Roger Binns wrote:
I didn't actually want to use a different (although enhanced) bootloader :-) And I'd much rather use labels than sentinel files.
This is going to be a big deal for Linux real soon. The pata drivers are now all handled by the scsi subsystem which just numbers disks in the order it finds them. Actually trying to work out what a partition will be named (sd?, hd?) in advance is a royal pain.
[Slightly OT] I agree and disagree. The logic for hda / sda dies on me too often. On the other hand, I wasted days of my life with labels; since the 'damn box' wouldn't load (mount) what I actually thought it had mounted (you can't read the label physically; on the drive; and it doesn't handle duplicates properly). It is an interesting research topic of how to overcome this, but, sorry to say, for me labels are out. I rather use the old-fashion count like on Solaris, which doesn't differentiate between hda and sda, but simply counts controllers and drives and partitions incrementally, as you all are aware of. This is no answer, since c2d1p3 is arcane. Though, at least, unambiguous. ZFS could in future lead to a better way of dealing with it, I find - despite of its current shortcomings - the auto-discovery of pools quite promising. In the end, a DHCP-like system might evolve; scanning any plugged drive, reading by all means your labels, and offer to mount the partitions / drives. It is also high time, to remove grub from the installs and give it a place in an extended BIOS, a semi-permanent hard-drive (CF) or similar. Then, at boot, it can likewise detect all available drives and allocate / dish out / retrieve the labels (partitions), and gobble together your desired mount situation. Where you can store personal drive configurations, as well. :) Plus, we'd have the traffic on this list vastly reduced ! - No more questions to 'I have deleted my Linux, and now I can't boot to Windows', and likewise. We'd have grub being available as persistent boot controller, irrespective of disk configuration. [/ OT] Uwe _______________________________________________ Bug-grub mailing list Bug-grub@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/bug-grub