Re: SlugOS 5.3, Memstick & HDD -- device name confusion (sda / sdb)

obi_jan wrote:

> ...even though my fstab indicates that the root file system > should be mounted as /dev/sda1 (which is now the HDD), it
> actually miraculously mounts /dev/sdb1 now (which is the new name
> of the memstick).

Isn't it nice when things "just work"?  :-)  SlugOS does not store the
/dev/sd* device name for use during the boot process.  What really
happens when you do "turnup /dev/sda1" is that the turnup utility looks
up the UUID for that partition, and sets up the boot process to use that
UUID.  This avoids any problems caused by the device names moving about
for USB devices.

> I guess this is good, but I'd like to know if there are any caveats I
> should know about. Should I change the fstab to reflect the new device
> name, or should I leave it as is, in case I ever decide to remove
> the HDD, to make sure it still continues to boot correctly of
> /dev/sda1 then.

The /dev/sda1 noted in the fstab is not used by SlugOS, so you can just
leave it as-is.  (We should replace that with a UUID reference some day,
just to avoid confusing humans, though.)

The only thing you should know is that if you add any other disks, you
should:

a) blacklist them in the udev blacklist file (somewhere down below /etc).

b) add the other partitions using the UUID syntax to the fstab, which
will ensure that you avoid problems if that other device ever changes
its /dev/sd* identity.

Mike (mwester)