Problems with setting my second drive as a download point in multiple programs

[FatDroid]

In my laptop I have a second drive that is just for storage. Movies, music, documents etc. I have this mounted as shown below:

# Static information about the filesystems.
# See fstab(5) for details.

# <file system> <dir> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
# /dev/sda2
UUID=58fa66da-b2ba-47d5-9cfc-f415c3fe9a84 / btrfs rw,relatime,compress=zstd:3,ssd,discard=async,space_cache=v2,subvol=/@ 0 0

# /dev/sda2
UUID=58fa66da-b2ba-47d5-9cfc-f415c3fe9a84 /.snapshots btrfs rw,relatime,compress=zstd:3,ssd,discard=async,space_cache=v2,subvol=/@.snapshots 0 0

# /dev/sda2
UUID=58fa66da-b2ba-47d5-9cfc-f415c3fe9a84 /home btrfs rw,relatime,compress=zstd:3,ssd,discard=async,space_cache=v2,subvol=/@home 0 0

# /dev/sda2
UUID=58fa66da-b2ba-47d5-9cfc-f415c3fe9a84 /var/cache/pacman/pkg btrfs rw,relatime,compress=zstd:3,ssd,discard=async,space_cache=v2,subvol=/@pkg 0 0

# /dev/sda2
UUID=58fa66da-b2ba-47d5-9cfc-f415c3fe9a84 /var/log btrfs rw,relatime,compress=zstd:3,ssd,discard=async,space_cache=v2,subvol=/@Log 0 0

# /dev/sda1
UUID=019A-EC93 /boot vfat rw,relatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=437,iocharset=ascii,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro 0 2

UUID=85265f87-225d-4c7d-8b77-39a0cdeced38 /mnt/Storage ext4 defaults 0 2

The very bottom entry is the second drive - '/mnt/Storage'. (the 2 at the end was a zero, I have changed it just now to be numbered as my boot drive to see if that made a difference.) This is mounted and started when I turn the system on and I can access it and use it as normal without issue, but in Firefox and any other program that allows saving to disk, I cannot set my download save location to this drive. If I go into a programs settings to try and select this as a save location, it is not listed. I'll put a screenshot of this in the comments. I dont know what other information to provide alongside this so Il leave it at this for now.

 

[FatDroid]

This is what I get when I try to find this second drive as a storage location, it simply does not show up.

 

[CaffeineAddict]

UUID=85265f87-225d-4c7d-8b77-39a0cdeced38 /mnt/Storage ext4 defaults 0 2

The very bottom entry is the second drive - '/mnt/Storage'. (the 2 at the end was a zero, I have changed it just now to be numbered as my boot drive to see if that made a difference.)

Try with:

UUID=85265f87-225d-4c7d-8b77-39a0cdeced38 /mnt/Storage ext4 auto,user,noexec,async,rw,nofail 0 2

Then reboot or run:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
mount -a

 

[FatDroid]

Try with:



Then reboot or run:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
mount -a

That has worked for Firefox so thanks a lot for thatits been confusing to try and sort out, but it hasnt worked for Transmission

 

[dos2unix]

do you have permission to create files in that directory?

 

[FatDroid]

do you have permission to create files in that directory?

Sure do, I have created files & folders, moved things to and from it and I also use it as a samba network drive for my other PC's

 

[dos2unix]

What happens if you double-click on the computer image?

 

[MikeWalsh]

Me, I have a dual-drive setup. The original 1TB Toshie plate-spinner in this HP Pavilion desktop rig got replaced with a 1TB Crucial MX500 SSD fairly early on.

I also had a 3TB Seagate external USB 3.0 'desktop' HDD; not a small 2.5", it was a bigger 3.5" HDD....the 'standard' size for desktops for many years. It got used for a few years, as-is, with the elderly Compaq Presario desktop rig I used to have up until COVID started.....and is where all my personal data gets stored. When that finally died - she reached the ripe old age of 16; good by anybody's standards! - and I bought the HP, I decided to strip the external drive down and fit it inside the Pavilion's case. There was room for an extra drive, so.....

I knew from experience that all these portable HDDs consisted of was a standard SATA3 drive with a wee 'bridge' card to convert to USB 3.0 output. I cracked the case, ripped the junk out & extracted the drive itself, then installed it in the Pavilion's case and hooked it up with a SATA cable to the mobo. Sorted!

The MX-500 contains my Puppy 'kennels' - a dozen or so Pups in frugal format as sub-directories on the same partition, along with a much bigger partition for all my Puppy apps, programs, and projects. The Seagate, although quite slow at just 5400 rpm, is ideal for data storage; documents, downloads, music, pictures, videos, etc.

I don't bother with the usual 'trick' of moving the user's /home directory onto another drive or partition. I don't need to. The Puppy 'home' directory is '/root', anyway.....but with ROX-filer's very powerful & easy to use symlinking function, I create directories on the Seagate for 'Music', 'Pictures', 'Videos', 'Documents', 'Downloads' (and others for personal projects & junk, etc). I then sym-link these from the secondary data drive into /root.

By doing this, our Pup's happy 'cos she thinks everything is in its standard location in /root.....whereas in reality, everything is being written/read directly to/from the much larger secondary drive, and all this stuff can thus be 'shared' between multiple Puppies. It's how I avoid unnecessary data duplication, because by doing this AND running all major applications as 'portables' (which can also be shared between multiple Pups), it leaves me a lot more storage space for my own projects.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

The biggest upside of all this is automation. It allows me to automate Puppy setup & customization by basically just scripting a whole bunch of sym-links, as opposed to the need to fully install stuff every time. Ask yourself this; if you run a dozen distros on a given drive, and you happen to prefer, say, Firefox (or Chrome.....whatever), where on earth is the point in having to install that browser a dozen different times? The same goes for any personal app preference, where you install it to each distro. Look at the sheer amount of drive space you're wasting through unnecessary data duplication, to say nothing of needing to keep config/cache, etc, in sync between all those different installs.....

I know a lot of folks diss 'our Pup' as being an irrelevant 'toy'.....but she's got some REAL nifty tricks up her sleeve! TBH, I would have thought the same kind of set-up ought to work on any mainstream distro, if done correctly...


Mike.

 

[FatDroid]

What happens if you double-click on the computer image?

This takes me to the root of my boot drive, where all the folder ssuch as app, bin, dev are located. When it was working that drive was listed under the computer image and something has obviosuly changed to get it to this point, but it is nothing that I am aware of.