Home folder on separate drive not found on boot

[flatfoot]

Hi there,

I've had an annoying problem with my hack for quite some time now and haven't been able to fix it:

My hack is set to auto-login because I have EyeTV running on it, which auto-boots when there is a recording coming up.
Now, every other time the machine fails to boot properly, displaying a temporary desktop and a dialog saying that the user folder couldn't be found. Plus, it hangs there, forcing me to reset the hack.

I might add that my user folder is located on a separate RAID set. This setup worked flawlessly on my Mac Pro and for several months on the Hack and, as stated above, does still work 50% of the time.

Thought that it might be that the RAID drives spin down during the boot process and aren't back up quickly enough when the system tries to access the home folder, but I think I can rule that out now since I unchecked the HD spin-down option in the Energy Saver prefs and the problem persists.

Any input is highly appreciated!

P.S.: Sorry I can't give the exact wording of the dialog but when it is displayed I can't make a screenshot (machine hangs) and I can't find a picture of it via Google either.

 

[Lnx2Mac]

flatfoot,
Check out this: http://lnx2mac.blogspot.com/2010/09/mov ... ition.html

It might give you some ideas...

Good Luck !
Lnx2Mac

 

[flatfoot]

Thanks a lot, Lnx2Mac.

I chose to use the fstab-part of your guide to make sure the RAID is mounted properly – and at least I didn't break anything by doing so. ;-)

I edited it as follows:

UUID=79DE92DD-A644-44C6-A4BE-A3F45F230B23 /Volumes/Data hfs auto

Important (you might want to add that to your tutorial): If you move your home or Users folder to a separate RAID (not single drive), you need to paste the RAID ID into your fstab file, not the UUID, otherwise you won't be able to log in; I found out about that the hard way.

One more note: In contrast to your tutorial, there's only my home folder on the "Data" disk. That involves much less work than moving the complete /Users folder.

Let's see how my hack behaves over the next weeks... But anyway, thanks again.

 

[Lnx2Mac]

Thanks a lot, Lnx2Mac.

Important (you might want to add that to your tutorial): If you move your home or Users folder to a separate RAID (not single drive), you need to paste the RAID ID into your fstab file, not the UUID, otherwise you won't be able to log in; I found out about that the hard way.

Will probably do a separate post on RAID later on
But feel free to comment there... In case an advanced user finds this, your input will be helpful !
Either way, this one is overly complicated for regular users

One more note: In contrast to your tutorial, there's only my home folder on the "Data" disk. That involves much less work than moving the complete /Users folder.

You mean that you modified your home to be NOT /Users/xxx ?
Expect trouble with that...
Some brain-dead programs expect your home to be /Users/xxx no matter what's registered on Directory Service...

 

[flatfoot]

One more note: In contrast to your tutorial, there's only my home folder on the "Data" disk. That involves much less work than moving the complete /Users folder.

You mean that you modified your home to be NOT /Users/xxx ?
Expect trouble with that...
Some brain-dead programs expect your home to be /Users/xxx no matter what's registered on Directory Service...

Hm, I see your point here but up to now there haven't been any problems.

BTW: I set a few recordings tonight for each of which the machine had to boot again and they were all recorded! No boot failures.
We'll see how the next few weeks turn out but for now it seems like you pointed me into the right direction.

 

[Vendetta]

You mean that you modified your home to be NOT /Users/xxx ?
Expect trouble with that...
Some brain-dead programs expect your home to be /Users/xxx no matter what's registered on Directory Service...

Could you elaborate on this? I've moved my home folder (via Sys Prefs>Accounts>Advanced Settings>yada yada) to a separate internal drive, and the only folder on that drive (that partition, anyways) is my home folder, so I assume it appears as /xxx, not /Users/xxx. Should I make a parent folder (/Users) and drop my particular home folder in there?

 

[flatfoot]

You mean that you modified your home to be NOT /Users/xxx ?
Expect trouble with that...
Some brain-dead programs expect your home to be /Users/xxx no matter what's registered on Directory Service...

Could you elaborate on this? I've moved my home folder (via Sys Prefs>Accounts>Advanced Settings>yada yada) to a separate internal drive, and the only folder on that drive (that partition, anyways) is my home folder, so I assume it appears as /xxx, not /Users/xxx. Should I make a parent folder (/Users) and drop my particular home folder in there?

What he means is that apps might look for your home folder in "/Users/<yourUsername>" specifically instead of requesting "~" from the OS.
In your and my case that wouldn't work since our user folders are located at "/Volumes/<someHDD>/<yourUsername>". That might lead to unpredicted behaviour, at least error messages.
But as I said, I haven't stumbled over one app that gave me problems in several years.

 

[AllanMarcus]

I have my home folder on a separate RAID0 with no problems. I used Disk Utilities to make the RAID and System Prefs to redefine the home folder.

Any app that is had coded for /Users should be dropped

You didn't say if you RAID was hardware or software. That might help to diagnose the issue.

 

[flatfoot]

I have my home folder on a separate RAID0 with no problems. I used Disk Utilities to make the RAID and System Prefs to redefine the home folder.

Any app that is had coded for /Users should be dropped

You didn't say if you RAID was hardware or software. That might help to diagnose the issue.

It's a software RAID (Disk Utility). And as stated above, the problem didn't occur with each boot. Seems to be solved now anyway.

 

[Vendetta]

What he means is that apps might look for your home folder in "/Users/<yourUsername>" specifically instead of requesting "~" from the OS.
In your and my case that wouldn't work since our user folders are located at "/Volumes/<someHDD>/<yourUsername>". That might lead to unpredicted behaviour, at least error messages.
But as I said, I haven't stumbled over one app that gave me problems in several years.

Thanks flatfoot, just trying to cover myself. I was aware of that issue, but wanted to me verify that what Lnx2Mac was referring to was the same issue. Thanks again.

What type of RAID setup do you have, and how do you like it? I ask because I'm considering it.

(Sorry if I'm derailing your thread )