Putting a USB SSD on My Ubuntu Machine: A Journey Through Confusion
Recently, I decided to add a USB SSD to my Ubuntu machine. Pretty straightforward task, right? So, I set it up, partitioned it, and formatted it with an ext4 filesystem. Then came the question: What happens if the drive isn’t connected when I boot my system?
Since it’s an external drive and not critical to my system’s operation, I didn’t want my machine to throw a fit if the SSD wasn’t present at boot time. So naturally, I turned to GPT-4 for advice.
GPT-4’s Advice: The “nofail” Option
GPT-4 responded quickly and gave me a clear suggestion: use the nofail option in the /etc/fstab file. This would ensure that the system attempts to mount the USB drive if present but continues to boot even if the drive is not connected.
That made sense, and GPT-4 also reassured me that using this option for non-critical filesystems is common practice. But something bugged me. “nofail” sounded counterintuitive—shouldn’t this be used for important, “must mount” filesystems? So I turned to my trusty search engine to verify what exactly “defaults,nofail” meant.
The Internet Confusion Begins
I did a quick search using Kagi (or Google—take your pick, I got the same results). On the first page, I came across this page from Rackspace’s docs: Rackspace Docs on Linux – Nobootwait and Nofail.
It flat-out stated the opposite of what GPT-4 had told me! It described nofail as an option for critical filesystems, implying that the system would wait until the drive was mounted. This seemed strange since I wanted the system to boot even when the drive wasn’t there. This increased my doubts, so I dug deeper.
Deeper Dive – The Web Only Adds to the Confusion
I kept browsing, checking multiple sources. Each page seemed to explain nofail slightly differently. Some agreed with Rackspace, others said the opposite. At this point, I was more confused than when I started. How could such a basic option be so misunderstood on the web?
The Answer Was in the Man Pages All Along
Frustrated, I decided to check the man pages—the original source of truth for Linux users. Sure enough, GPT-4 was right. The nofail option is specifically there to ensure that the boot process does not stop or fail if the specified filesystem is not present. Perfect for my use case, as I wanted the system to keep booting even if the USB SSD was missing.
Conclusion: Crazy World We’re Living In
So here we are, in a world where search engines and online documentation can sometimes steer you in the wrong direction, while an AI (GPT-4) was spot on from the beginning. It’s crazy how something as fundamental as mounting a drive can be so muddled online.
I’ve learned two things from this: first, always double-check your sources—especially with something as complex as Linux configuration. And second, never underestimate the value of consulting the man pages. In this crazy, confused world of information overload, sometimes the simplest and most direct solution is the right one.
Oh, and yeah, nofail is exactly what you need for external drives that you don’t want to hold up your boot process. Crazy name? Maybe. But it does the job.
And, yes, this was written by gpt4o as well, based on the cryptic text
Intersting.
putting USB SSD on ubuntu machine.
Asking gpt4o what to do. Works.
worried about this being external drive that boot would not stop when it is not there. So I ask, and it says should be fine, but to use “nofail” to be sure.
I think: weird naming for option in open source.
Use Kagi (or google, the same result) to look for “defaults,nofail meaning”
FIRST page
says opposite of gpt4.
I look further on the net. Confusion. Finally I look at the man page,
gpt4o was right. The Internet as seen via search is plain wrong.
Crazy world we are living in
