Mounting permanently a Storage unit in Fedora KDE (automount at boot, no password, all users can see and edit files)

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1

Good morning.

I’d like to know how to mount Storage Drives in Fedora KDE using the User Interface.

The ONLY reason why I am making a post here for something so simple/mundane is because NOWHERE ELSE on the first page of Google Search (joke) there just was a “tutorial” which just said just and only what do to.

I’d rather avoid using the Konsole because, among other things, I both can’t easily translate what “it says” in a model in my brain and I have a “disability” (I don’t have a better way to describe it) where text which is compact-enough (like on this website) makes lines blend together and “my eyes cross” (I get a headache, it’s difficult to describe and not the focus here).

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Here’s the situation:

You are new to Fedora KDE and want to mount new permanent Storage units in your PC.

If you knew how to do it in Windows, then you’d be used to the Partition Manager software, which allowed you to detect, format, and mount HDDs, SSDs, SHDDs and anything else with relative ease, and the default behavior of such drives was “no password, automount at boot, all users can see and modify files”.

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How can such User mount these same drives in a way that they would behave basically the same as under Windows?

[I’d prefer not to have to use the Konsole, because as most End Users want, we don’t like using DOS in 2025. User Interfaces were created for that reason (imagine editing a BIOS with command prompts…).]

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If a “UI method” doesn’t yet exist, then I’ll bite the bullet and just use the Konsole, but I’d like to know, understand and learn the UI way so that I can use Linux autonomously and so help others myself.

[I “kinda know” such thing already exists, because USB Pen Drives already mount without need for a password, they are accessible and the files are modifiable by all users, and if selected in the *System Settings > Disks & Cameras > Device Auto-Mount* they also mount at boot.]

2

Hi Isaac,

Not quite sure what you are asking here … :slight_smile:

  1. When you refer to the storage as a permanent drive, are you saying the drive is internal and always attached to the system?
  2. Do you want the drive to be mounted at the same place every time? (like /NewDrive for example)
  3. Do you want this drive to be mounted at boot with no other user intervention?
3

All of the above.

4

Hi Isaac,

Ok, I am going to assume your want to use a UI tool (as stated earlier :slight_smile: )
Remember, this is an EXAMPLE and you should adjust/modify per your specific environment

You will need root or sudo access for all of this:

  1. Install your new drive and power up your machine (I am going to assume you know how to do everything this entails)
  2. Login to KDE
  3. open a terminal — at the command line – (you will need later and see why :slight_smile: )
    sudo mkdir /NEW-DRIVE
  4. open “KDE Partition Manager” and select your newly install drive
  5. In “Device” – create an new partition table — use GPT
  6. in “Partition” ->“New” — create a new partition — I usually use the entire drive –
    “Partition type:” Primary
    “File system:” ext4
    “Label”: NEW-DRIVE
    “Free space before:” 0.00 Mib
    “Size:” {the entire drive in MiB}
    “Free space after:” 0.00 MiB
    “Permissions” Only Root
  7. “Apply”
  8. Select your new partition from the right side window and then select “Partition”
  9. “Edit Mount Point”
    “Identify by:” Device Node — (keeping it simple for this example)
    “Path:” /NEW-DRIVE — (from step #3)
    “Options:” Don’t prevent the system from booting if not mountable
    <------> leave the rest at their default values <------->
  10. “OK” ---- at warning that the fstab is going to be modified, “Save changes”
  11. double-check your work — also look in /etc/fstab that there is and entry that looks like:
    /dev/sda1 /NEW-DRIVE ext4 nofail 0 0
    (NOTE: All white spaces are <SPACE>, NOT <TAB>)
  12. open a terminal —
    sudo systemctl daemon-reload
    sudo mount /NEW-DRIVE
    df -h and make certain /NEW-DRIVE is mounted and low to no used space
  13. reboot to verify further

DONE

1 Like
5

Thank you (also for the time it took to format this message).

I am a little confused on Step 9.
Are you telling me that “I should mount the partition inside the drive’s own path”?

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Once again, thanks for the steps.
They are a little difficult to graphically visualise if one doesn’t already know what and where to look for, but they are a great Instruction Manual.

I can’t follow Step 5 and 6 on my main computer (using it now) because the drive in question already has data I’d prefer to avoid deleting on it (it’s a backup, it may take max 2 hours to copy back the 5tb of data from the Windows’ drives, but this doesn’t matter) (I have a living room computer where I’ll be able to reproduce each step, while another computer [instead] got its storage HDD as second drive configured during installation).

.

I am fairly new to “the world of partition types”, so might as well ask for this too:

I know FAT32 was used at least as far back to Windows 95 and could support, like, a max of 32gb of data, separated in 4gb chunks? (I just may be wrong on this.)

exFAT is basically “a better version of FAT32”, mainly for USBs (?).

NTFS is Windows’ partitions (which exist since Windows XP, I believe).

Now here I have Linux’ partitions:

“The ext family” is, as far as I read, partition types which work in a different (and seemingly better) way than NTFS,
but contrary to “BTRFS” they are not used as “primary” partition, only as (like the name implies) extensions.

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.

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So here’s my current request:
Other than “asking you to explaining Step 9 in a different way, please”,
is there a problem if I just were to change partition type on the drive?
(Image related)

partitions Screenshot_20250402_203828
partitions Screenshot_20250402_203828906×1053 131 KB

If “just checking a different box” would corrupt the data in any way I’m ready to just wipe it and do “everything from 0”, but if :recycling_symbol: such use of time and energy can be avoided :recycling_symbol: (it’s the backup drive inside the computer, when Windows 11 comes I’ll wipe the Windows drives, ext4 them, and copy back over their data for Linux usage) then I’d rather not doing it.
Just asking, because in the long run it will still remain the backup drive.

6

Hi Isaac,
I’ll try to answer your questions 1 at a time … :slight_smile:
(here goes :slight_smile: )

I am a little confused on Step 9.
Are you telling me that “I should mount the *partition* inside the *drive’s own path*”?

What this is “saying/instructing” the system to do is “mount the drive/partition at /NEW-DRIVE”

I can’t follow Step 5 and 6 **on my main computer** (using it now) because the drive in question already has data

Yeah, don’t mess with those settings if you already have the drive in use or you will loose everything.

“The ext family” is, as far as I read, partition types which work in a different (and seemingly better) way than NTFS,
but contrary to “BTRFS” they are not used as “primary” partition, only as (like the name implies) extensions.

Not quite :slight_smile:
ext{n} is the file system type and can be used for pretty much any kind of partition. BRTFS/XFS/{FS_TYPE_OF_THE_DAY} are a bit different because they offer more functionality than the basic ext types. I usually recommend using the basic types until you get more familiar with Linux/UNIX type storage, which can be a bit overwhelming at first.

If “just checking a different box” would corrupt the data in any way

Good that you are asking the questions before proceeding :slight_smile:
Yes, IF you change anything about the drive/partitions/fs_type when there is data on the disk or the disk is already in use, you will indeed loose everything on that disk.
Better way to learn/play/experiment with drives at this level is to #1 BACK UP YOUR DATA!!!
and even better, use a small SSD ATA drive, say about 128GB, to try different things and learn. They are nice and fast and inexpensive :slight_smile: .
And, of course, ask questions (looks like you have this part down :slight_smile: )

7

Ok, so now:

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The drive in question is named /dev/sdc in the list, using smartctl --scan.

By Step 9 I should mount New Partition into it, this making /dev/sdc/New_Partition, basically?

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Also, I’d want the drives which get added in such way to “work as in Windows”,
meaning that any and all users are able to access them, see the same files, be able to open them, and edit them.

This is useful for many things, mainly Steam games (in this case).

I don’t know if it’s also doable for the “boot drive” too, but it’s not very important for now, so I’d like to focus on (details of this case) “mounting the HDD so that any user is able to use it as if it were on Windows”.

8

Hi Isaac,

Ok, let’s go through this using /dev/sdc :slight_smile:

  1. open a terminal — at the command line – (you will need later and see why :slight_smile: )
    sudo mkdir /NEW-DRIVE
  2. open “KDE Partition Manager” and select your newly installed drive
  3. In “Device” – create an new partition table — use GPT
  4. in “Partition” ->“New” — create a new partition — I usually use the entire drive –
    here you would create partition 1 — /dev/sdc1
    “Partition type:” Primary
    “File system:” ext4
    “Label”: NEW-DRIVE
    “Free space before:” 0.00 Mib
    “Size:” {the entire drive in MiB}
    “Free space after:” 0.00 MiB
    “Permissions” Only Root
  5. “Apply”
  6. Select your new partition from the right side window and then select “Partition”
  7. “Edit Mount Point”
    “Identify by:” Device Node — (keeping it simple for this example)
    here it would be /dev/sdc1
    “Path:” /NEW-DRIVE — (from step #1)
    “Options:” Don’t prevent the system from booting if not mountable
    <------> leave the rest at their default values <------->
  8. “OK” ---- at warning that the fstab is going to be modified, “Save changes”
  9. double-check your work — also look in /etc/fstab that there is and entry that looks like:
    /dev/sdc1 /NEW-DRIVE ext4 nofail 0 0
  10. open a terminal —
    sudo systemctl daemon-reload
    sudo mount /NEW-DRIVE
    df -h and make certain /NEW-DRIVE is mounted and low to no used space
  11. reboot to verify further
any and all users are able to access them, see the same files, be able to open them, and edit them.

Ok, this is a permissions and ownership thing …
So, the “easiest way” is to:

  1. open a terminal
  2. at the prompt ----
    sudo chmod -R 777 /NEW-DRIVE <----- this will basically give rwx (read+write+execute) on /NEW-DRIVE to EVERYONE/ALL … (NOT recommended on a system that is accessible to more than the owner of the system …security risk!!!)
I don’t know if it’s also doable for the “boot drive” too

You should never do this to the base/boot drive!!! (see previous remark, security risk!!!

IF it were me … I would create very specific directories on that new drive and set the access and permissions as narrow as possible to get no more than what is REQUIRED to achieve the goals of the installation. :slight_smile: ---- a real learning experience … by the way …
LOL!!!

9

I think you don’t understand what I was saying here.

/dev/sdX are the names of all the drives connected to the PC via SATA or Nvme.

~$ smartctl --scan
/dev/sda -d scsi # /dev/sda, SCSI device
/dev/sdb -d scsi # /dev/sdb, SCSI device
/dev/sdc -d scsi # /dev/sdc, SCSI device
/dev/sdd -d scsi # /dev/sdd, SCSI device
/dev/nvme0 -d nvme # /dev/nvme0, NVMe device

4tb
2tb
10tb
2tb SSD (boot)
500gb Nvme (W10)

“/dev/sdc” is not the name of the partition, it’s its mount point (or however it’s called, I may be wrong here about the name alone).

And here I also don’t understand what you are saying, because you turned back and almost said what I said before, I think:

.

I believe we both are missing some meaning of what the other is saying.

10

Hi Isaac,

Ok … I’ll try to keep up with/understand you :slight_smile:

“/dev/sdc” is not the name of the partition, it’s its mount point (or however it’s called, I may be wrong here about the name alone).

Those are the Device names. Not partition level information

Try using lsblk for the partition level information vs the device

… show me what that says :slight_smile:

11 
~$ lsblk
NAME        MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
loop0         7:0    0  63.7M  1 loop /var/lib/snapd/snap/core20/2496
loop1         7:1    0  63.7M  1 loop /var/lib/snapd/snap/core20/2434
loop2         7:2    0     4K  1 loop /var/lib/snapd/snap/bare/5
loop3         7:3    0 349.7M  1 loop /var/lib/snapd/snap/gnome-3-38-2004/143
loop4         7:4    0  44.4M  1 loop /var/lib/snapd/snap/snapd/23545
loop5         7:5    0  91.7M  1 loop /var/lib/snapd/snap/gtk-common-themes/1535
loop6         7:6    0  44.4M  1 loop /var/lib/snapd/snap/snapd/23771
sda           8:0    0   3.6T  0 disk 
├─sda1        8:1    0    16M  0 part 
└─sda2        8:2    0   3.6T  0 part /run/media/iclarke/Programs_Games
sdb           8:16   0   1.8T  0 disk 
├─sdb1        8:17   0   600M  0 part /boot/efi
├─sdb2        8:18   0     1G  0 part /boot
└─sdb3        8:19   0   1.8T  0 part /home
                                      /
sdc           8:32   0   9.1T  0 disk 
└─sdc1        8:33   0   9.1T  0 part /run/media/iclarke/10tb Test 01
sdd           8:48   0   1.8T  0 disk 
├─sdd1        8:49   0     1M  0 part 
├─sdd2        8:50   0    15M  0 part 
└─sdd3        8:51   0   1.8T  0 part /run/media/iclarke/Video_REC
sde           8:64   1  28.7G  0 disk 
└─sde1        8:65   1  28.7G  0 part /run/media/iclarke/ISAAC USB
zram0       252:0    0     8G  0 disk [SWAP]
nvme0n1     259:0    0 465.8G  0 disk 
├─nvme0n1p1 259:1    0   100M  0 part 
├─nvme0n1p2 259:2    0    16M  0 part 
└─nvme0n1p3 259:3    0 465.6G  0 part

It says basically the same, but without the /dev/ part before and with the “sdX” partitions (?) listed with numbers.

12

Hi Isaac,

Ok, let’s focus on /dev/sdc (sdc) , partition /dev/sdc1 (sdc1), currently mounted on /run/media/iclarke/10tb Test 01

Would you like to have this permanently mounted at boot on a static directory (basically mounted at boot at the same place every time)?

13

Also, (I should have put it in the previous comment) as I said in the OP:

[…]

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If there’s a way to translate into User Interface “procedures” what you are telling me to do in the Konsole, even if “Konsole work” is literally one or two commands/prompts, It’d be appreciated.

14

By the little I tested and have seen myself (the livingroom PC is my lab rat) the Storage gets mounted in …/media/[user]/HDD and so the contents also get split.

I have already said how I want the new Storage units to behave like:
<Mount on boot, no password.
<Accessible to all users.
<All files can be seen, used and modified by all users (and so any and all new files thereafter created).

.

I do not know how to mount the Storage Drives here because Windows 7 and 10 are my only reference frame. I just know what behavior I want.

15

Hi Isaac,

In my instructions, you only use the konsole 4 times:

  1. to create the directory/mount point that is needed by KDE Partion Manager
  2. to verify/double-check that the /etc/fstab properly reflects the settings performed by KDE Partition Manager
  3. to verify that the mount works
  4. and finally to set the permissions you wanted

All the rest is done in KDE Partition Manager per your request to use the “UI Method” as much as is possible :slight_smile:

16

Ok,
so now:

This is the current, existing partition I made some time ago (to test the HDD and also get an internal backup).

These are things I don’t understand.
/dev/ is something I don’t know the meaning of.
sdX is, as far as I know, "the internal name Linux gives drives to manage them.
/run/media/iclarke/10tb Test 01 seems to be the place where the partition is mounted, meaning that it starts in fedora/run/.

Please, to make it clear, could you tell me what “/” will the finished partition have?

17

Hi Isaac,

Ok …

/dev/ is something I don’t know the meaning of.

Open a konsole (be patient :slight_smile: )
cd /dev
This is basically the names of all the block and char devices in your system. This is basically the “human readable” names of the devices …

sdX is, as far as I know, "the internal name Linux gives drives to manage them.

Correct :slight_smile:

/run/media/iclarke/10tb Test 01 seems to be the place where the partition is mounted, meaning that it starts in fedora/run/.

This is basically saying/indicating that the device was “Dynamically Mounted” as if it were a removable device. If you open a konsole, you can actually cd “/run/media/iclarke/10tb Test 01” and see the contents of that directory. Mounting a drive this way is not ideal IF you are wanting to use it as a system device to be shared by users. The only user that can use that device will be iclarke and is only mounted when iclarke is logged in (usually) …

Please, to make it clear, could you tell me what “/” will the finished partition have?

In the examples I have been giving, the “/” at the beginning of the name means “This is mounted starting at the root of the entire storage”.
So, /NEW-DRIVE will appear right off the root directory just like /home … this is also known as the “mount point”

1 Like
18

“dev” is short for devices. When data is read or written to the files under that directory, the data will go to that device. They are not “regular” files.

Yes. “sd” is short for SCSI Disk (and SCSI is short for Small Computer System Interface, the abbreviations go deep in Linux :slightly_smiling_face:).

The letter after sd is just an auto-incremented letter that is set based on the order in which the drives were detected after the system was booted. WARNING: The letter can change between one boot and the next or even while the system is running if the drive is disconnected and reconnected.

The number after the letter is the partition number.

You can mount your partition at any path, but to avoid destabilizing your PC, you should avoid mounting it over any directory that already exists and has contents.

You should probably avoid reformatting the partition with a Linux-native filesystem if you want it to also work in Windows. If it is already formatted with exFAT, that should work fine under Linux. However, you might need to supply extra mount options if you want it to be accessed by multiple users.

2 Likes
19

Ok. That clears this up.

This now.

To translate it in a way I mentally understand:
The first step is to create a “virtual paperweight” which tells the Operating System “this is a path separate from the /home one”; then I have to create a new partition with KDE_Partition_Manager, which prepares the Storage Drive with (in this case) a ext4 file system; after this I have to mount the ext4 Storage Drive on to the “virtual paperweight”, so that it will act as its own drive.

Have I got it right?

20

Hi Isaac,

Basically correct … what you are actually doing is creating a “place-holder” that will be used when you assign the mount point in KDE Partition Manager … because KDE Partition Manager is unable to do this within the tool.

1 Like