[Linux] Profile on /media/ device initially not found

[chehmsoth]

I have Thunderbird 52.4.0 (64-bit) on a solid state drive under Ubuntu 16.04.3 LTS 64-bit. The profile file is on a hard drive partition mounted at /media/user/UserData/Email/ThunderbirdProfile.
When I launch Thunderbird after a reboot I get the error message "Your Thunderbird profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible." But after I access the hard drive /media/user/UserData with Nautilus, Thunderbird launches with no problem at all. I realize this is a happy person's problem (just two mouse clicks before starting Thunderbird) but is there any way avoid those clicks? TIA

[tanstaafl]

Thunderbird expects any storage it uses to be already mounted. It won't mount it. Perhaps Nautilus transparently mounts the partition for you when you use it to access that location.

[chehmsoth]

I checked and it is NOT mounted at startup. Thanks.

[chehmsoth]

I added a line for the partition to etc/fstab and the profile is now mounted at startup. Problem solved.

[rsx11m]

Everything on /media is mounted "as needed" on Linux systems and seems to be a new default on Ubuntu. However, it should be mounted on the first attempt to access the drive, i.e., when Thunderbird is trying to open the profile. It may be a different story if the application checks first if the path is present, apparently that may not trigger the mount (maybe on purpose?). I've seen this with other applications as well.

Anyway, adding a fixed mount in /etc/fstab is the "old fashioned" but safe way to go to ensure that it's mounted at bootup. Make sure to give it an order of 2 or larger, thus it's not mounted before the system drive.