About /etc/fstab and LABELs

[Ed Wilts]

On Fri, Oct 07, 2005 at 11:17:25PM +0300, Kostas Sfakiotakis wrote:
> Besides  answer me this : Let's assume that on one box you have
> Redhat 7.3 but because it is out of date you want to install on the
> same box  Fedora Core 4 for example ( Dual boot with 2 Linux
> versions ) . If you use labels for the root device , then on boot
> how will the Redhat 7.3 know which is it's root partition so it will
> try to boot from there and which is the Fedora Core 4 ( btw a
> 2.6.* kernel and NOT a 2.4 ) so it will not use it ???

The label for / doesn't have to be /.  It could easily be 73root and
fc4root. Label the partitions properly and you don't have to worry about
it.  Edit the fstab and grub.conf entries and you're done.

> All am trying to say here is . There are certainly occassion where
> LABELS will make things easier , that's the reason they were
> originally created , but there are also occassion where LABELS
> will not be as helpfull . 

Labels never create a problem.  Not using them can.

I've been managing systems for 25 years and multiple operating systems
as well.  I've never found a device label to cause me more grief than
not using one.  It's your choice of course to manage your systems as you
see fit.

-- 
Ed Wilts, RHCE
Mounds View, MN, USA
mailto:ewilts at ewilts.org
Member #1, Red Hat Community Ambassador Program