RE: Linux not adhering to BIOS Drive boot order?

Venkatesh Ramamurthy (Venkateshr@ami.com)
Tue, 16 Jan 2001 11:56:13 -0500


> Why is this a SCSI ML problem? The problem is that the OS can't figure
> out
> where to mount root from. Sounds like an OS problem.
> I think the file system label is the leading candidate to solve this. One
>
> really does not care if the root disk is called /dev/sda or /dev/fred.
> All
> one cares is that you can boot your system and the right disks are
> mounted.
> What I have seen so far with the fs label this either does solve this
> today or
> it can solve this. I notice today on some systems the entries in
> /etc/fstab
> already are "deviceless" in that it does not have the disk/partition but
> simply the disk label.
>
> Can lilo use a label for the root disk also? I have not looked into that
> yet.
> If it does not can it? When I noticed the use of the label in /etc/fstab
> my
> first thought was "alright, someone is solving this problem." I have not
> taken the time - not a burning issue with me right now - to see if this is
> all
> done yet though.
>
> Keep in mind that the example where /dev/sda is where root lies is that
> "easy"
> case. The hard case is what happens if someone installs on /dev/sdg. Now
>
> they boot up with a disk array turned off. Is the mid-layer going to
> figure
> out that what is now /dev/sda suppose to be /dev/sdg? Or they install to
> /dev/sdb and /dev/sda goes bad so they pull it out?
[Venkatesh Ramamurthy] If we can truly go for label based mouting
and lilo'ing this would solve the problem. Anybody doing this?

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