LPIC-1 Devices, Filesystems and FHS Practice Question
An administrator is configuring a new server with two SATA disks. The first disk (/dev/sda) holds the root filesystem. The second disk (/dev/sdb) is intended to provide additional storage for user home directories. The administrator partitions /dev/sdb using 'fdisk' to create a single partition /dev/sdb1, formats it with 'mkfs.ext4' and adds the following line to /etc/fstab: '/dev/sdb1 /home ext4 defaults 0 2'. After rebooting, the /home directory is empty and the command 'df -h' does not show /dev/sdb1. However, running 'mount /dev/sdb1 /home' manually works perfectly. The disk is not listed in 'cat /proc/mounts' before the manual mount. What is the most likely cause of this issue?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to assume a missing UUID or a non-empty mount point is the cause, but the real issue is the fsck pass number in fstab causing the mount to be skipped when errors are detected.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
The filesystem on /dev/sdb1 has errors and needs to be checked with fsck before mounting.
The filesystem on /dev/sdb1 has errors that prevent it from being mounted automatically at boot. The 'mount -a' command (run during boot) will skip filesystems that fail a pre-mount check, but a manual mount with 'mount /dev/sdb1 /home' will still succeed if the errors are not critical. The '0 2' in the fstab entry specifies that the filesystem should be checked by fsck on boot; if fsck finds errors, the mount is aborted to avoid data corruption.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The fstab entry is missing the _netdev option, which is required for local SATA disks.
Why it's wrong here
The _netdev option is for network filesystems (e.g., NFS), not local disks.
- ✗
The /home directory is not empty and contains files that conflict with the mount.
Why it's wrong here
An empty /home directory after boot suggests it wasn't mounted; non-empty directory would not prevent mounting.
- ✗
The fstab entry uses the device file /dev/sdb1 instead of the UUID.
Why it's wrong here
Using the device file is acceptable and should work; manual mount uses the same device file and succeeds.
- ✓
The filesystem on /dev/sdb1 has errors and needs to be checked with fsck before mounting.
Why this is correct
If the filesystem has errors, the system may not mount it automatically at boot to prevent further damage, but manual mount may still succeed if the errors are not severe.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This LPIC-1 practice question is part of Courseiva's free LPI certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the LPIC-1 exam.