this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2025
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[–] the_riviera_kid@lemmy.world 4 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (4 children)

Linux has its stupid bullshit too, its just 12 of one and a dozen of another sort of situation. For example I don't have to jump through hoops to auto mount a secondary drive on windows I just install the drive and there it is. But on linux I have to jump through all sorts of ridiculous hoops for some stupid reason. However it will auto mount flash drives and sd cards even though those are the ones more likely to pose a security risk.

[–] BCsven@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 hour ago

What are you running? Mine just shows up, I double click it and supply the encryption password and it's mounted. (Which could be skipped if it wasn't encrypted)

[–] drosophila@lemmy.blahaj.zone 17 points 18 hours ago (2 children)

I just plugged in an old drive to make sure I'm not going crazy, and I didn't do anything besides hit the power button, log in, and open the file explorer:

And its right there.

[–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 5 points 16 hours ago

It depends on the DE.

Even still, typing mount /dev/sda1 external isn't exactly Cirque du Soleil

[–] the_riviera_kid@lemmy.world -1 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

articles like this wouldn't exist if it wasn't true, they will appear but they wont auto mount https://techhut.tv/auto-mount-drives-in-linux-fstab/

*some distros may auto mount but I never used one that did

[–] glog78@digitalcourage.social 5 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

@the_riviera_kid @drosophila

As always on Linux you have different possibilities. Most big Desktop Environment's like KDE / GNOME / Cinnamon .... can mount devices automatically or on a click on the device. No need for additional entries in fstab.

If you however want a more general approach you can use systemd's automount or a fixed mountpount using fstab.

Most normal Desktop User's will be totally fine with the DE Solutions.

[–] the_riviera_kid@lemmy.world 1 points 16 hours ago

I use my secondary and tertiary drives for steam and I boot my machine to big picture mode on startup so I need them to auto mount. Having to navigate to the file manager and clicking on them is not the same.

[–] drosophila@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

I just click on it and it mounts and opens

This is Linux Mint btw

[–] the_riviera_kid@lemmy.world 2 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

Sure, but you had to click on it first. It didn't mount on boot.

[–] BCsven@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

So on windows a drive will not automount the first time, you have to assign a drive letter, which it then remembers. If you skip this its just a drive in the device manager with no mount.

You can accomplish the same in Linux so the drive automounts on boot with a nofail option so that if it is disconnected from the PC the boot moves on rather than waiting on the drive to become available. But otherwise thr DE will let you mount it instantly.

This is a non problem. Linux has issues but drive mounting is not one of them.

[–] drosophila@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

I thought you were talking about just opening the drive to use it from the file browser.

I do actually have a drive I use for automated backups, but I just used the GUI to change the automount setting:

I guess that's a little bit inconvenient, but its like 3 clicks, adding a step to something I had to do to set up some other software. Its not any more complicated than disabling sticky keys in Windows.

Except we're not comparing it to disabling sticky keys, we're comparing it to needing needing to follow an entire page's worth of instructions, pressing secret key combinations and entering commands into the terminal, just so you can use your computer without it phoning home to the mothership. And that's on top of the fact that the instructions are probably going to be different in a year since microsoft is deliberately fucking with you.

[–] blue_canuck@lemmy.world 3 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Say what? That's not true in the slightest, if the drive is mountable it will show up in your file manager.

[–] the_riviera_kid@lemmy.world 1 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (2 children)

articles like this wouldn't exist if it wasn't true, they will appear but they wont auto mount https://techhut.tv/auto-mount-drives-in-linux-fstab/

*some distros may auto mount but I never used one that did

[–] BCsven@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 hour ago

This article is more for a headless server. Any DE is going to present disks to you. And if some odd quirky drive doesn't, you go into the disks app and click the play icon on the drive you want to mount

[–] BarbecueCowboy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

I think people are confused because the difference between mount on access and mount on boot is meaningless for 98% of people. I can think of reasons to need the latter, but not many.

[–] the_riviera_kid@lemmy.world 2 points 15 hours ago

You are probably right, most folks aren't even aware because they have no need for it. The only reason I need it is for my gaming rig that launches big picture mode on startup. I have no need for it on any of my desktop machines.

[–] the_q@lemmy.zip 2 points 21 hours ago

Yeah, but again you don't have to do all this stuff just to use the PC. And for having the tiny user base Linux does it's amazingly pro-user compared to the monopolistic bullshittery that is Microsoft Windows.