fstab and LABEL=

Tim ignored_mailbox at yahoo.com.au
Sat Oct 21 17:24:08 UTC 2006


On Sat, 2006-10-21 at 16:41 +0100, James Wilkinson wrote:
> Please note that /dev/hdx device names are going away in the future --
> even parallel ATA disks (IDE) will be called /dev/sdx. When this
> happens, references to /dev/hdx in grub config files or /etc/fstab
> will break. 

This seems to be a MONUMENTALLY STUPID thing to do.  As it stands, I can
tell precisely what device is what by the device name.  i.e. /dev/hda is
the primary IDE drive.

Conversely, whichever drive is /dev/sd something-or-other *might* be a
SCSI drive, might be a flashdrive in a USB port, might be my digital
still camera in a USB port, and they shuffle around depending which
removable devices are present, or not.

This takes the absolute certainty of what is what out of the equation,
and gives us the utterly crap situation that Windows has:  drive letter
shuffling.  Topped off with a device naming scheme which is incorrect.
Whoever things that /that/ sort of thing is a good idea needs a sound
thrashing about the head with a clue-by-four.

I've just gone through that mess trying to work out what was up with
someone's DVD-burner in an external USB-connected case.  I couldn't find
it anywhere on the device tree, because I couldn't work out what device
it was, and the system didn't do anything coherent about it, either.

The ONLY sensible way to manage this is to use CLEARLY COHERENT device
names.  Stick to /dev/hd for IDE hard drives (though /dev/ide would have
been better).  Stick to /dev/sd for SCSI devices (likewise, dev/scsi
would have been more sensible).  And stop pissing about pretending that
non-SCSI devices are SCSI devices, and name them accordingly.  i.e. Use
some /dev/usb style of device naming for things connected through USB.

-- 
(Currently running FC4, but testing FC5, if that's important.)

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