I have added a line

/dev/sda1 /home/pi/ext ntfs defaults,umask=000,x-systemd.device-timeout=30 0
0

to /etc/fstab to auto-mount a USB drive that is on /dev/sda1

This works fine.

But if I accidentally forget to plug in the USB drive, booting halts with a
message

https://postimg.cc/4nbX0gkZ

about being in emergency mode

Interestingly, if I then plug the drive in (while the Pi is turned on) and
press enter again, it boots normally.

So despite the x-systemd.device-timeout=30 it is stopping dead if the drive
is not present.


Originally I had the line

/dev/sda1 /home/pi/ext ntfs defaults 0 0


but
https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/configuration/external-storage.md
alerted me to the umask parameter to allow access to all files/folders, and
the shortened timeout x-systemd.device-timeout=30 instead of 90 seconds.


The only difference from the web page is that I am referring to the drive by
/dev/sda1 rather than by its UUID. Is that significant? Is there another
parameter that I should be using on the /etc/fstab line?

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05