VWWall wrote:
Why does openSUSE make it so hard to mount a partition from another
Linux distro? I multi-boot four Linux distros, (including openSUSE),
and WindowsXP. There are 12 partitions, two for each Linux distro, a
boot partition, a Windows partition, and a shared swap partition.

I often wish to copy something from one Linux system to another. In
most Linux distros there's a "My Computer" or "Systems Media" which
shows all partitions, and allows mounting with a simple mouse click.

I do know how to mount from the cli, and how to edit fstab to
automatically mount partitions. (openSUSE uses
"/dev/disk/by-id/scusi-SATA -(drive id)-partx" instead of UUID in
fstab), and mounts only its own partitions and some Windows partitions.

Am I missing something?

openSUSE is quite happy mounting a partition from another distro.
You don't have to use the /dev/disk/by-id/ nomenclature. If you prefer
you can use /dev/sda1, /dev/sda2, etc. You can change that in fstab if
you like or you can add the additional partitions to using that style
and leave the openSUSE partition descriptions as are they are.

I'm on my Debian box right now, and don't remember what the openSUSE "My
Computer" equivalent looks like

but IIRC, there's on right there on on
the desktop. I expect that after you add the partition info to fstab it
will be able to see them just fine...

Why does openSUSE make it so hard to mount a partition from another
Linux distro? I multi-boot four Linux distros, (including openSUSE),
and WindowsXP. There are 12 partitions, two for each Linux distro, a
boot partition, a Windows partition, and a shared swap partition.

I often wish to copy something from one Linux system to another. In
most Linux distros there's a "My Computer" or "Systems Media" which
shows all partitions, and allows mounting with a simple mouse click.

I do know how to mount from the cli, and how to edit fstab to
automatically mount partitions. (openSUSE uses
"/dev/disk/by-id/scusi-SATA -(drive id)-partx" instead of UUID in
fstab), and mounts only its own partitions and some Windows partitions.

Am I missing something?

Kevin Miller <atftb2 at (no spam) alaska.net> wrote:

I'm on my Debian box right now, and don't remember what the openSUSE "My
Computer" equivalent looks like

In 11.1 (and earlier) it looks like a computer screen with Tux sitting
at the right-hand side. It is named "MY Computer" and lists all the
disks the system finds, including Windows disks.

The point is, it only "finds" the Partitions, (disks), that are a part

VWWall wrote:
Why does openSUSE make it so hard to mount a partition from another
Linux distro? I multi-boot four Linux distros, (including openSUSE),
and WindowsXP. There are 12 partitions, two for each Linux distro, a
boot partition, a Windows partition, and a shared swap partition.

I often wish to copy something from one Linux system to another. In
most Linux distros there's a "My Computer" or "Systems Media" which
shows all partitions, and allows mounting with a simple mouse click.

I do know how to mount from the cli, and how to edit fstab to
automatically mount partitions. (openSUSE uses
"/dev/disk/by-id/scusi-SATA -(drive id)-partx" instead of UUID in
fstab), and mounts only its own partitions and some Windows partitions.

Am I missing something?

openSUSE is quite happy mounting a partition from another distro.
You don't have to use the /dev/disk/by-id/ nomenclature. If you prefer
you can use /dev/sda1, /dev/sda2, etc. You can change that in fstab if
you like or you can add the additional partitions to using that style
and leave the openSUSE partition descriptions as are they are.

Why not have the default install show all partitions? openSuse shows

I'm on my Debian box right now, and don't remember what the openSUSE "My
Computer" equivalent looks like but IIRC, there's on right there on on
the desktop. I expect that after you add the partition info to fstab it
will be able to see them just fine...

I just edited fstab, mounting /dev/sda12 to /mnt, (a default directory

Why does openSUSE make it so hard to mount a partition from another
Linux distro? I multi-boot four Linux distros, (including openSUSE),
and WindowsXP. There are 12 partitions, two for each Linux distro, a
boot partition, a Windows partition, and a shared swap partition.

I often wish to copy something from one Linux system to another. In
most Linux distros there's a "My Computer" or "Systems Media" which
shows all partitions, and allows mounting with a simple mouse click.

I do know how to mount from the cli, and how to edit fstab to
automatically mount partitions. (openSUSE uses
"/dev/disk/by-id/scusi-SATA -(drive id)-partx" instead of UUID in
fstab), and mounts only its own partitions and some Windows partitions.

Am I missing something?

Paul J Gans wrote:
Kevin Miller <atftb2 at (no spam) alaska.net> wrote:

I'm on my Debian box right now, and don't remember what the openSUSE "My
Computer" equivalent looks like

In 11.1 (and earlier) it looks like a computer screen with Tux sitting
at the right-hand side. It is named "MY Computer" and lists all the
disks the system finds, including Windows disks.

The point is, it only "finds" the Partitions, (disks), that are a part
of its own install or Windows. On most distros I've used, "My Computer"
lists all the partitions on the box, and allows easy mounting.

Adding additional partitions to fstab will show them on "My Computer",
but why not show them by default?

Kevin Miller wrote:
VWWall wrote:
Why does openSUSE make it so hard to mount a partition from another
Linux distro? I multi-boot four Linux distros, (including openSUSE),
and WindowsXP. There are 12 partitions, two for each Linux distro, a
boot partition, a Windows partition, and a shared swap partition.

I often wish to copy something from one Linux system to another. In
most Linux distros there's a "My Computer" or "Systems Media" which
shows all partitions, and allows mounting with a simple mouse click.

I do know how to mount from the cli, and how to edit fstab to
automatically mount partitions. (openSUSE uses
"/dev/disk/by-id/scusi-SATA -(drive id)-partx" instead of UUID in
fstab), and mounts only its own partitions and some Windows partitions.

Am I missing something?

openSUSE is quite happy mounting a partition from another distro.
You don't have to use the /dev/disk/by-id/ nomenclature. If you prefer
you can use /dev/sda1, /dev/sda2, etc. You can change that in fstab if
you like or you can add the additional partitions to using that style
and leave the openSUSE partition descriptions as are they are.

Why not have the default install show all partitions? openSuse shows
all partitions by their approximate size. I have several of the same
size and there's no way to tell which one is which partition.

I'm on my Debian box right now, and don't remember what the openSUSE "My
Computer" equivalent looks like but IIRC, there's on right there on on
the desktop. I expect that after you add the partition info to fstab it
will be able to see them just fine...

I just edited fstab, mounting /dev/sda12 to /mnt, (a default directory
in "/"), and it did indeed appear in "My Computer" as "17G Media". An
attempt to unmount failed. I can probably sort out the error message,
but this just illustrates my comments above! I could do it neatly by
making sub-directories under /mnt for each added partition in fsab.

See Paul Gans' reply and my comment above. It is possible to make it
show partitions by another identifier than size, but it requires some
extra work.

Why not have the default install show all partitions?

openSuse shows
all partitions by their approximate size.

I have several of the same
size and there's no way to tell which one is which partition.

I just edited fstab, mounting /dev/sda12 to /mnt, (a default directory
in "/"),

and it did indeed appear in "My Computer" as "17G Media". An
attempt to unmount failed.

I can probably sort out the error message,
but this just illustrates my comments above!

I could do it neatly by
making sub-directories under /mnt for each added partition in fsab.

See Paul Gans' reply and my comment above. It is possible to make it
show partitions by another identifier than size, but it requires some
extra work.

In 11.1 (and earlier) it looks like a computer screen with Tux sitting
at the right-hand side.

It is named "MY Computer" and lists all the
disks the system finds, including Windows disks.

If you can not tell them appart, how should openSUSE do that?

I always use YaST to add new partitions. That way I do much less
things wrong. And going to the fstab options, you can do a lot of
settings there.

This just made me wonder if I am perhaps completely missing the point.

The point is identifying partitions and logical drives that are not
currently mounted.

What is the use of naming partitions in something like `My Computer`?

It gives the user context. Of course, an intelligent choice of mount
points also gives the user context.

That doesn't work if the file system is not already mounted. The OP wanted
to identify the FS in order to determine where he should mount it.

The only two moments I would care about this (and it could be done
in one step) is during installation and then placing all the systems
into fstab.

Are those not the moments that the OP is concerned with?

This just made me wonder if I am perhaps completely missing the point.

What is the use of naming partitions in something like `My Computer`?

In Linux that is such a strange idea. (For the following I actualy did a
`df` as I did not know the outcome.) Say I have a partition dedicated to
Backup. And that this is /dev/sde1. Why would I need to know if this is
sde1? I just go to /media/backup.

The only two moments I would care about this (and it could be done
in one step) is during installation and then placing all the systems
into fstab.

He's not asking for open SUSE to magically distinguish the
indistinguishable, just to present all available data. There's certainly
an inconsistency as to which data are presented depending on which tool
you use.

Of course, it would help if the OP would consistently refer to the
specific tool, e.g.., "My Computer", instead of the generic term
"openSUSE".

I always use YaST to add new partitions. That way I do much less
things wrong. And going to the fstab options, you can do a lot of
settings there.

Also, by going through Yast you don't have to worry about Yast undoing
your changes.

"My Computer" is a Window-ism that is not needed when you are looking at
partitions. (Only something evil like KDE and GNOME could come up with
such things. )