On Tue, 01 Nov 2011 19:46:13 -0400 (EDT), Walter Hurry wrote: > On Tue, 01 Nov 2011 19:43:20 -0400, Stephen Powell wrote: >> >> It is important that you *not* use traditional device nomenclature, such >> as >> >> /dev/hda1 >> /dev/sda1 > > Why?
Two reasons. First, whether an IDE hard disk shows up as /dev/hda, /dev/hdb, etc. or /dev/sda, /dev/sdb, etc. depends on which drivers are being used. For example, the 2.6.32-3-686 kernel and earlier ones use the traditional IDE drivers, with device names /dev/hda, /dev/hdb, etc. The 2.6.32-5-686 and later kernels use the libata SCSI emulation drivers, with device names /dev/sda, /dev/sdb, etc. Second, the devices are not necessarily discovered in the same order every time with newer kernels. Let's say you have a system with one hard disk and one CD-ROM drive. On one boot, your hard disk may be assigned device name /dev/sda and the CD-ROM drive may be assigned the device name /dev/sdb. But on the next boot, it is possible that the CD-ROM drive may be assigned the device name /dev/sda and the hard disk may be assigned the device name /dev/sdb. You can never be sure. By using UUIDs or LABELs, you will always get the same physical partition mounted as the root file system every time, regardless of what its device name happens to be in the current boot. The same applies to non-root file sytems in /etc/fstab (i.e. /boot, /home, etc.) -- .''`. Stephen Powell : :' : `. `'` `- -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/544765130.478134.1320192054767.javamail.r...@md01.wow.synacor.com
