Now add your exported NFS-Shares root-directory from your server to the "/etc/auto.master":

/mnt/DiskStation /etc/auto.nfs

$> gksu gedit /etc/auto.master

#
# Sample auto.master file
#
# ...
#
#/misc /etc/auto.misc
#/net -hosts
#
# Include /etc/auto.master.d/*.autofs
#
+dir:/etc/auto.master.d
#
# Include central master map if it can be found using
# nsswitch sources.
#
# ...
#
+auto.master
/mnt/DiskStation /etc/auto.nfs

Create a "/etc/auto.nfs" with the following content (where "192.168.0.99" is the IP of your Synology and "data" is the name of the exported directory):

data 192.168.0.99:/volume1/data

Finally restart autofs

$> sudo service autofs restart

autofs stop/waiting
autofs start/running, process 4084

Done. Now you should be able to access the files from your Synology at /mnt/DiskStation/data.


More information on autofs can be found here.

Linux Mint: Move your home-directory into a separate partition after installation

Objective

I installed Linux Mint 17.1 Rebecca on new computer with a SSD with the Mint Installer default partitioning scheme, which mounts /boot, /root and /home into the same partition.

Motivation

I decided to have my home-directory in a separate partition which I can mount into /home to make leter upgrading the system a little more painless.

Prerequisites

• Linux Mint 17.1 Rebecca
• 512 GB SSD

Solution

Create a new partition

Resize your system partition and create a new partition in the free space. Follow this guide to see how you can resize Ubuntu partitions to complete this step.

Copy the home files into the new partition

Open a terminal and run the following command to create a copy of your current /home directory on the new partition, where /media/HOME is the location of your newly mounted partition (I gave it the LABEL=HOME during the creation process) where the new /home should reside:

$> sudo cp -Rp /home/* /media/HOME

You should check if everything went fine to avoid to loose data:

$> ls /media/HOME

In my case I got:

csch data lost+found

Determine the UUID of the newly created partition

Use the following command to get the UUID of your new home-partition:

$> sudo blkid

In my case I got (you can see the label HOME again here)

...
/dev/sda2: UUID="f270b74b-ce14-4481-bf32-1226b4fd776e" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda3: LABEL="HOME" UUID="a9c81163-f588-462a-89b0-dbdad87cef9c" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda6: UUID="023cf9e6-199f-475c-9fe1-c70b73d3047c" TYPE="swap"
...

Adapt your mount table in fstab to mount the new partition into "/home"

Make a backup of your current fstab (with a timestamp):

$> sudo cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.$(date +%Y-%m-%d)_backup

and edit the original fstab:

$>gksu gedit /etc/fstab

Add this line to your fstab and save the file (replace xxxxx with your UUID):

...
# (identifier) (location) (format, eg ext3 or ext4) (some settings)
UUID=xxxxx /home ext4 nodev,nosuid 0 2

Move home-directory into a backup and create a new mount-directory

$> cd / && sudo mv /home /old_home && sudo mkdir /home

Now you're done, finally reboot and prey!

$> sudo shutdown -r now

After your system is up again, you can savely clean-up the system:

$> sudo rm -rf /home_old

Remark

Additional info on how to deal with separate home-partitions can be found here.