Grub question (Ahem....help! Now it just says 'GRUB')

[Rick Stevens]

Mark Knecht wrote:
> On Tue, 28 Sep 2004 18:24:16 -0700, Rick Stevens
> <rstevens at vitalstream.com> wrote:
> 
> 
>>Now, if fstab use labels instead, such as:
>>
>>        LABEL=/usr  /usr     (blah, blah)
>>
>>this isn't a problem, as the system will look for a partition that's
>>labeled "/usr", regardless of where it is.  This is the ONLY time that
>>I think labels are OK.  Generally, I avoid them like the plague.
> 
> 
> I'm unclear whether you think this would have helped my problem. I
> think not. Using Stuart's info he said grb had two parts. In my case
> grub said 'GRUB' but didn't say 'GRUB second phase loader' or whatever
> that language is. I assume grub cannot find fstab on it's own,
> correct?

Correct.  /etc/fstab is used by the "mount -a" command in the startup
scripts.  The MBR part of grub (first stage) needs to know where the
second stage is located.  That's what the "root=" thing is for in
grub.conf--it tells grub where /boot is (and hence, where the second
stage loader and the grub config file are).

> Labels are sort of nice for my 1394 drives when I need to hook up
> multiple drives and keep them straight, but actually I don't use them
> for my systems.

Yes, that can be helpful.  The main problem with labels is when people
try to have multiple versions of Linux installed on the hard drives.
You know, multiple partitions labeled "/usr" or "/".  Which one gets
used when is indeterminate.
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- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
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