On 2014-01-12 16:19 (GMT+0100) Carlos E. R. composed:
Felix Miata wrote:
It's really annoying for device names to vary according to which master boot menu selection one makes, or especially, whether an external device is powered up at boot time, and even more specially, when having an external device powered at boot time causes emergency shell instead of boot success. In the case of emergency shell example listed above on gx27b 13.2, both root= on cmdline and / mounting in fstab are using LABEL syntax, meaning, device names should be irrelevant in any event, as they apparently are for 13.1 on the other two hosts.
That's why you must not use those device names, and instead use the
Must is a strong word. They still exist, therefore they surely still have some value besides being easier to remember and type, and besides making discussion in manuals, books and help forums easy enough to follow.
alternative names in /dev/disk-by/. They were added precisely because device names such as sda are not persistent.
Those long-winded, PITA, alternative names have been around for years. For boot stanza and fstab they can be easily avoided via the ancient LABEL= syntax, though Dracut it seems may have introduced breakage for these two contexts by sticking things in the initrd that don't need to be there. My take on alternative device names creation years ago as features is that the primary reason for their existence is founded in removable storage devices. This is new misbehavior started here only in recent kernels and months. Based entirely on observations I reported in my OP, apparently prior kernels as far back as 11.4's were smart enough to allocate resources first to components built into the mainboard's disk controller(s) before allocating any to attachments like PCI cards or external widgets like USB sticks, but this feature has now been abandoned, or broken. -- "The wise are known for their understanding, and pleasant words are persuasive." Proverbs 16:21 (New Living Translation) Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks! Felix Miata *** http://fm.no-ip.com/ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-kernel+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse-kernel+owner@opensuse.org