"f6k"  wrote in message news:slrnrlp6cn.jec.f6k@xila.huld.re...
> On 2020-09-11, NY  wrote:
>> Solved it! I should have used the keyword nofail to prevent boot stalling
>> if
>> the drive isn't present:
>>
>> /dev/sda1 /home/pi/ext ntfs
>> defaults,nofail,umask=000,x-systemd.device-timeout=30 0 0
>>
>>
https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/75765/how-to-boot-without-mount
ing-a-drive-present-during-booting
>> gave me that information.
>
> i had the exact same problem but didn't took the time to investigate.
> thank you very much for the info, you save me the effort :)

No problem. Glad to be able to help. When I first got a dark grey screen
(just discernibly lighter than with the HDMI plug unplugged) I thought the
Pi (or more likely the SD card image) was buggered. I'd shut the Pi down
cleanly, brought it into the other room, connected it to the PC monitor,
plugged in the power supply - what could have gone wrong in those stages?
After a couple of times, I brought up a text-boot screen (probably the one
that is hidden if you choose Splash Screen in the /boot/config.txt) which
reported retries on /dev/sda1. Bugger it! That's the external HDD. Plugging
it in allowed the Pi to boot. Phew!

It then took a bit of research to find out what parameters to add to the
/etc/fstab entry to make it *always* mount /dev/sda1 if it was present but
to skip mounting it without protest if /dev/sda1 was not present.

It was interesting to read the forum where someone had asked the question.

First of all someone says "don't auto-mount, let the user do it". Then
someone else says "don't use fstab, use udev rules and usbmount". I could
hear Harry Enfield's voice "you don't want to do it like *that*" ;-) Various
"solutions" that didn't answer the precise question or requirement and
over-complicated things. Eventually someone stepped in and said "just add
nofail to the fstab entry" - the voice of sanity: the simplest solution is
the best one.

Reducing the timeout was a supplementary, to make sure that the Pi doesn't
hang around for so long if the drive isn't present. I could probably reduce
it even more.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05