Linux mount ntfs hfsplus partition

okay, this pretty much drove me crazy today. Here are some entries from /dev/disk/by-label lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Aug 4 03:07 Neumann -> ../../sdb5 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Aug 4 03:07 Newton -> ../../sdb1 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Aug 4 03:07 opt -> ../../sda6 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Aug 4 03:07 root -> ../../sda2 the respective file-systems and mount-points are (from /etc/fstab) LABEL=root / ext3 defaults 1 1 LABEL=opt /opt ext3 defaults 1 2 /dev/disk/by-label/Newton /Newton ntfs ro,umask=0222 0 0 /dev/disk/by-label/Neumann /Neumann hfsplus defaults 1 2 #LABEL=Newton /Newton ntfs ro,umask=0222 0 0 #LABEL=Neumann /Neumann hfsplus defaults 1 2 See the last two commented out entries starting with LABEL=Newton, and LABEL=Neumann? So now the million-dollar question is why is it that I'm able to mount the ext3 partitions / and /opt using their labels, while I've to use an explicit device path for the ntfs and hfsplus partitions (volums)? Mind you, the ntfs and hfsplus volumes do have labels, Newton, and Neumann, respectively. I put them there using gparted. Also the corresponding links are very much there in /dev/disk/by-label. I have a hunch that somebody somewhere is not able to read the ntfs/hfsplus labels, which are written on the partition itself (another guess) maybe in the first few sectors of the partiton, like the MBR. Meanwhile, if you are looking to mount your ntfs/hfsplus volumes and using labels, hopefully my experience will save you some time and frustration.