Re: Linux not adhering to BIOS Drive boot order?

Eddie Williams (Eddie.Williams@steeleye.com)
Tue, 16 Jan 2001 11:53:47 -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?

Eddie
> > In article <1355693A51C0D211B55A00105ACCFE64E9518C@ATL_MS1> you wrote:
> >
> > > we need some kind of signature being written in the drive, which the
> > kernel
> > > will use for determining the boot drive and later re-order drives, if
> > > required.
> >
> > Like the ext2 labels? (man e2label)
> [Venkatesh Ramamurthy] This re-ordering of the scsi drives should
> be done by SCSI ML , so is incorporating ext2 fs data structure knowledge on
> the SCSI ML a good idea?.
>
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