Ubuntu bug - links won't work after a reboot

if you think you have found a bug you need to post them on the bug tracker https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu

this is a place to ask questions not post bugs

I can create links to both Linux files and Linux folders (that I own) onto my desktop and they are still there when I reboot.

Your link is to a folder on a Windows partition, isn't it? I have 'My Documents XP' in the Places menu which is persistent except when the XP was closed down with Hibernate.

So this needs more investigation before it is reported as a bug.

What version of Ubuntu are you using?

Tony

I believe I am using the latest version of Ubuntu because I downloaded and installed it about 2 weeks ago, but sorry, I don't know how to determine which version it is.

And yes, I'm trying to create links to files and folders on the Windows partition. In my view, links should work the same regardless of the partition.

Please open a Terminal from the menu Applications->Accessories->Terminal and type:

To check the actual release type:

cat /etc/lsb-release

Hope this helps

Applications > System Tools > Sysinfo will tell you what release you are using.

Links to a Windows (NTFS) partition work OK for me. Links to a FAT32 partition cannot be created in the file browser.

Tony

Try creating a symbolic link.

Open you file browser and dig down to your folder /media/disk-2/Documents and Settings/Steve Smith
Drag it to your Desktop holding CRTL+SHIFT. (This will create a symbolic link)

If your windows drive gets mounted automatically in your /etc/fstab file, this link will never break.

Hope this solves your problem

If you are unsure how to automatically mount drives with /etc/fstab post the output of

sudo fdisk -l
and
gedit /etc/fstab

Then we can help configure it for you

Hi WWSmith, that is REALLY nice of you.

root@dc:~# sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x8f8733c5

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 63 506016 de Dell Utility
/dev/sda2 * 64 20616 165091972+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 20617 60801 322786012+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 20617 60424 319757728+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 60425 60801 3028221 82 Linux swap / Solaris
root@dc:~# gedit /etc/fstab

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/sda5
UUID=19985ce4-c76d-406f-a5c6-496ec85b86b2 / ext3 relatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /dev/sda6
UUID=b2b52052-ca4f-41d5-9d06-cb309d5bcb8d none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0

---

Believe it or not, my main goal of posting this was not solving this for myself, but trying to convince the Ubuntu developers that this should be treated as a bug. I know TECHNICALLY they do not consider it a bug. I know they think Ubuntu users need to learn all these things, how to mount partitions, etc.

It is sad that they take this attitude. I have 20 years of computer experience as a programmer, so if I can't easily figure it out, the average user has virtually NO chance of getting it to work. Ubuntu needs to work for the non-geeks as well, and when it does, millions will switch.

Ubuntu is so much better than Windows in so many ways, and getting people to use it just means fixing the things that are un-intuitive like this.

They have been trying to improve these thing recent. Hardy comes out of the box with the ability to read ntfs partitions (ntfs-3g). I´m not sure if they have included the auto-mounting tool yet. You can give it a try.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ntfs-config

Then config your ntfs drive to auto-mount.

gksu ntfs-config

This will automatically update your /etc/fstab. It should also appear in Applications-> System Tools-> NTFS Configuration Tool.

If you want to manually edit your /etc/fstab without the tool, just add this line

/dev/sda2 /media/disk-2 ntfs-3g auto,rw ,utf8 0 0

If you want change the name of the mount point you can also do that. Remember if you do that to update you links.

Hope this helps.

Hi,

I tried those commands.

When I ran sudo apt-get update I got this error:
Reading package lists... Done
W: GPG error: http://archive.ubuntulinux.jp hardy-ja/ Release: The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY 058A05E90C4ECFEC
W: You may want to run apt-get update to correct these problems

I did about 10 minutes research on this, it seems like people are having trouble solving that problem.

I went ahead and ran these 2 commands:

sudo apt-get install ntfs-config
gksu ntfs-config

I did get that NTFS Configuration tool, there were 2 options:

"Enable write support for internal device"
"Enable write support for external device"

I assumed I only needed to check the first one and click OK.

This didn't seem to make any difference. The shortcuts still don't work, in fact the problem seems worse.

Before, when I would manually go and click on the Windows media partition, the links would start working. Now doing that doesn't help.

Please delete all your symbolic links and then recreate them. The mount point reference has changed after ntfs-config rendering them invalid. The new ones will have contain the proper mount point.

Thank you

On my Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid the links are persistent after the reboot of pc.
I think you have some mount issue with ntfs mount point as has answer you WWSmith36.

Hope this helps

I'm not sure if this is just a NTFS mount problem, as I started to have the same issue last night. I upgraded to the latest Ubuntu, and then the links I had in my panel to folders disappeared after a reboot. The links aren't to a NTFS mount, they are to folders within my home folder. If anyone has any suggestions on how to fix this, please let me know.

Hi Willow, good luck trying to solve this one. I wish I could help. I don't have time to work on solving this anymore. I'm going to close this so people don't waste their time trying to help. THank you.