/etc/fstab timestamp changing -- why? USB? devlabel?

From: Daniel Barrett (dbarrett_at_spinky.blazemonger.com)
Date: 12/27/03 

Date: Sat, 27 Dec 2003 13:33:54 GMT

My /etc/fstab file is having its "last modified" timestamp changed,
and I'm trying to track down the reason. (Sometimes the inode number
changes too, but that could be a red herring.) The file contents are
not being altered. Here's the most recent tripwire output:

Modified object name: /etc/fstab

  Property: Expected Observed
  ------------- ----------- -----------
  Object Type Regular File Regular File
  Device Number 775 775
  Inode Number 18953 18953
  Mode -rw-r--r-- -rw-r--r--
  Num Links 1 1
  UID root (0) root (0)
  GID root (0) root (0)
  Size 1694 1694
* Modify Time Mon 22 Dec 2003 10:15:42 AM EST
                       Fri 26 Dec 2003 03:47:12 PM EST
  Blocks 8 8
  CRC32 AczDog AczDog
  MD5 BaUo8CBEmYU+qyNMlKt93E BaUo8CBEmYU+qyNMlKt93E

The changes do not always happen at the same time of day. My
suspicions: at approximately the same times that the changes occur,
/var/log/messages contains lines about USB:

Dec 26 15:47:11 mybox kernel: usb.c: USB disconnect on device
00:07.2-1.4 address 7
Dec 26 15:47:11 mybox kernel: Device not ready. Make sure there
is a disc in the drive.
Dec 26 15:47:12 mybox last message repeated 4 times

and about devlabel:

Dec 26 15:47:14 mybox devlabel: The symlink /dev/foo -> /dev/bar is
being ignored in /etc/sysconfig/devlabel because the correct
device cannot be found.
Dec 26 15:47:15 mybox kernel: Device not ready. Make sure there is a
disc in the drive.
Dec 26 15:47:46 mybox last message repeated 108 times

I'm running automount for some firewire hard drives and gphoto2 for my
digital camera. The system is Red Hat Linux 9, athlon kernel 2.4.20-24.9.

Any info appreciated. Thanks. 

--
Dan Barrett
dbarrett@blazemonger.com
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