[H-GEN] I don't understand this.

[Ewan Edwards]

[ Humbug *General* list - semi-serious discussions about Humbug and     ]
[ Unix-related topics. Posts from non-subscribed addresses will vanish. ]

On Thursday 15 May 2003 11:20 pm, R&J Stuart wrote:
> > I'm still really curious to know why the RH9 system mount /dev/hde1
> > instead of /dev/hda1 on the root directory.
>
> RH 9 (I think it started with 8.0?) looks at the filesystem labels when
> trying to find the rootfs.  /etc/fstab is not consulted when deciding to
> mount the root fs - it isn't mounted! So, this must be passed as a
> parameter to the kernel at boot time or otherwise magically determined.
>
> My RH 8.0 box has this for the root fs:
> LABEL=/                 /                       ext3    defaults        1 1

Both the RH73 and RH9 /etc/fstab entries are identical to that.  When I 
checked that file on RH9, I changed that entry to the following, but as you 
point out below, the filesystem is mounted before that file can be read, 
hence that change had no effect.
/dev/hda1                 /                       ext3    defaults        1 1


>
> The redhat section of the grub.conf for my RH 8.0 box looks like this:
> title Red Hat Linux (2.4.18-14)
>          root (hd0,1)
>          kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.18-14 ro root=LABEL=/ hdc=ide-scsi
>          initrd /boot/initrd-2.4.18-14.img

My RH73 box at work has this:
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.18-27.7.x)
     root (hd0,1)
     kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.18-27.7.x ro root=/dev/hda1 hdc=ide-scsi vga=794
     initrd /boot/initrd-2.4.18-27.7.x.img

I'm assuming the one at home has the same.  I'm also assuming the RH9 system 
has the same "root=LABEL=/" part, so that probably would have been the thing 
to change, if any.  Clearly, Robert's suggestion to boot the CD in rescue 
mode was a better solution than this sort of putzing around.


>
> So I'm guessing that somehow, the searching through partitions and
> filesystems on the machine finds your hde before your hda, or after
> depending on whether the decision gets made on first found or last.

That would explain it.  Thanks.




--
* This is list (humbug) general handled by majordomo at lists.humbug.org.au .
* Postings to this list are only accepted from subscribed addresses of
* lists 'general' or 'general-post'.  See http://www.humbug.org.au/