this post was submitted on 06 Nov 2025
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So I have two SSDs in my laptop running FedoraKDE, and every time I mount the one used for storage, I have to type the luks password and then my root password. So, looking it up, I found that to not need root to mount the drive I need to add it to fstab.

I added (as was told by the internet since I'm flying by the seat of random stackoverflow help in absence of real knowledge):

UUID=uuid-string-goes-here   /path/to/directory ext4 defaults 0 0

To fstab (and forgot to chown the directory, oops!) and rebooted, aaaaaaand now I get booted into "emergency mode" with root disabled and have no clue what to do.

I think I used the right uuid, it was nvme0p1 (or whatever that drive said the right name was, can't check now!) In any case, I didn't use the uuid of the drive my system was running on, for sure.

Boot hangs on

job dev-disk-by\x2duuid- [Something something]

Edit: Still taking any advice on how to actually not have to use root to mount this drive, though my boot issue is solved and it looks like I have some links to peruse already!

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[โ€“] OneCardboardBox@lemmy.sdf.org 9 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Looks like you've already had some help fixing your system. I'd recommend reading the arch wiki pages on encryption. Even if you're not running arch, the wiki is a good source of up-to-date information, and contains many practical tips.

This section about setting up your /etc/crypttab to unlock a non-root filesystem at boot might be useful. Even if you don't want to unlock at boot, it explains how crypttab works: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Dm-crypt/System_configuration#crypttab.

There's another useful section if you want to decrypt on demand after boot: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Dm-crypt/System_configuration#Mounting_on_demand

Lastly, if you're experimenting with fstab entries for a non-root device, consider setting nofail so that if you screw anything up the system still boots. This section is somewhat relevant: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Fstab#External_devices

Basically, you need both a crypttab entry and an fstab entry to open and then mount the device.

[โ€“] ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Oh man thanks! Looks like (without clicking yet) the second and third links are going to be a major help!

I do indeed want to mount on demand (just not root) not auto-mount, and for SURE could have used this nofail today haha!

Thanks again!