Once upon a time, OS installed to sole HD as sda would stay sda even when PCI eSATA was both added and powered on at boot time. Not any more: host gx27b (PCI SiI3512=esata) 11.4 2.6.37 esata=sdb, / on ICH5 sda9 12.1 3.1.10 esata=sdb, / on ICH5 sda10 12.2 3.4.63 esata=sdb, / on ICH5 sda11 12.3 3.7.10 esata=sdb, / on ICH5 sda12 13.1 3.11.6 esata=sdb, / on ICH5 sda20 13.1 3.12.5 esata=sdb, / on ICH5 sda20 13.2 3.12.1 esata=NA, / on ICH5 sda21 13.2 3.12.1 esata=sda, (/ on ICH5 sdb21 non-existent; dracut emergency shell) host gx620 (PCI SiI3512=esata) 11.4 2.6.37 esata=sdb, / on ICH7 sda8 11.4 3.6.2 esata=sdb, / on ICH7 sda8 12.1 3.1.10 esata=sdb, / on ICH7 sda10 13.1 3.11.6 esata=sda, / on ICH7 sdb9 host gx745 (PCI SiI3114=esata) 11.4 2.6.37 esata=sdb, / on ICH8 sda8 11.4 3.6.2 esata=sdb, / on ICH8 sda8 12.1 3.1.10 esata=sdb, / on ICH8 sda10 13.1 3.11.6 esata=sda, / on ICH8 sdb9 Is there some kernel config option or cmdline option or anything else in latest distro releases that can ensure an internal (aka non-removable) HD attached to a motherboard SATA port gets its device name assigned prior to any (removable) USB device and prior to any (removable) (e)SATA device attached to a PCI slot device port, like it used to do automatically? 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. -- "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