Problem with random disks mount sequence

[Mikkel L. Ellertson]

wwp wrote:
> Hello Mikkel,
> 
> 
> On Mon, 10 Dec 2007 13:00:15 -0600 "Mikkel L. Ellertson" <mikkel at infinity-ltd.com> wrote:
> 
>> SCSI drives are listed by order of discovery. (SATA drives are
>> handled as SCSI drives.) You should not have USB drives discovered
>> before your SATA drive. It almost sounds like you have the
>> usb_storage module in your initrd file. You may also want to check
>> /etc/modprobe.conf fo SCSI controller aliases.
> 
> I didn't change factory defaults for kernel config and params, modprobe
> settings or initrd contents, it was working fine until I did some
> reboots (it worked fine for several reboots, I can't tell if that came
> from an upgrade or if it's a random behaviour, and I'm not rebooting
> every day). If this problems shows here, it's potentially everyone
> else's problem, if it's not BIOS or hardware dependent.
> 
Dumb question - were you booting with the USB drives plugged in?
> 
>> I normally let HAL mount USB drives - it uses the label for the
>> mount point off the /media directory. It is possible to write HAL
>> rules that mount specific drives on specific mount points. It is
>> also possile to write udev rules that will mount the USB drive based
>> on the partition label, just like your root directory is mounted.
>> (You need to use the noauto option, so the system does not try to
>> mount them on boot.)
>>
>> This should give you a couple of ways to try and solve the problem,
>> or at least give someone else an idea on more troubleshooting.
> 
> Yeah, thanks for the tips. The easy (temporary) workaround I found for
> my next reboot was to have the USB disks unplugged before GDM shows up
> (one plug to get off, they're connected to a USB concentrator). I
> wonder if disabling booting USB devices in the BIOS could help.
> 
> I'm a bit amazed in fact, and I say this w/o any irony, really. After so
> many years where I could see that the way external devices and fs are
> mounted (that started w/ manual fstab handling, then hotplug, udev,
> hal, mixing with autofs and gnome mount mechanisms (correct me if I
> forget one), it's like we'll never get an auto-mounting mechanism that
> is reliable from a Desktop PoV. Maybe it's simply not possible because
> software can't guess human expectations, but then, maybe a wizard
> should ask what to do when new device IDs get plugged in (remember it
> and automount it next time, etc.). Waiting for a smart mount robot, I
> think I'll look into the the HAL rules direction!
> 
I think that is what they are working wards. Part of the problem is
that no-body know the best method to handle this in a multi-user
environment, and still provide security. So different methods are
being tried, hoping that the best method will be found. To
complicate things, the best method for the desktop is probably not
going to be the best method for servers. If you are doing remote
access, that adds another complication. Then you have remote file
systems that need to be mounted.

Another part of the problem is that hardware has advanced. Just look
at the speed/capacity of flash memory. I can buy a 2G memory drive
now for less then I payed for my first 32M memory drive. Methods
that worked well when people only had one or two memory drives do
not work well any more. Linux is adapting to the changes, but it
isn't always smooth. With Fedora, you will probably hit more bumps
because the nature of Fedora is to try new things.

Mikkel
-- 

  Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons,
for thou art crunchy and taste good with Ketchup!

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