Error unmounting, EOF in backquote substitution Options

[urinalmint]

Hi All

I have an eeepc 901 running linux mint 10. It has recently started being unable to unmount drives.

if I try and unmount by ejecting the drive I get the error message:

/bin/umount: 1: Syntax error: EOF in backquote substitution

If it try 'umount -a' in a terminal I get the following

/bin/umount: line 1: unexpected EOF while looking for matching ``'
/bin/umount: line 2: syntax error: unexpected end of file

Googling this turns up issues where there is a ' misplaced in a file somewhere, but nobody seems to have the same issue as this!

I've checked grub & fstab and they haven't been modified since first install, /bin/umount isn't readable in any editor I've tried. Incidentally mounting & unmounting ISO files works without issue....

Can anyone shed some light on how to resolve this?

Cheers

[michaelk]

umount is a binary program and not a simple bash script.

What happens when you manually try to unmount the drive. i.e. type the full command
umount /mount/point (do not forget to use the real mount point)

[urinalmint]

Hi Michael

Ahh cheers, that explains why I cant read it in vim!

The same thing happens when I try to unmount something directly, 3262... is my SD card and Expansion Drive_ is a usb hdd, the other expansion is from where the same drive has been previously plugged in and I've been unable to unmount it. The only way I can clear it is via a reboot

callum@minty /media $ ls
3262-6331 Expansion Drive Expansion Drive_ My Passport
callum@minty /media $ umount /media/3262-6331
/bin/umount: line 1: unexpected EOF while looking for matching ``'
/bin/umount: line 2: syntax error: unexpected end of file
callum@minty /media $ umount /media/Expansion\ Drive_
/bin/umount: line 1: unexpected EOF while looking for matching ``'
/bin/umount: line 2: syntax error: unexpected end of file

Running umount as root just gives a slightly simplified error message

callum@minty /media $ sudo umount /media/Expansion\ Drive_
[sudo] password for callum:
/bin/umount: 1: Syntax error: EOF in backquote substitution


Cheers

[michaelk]

Try unmount via the device ID.

[urinalmint]

It gives me the same error as before

callum@minty ~ $ sudo blkid
/dev/sda1: UUID="718d70b1-b9b4-4ad2-affa-729dce1c760f" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda5: UUID="5a6fee93-8823-4660-8e82-a53c133e5af5" TYPE="swap"
/dev/sdb1: UUID="cc635f82-999c-493f-9d03-bd779acd77f8" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sdb5: UUID="8a253e77-5d9a-469c-8043-1f579f776455" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sdc1: UUID="3262-6331" TYPE="vfat"
/dev/sdd1: LABEL="Expansion Drive" UUID="587CF3AD7CF38452" TYPE="ntfs"

The USB hdd

callum@minty ~ $ umount 587CF3AD7CF38452
/bin/umount: line 1: unexpected EOF while looking for matching ``'
/bin/umount: line 2: syntax error: unexpected end of file

SD card

callum@minty ~ $ umount 3262-6331
/bin/umount: line 1: unexpected EOF while looking for matching ``'
/bin/umount: line 2: syntax error: unexpected end of file

Gave my internal data partition a try as well just to see if it was external devices

callum@minty ~ $ umount 8a253e77-5d9a-469c-8043-1f579f776455
/bin/umount: line 1: unexpected EOF while looking for matching ``'
/bin/umount: line 2: syntax error: unexpected end of file
callum@minty ~ $ sudo umount 8a253e77-5d9a-469c-8043-1f579f776455
/bin/umount: 1: Syntax error: EOF in backquote substitution

Cheers

[michaelk]

I had actually meant device ID as in /dev/sdc1 but would expect the same error.

[urinalmint]

Ah oops!

Yeah it gives exactly the same error

[urinalmint]

For anyone stumbling across this on google, finally discovered the solution was a lot simpler than I though

Simply reinstalled the package mount through synaptic, reboot and that resolved it

Cheers

[michaelk]

Well done. Thanks for posting back.