[This message has also been posted to linux.debian.user.] In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > [This message has also been posted to linux.debian.user.] > > I've revved four machines from Sarge to Etch now, > following the release notes and letting it replace > devfs with udev. All worked fine. > > The fifth machine [with an empty PCI card disk controller] was a mess. The main drive's name changed from hda to hde. Other drives changed, too.
> Begin: Waiting for root file system... > (here it hangs for about a minute) > Done. > Check root= bootarg cat /proc/cmdline > or missing modules, devices: cat /proc/modules ls /dev The advice from Andrew <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> and Kevin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> was valid. Apparently what really happened here is a change in what the kernel does with the information from BIOS, somewhere between kernels 2.6.8 and 2.6.18. The empty PCI card wasn't being counted before, and now it is. As Douglas pointed out, the change to udev was only a coincidence. Andrew suggested removing the unused card, a quick, temporary fix. Kevin suggested locking down the partition assignments using the UUID associated with a partition. That works, and survives adding and removing controllers. You can also give the file systems labels with e2label(8). So it seems device names can no longer be relied on to stay the same when you add in new devices, and the workaround is to use labels and let the kernel search for them at mount time. It seems to me this will be a problem until the various distributions' installers start using file system labels or UUIDs instead of device names in /etc/fstab and /boot/grub/menu.lst. It would also be a problem if you have devices you don't want the kernel searching in. # The /etc/fstab syntax is # partition mountpt FStype options dump pass LABEL=my-pata-root / ext2 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1 # The /boot/grub/menu.lst syntax is title 2.6.18-4-686 using labels not /dev/names, udev not devfs root (hd0,0) kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-4-686 root=LABEL=my-pata-root ro devfs=nomount initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.18-4-686 Cameron -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]