[gentoo-user] Re: Re: Changing boot device with 2.6.36

[Jörg Schaible]

Hi Alan,

Alan McKinnon wrote:

> Apparently, though unproven, at 21:36 on Monday 03 January 2011, Jörg
> Schaible did opine thusly:
>
>> Nikos Chantziaras wrote:
>> > On 01/03/2011 07:43 PM, Jörg Schaible wrote:
>> >> Hi,
>> >>
>> >> starting with the 2.6.36-r5 kernel of the Gentoo sources my boot
>> >> device changes. With 2.6.35 and below it is alway /dev/sda3, with the
>> >> new kernel it seems that anything that is internally connected with
>> >> USB is assigned a device first. Since my computer has an internal
>> >> media bay (and my monitor has such a thing also) the first HD moves -
>> >> it I take care it is now /dev/sde3. However, if I forget to switch on
>> >> the monitor and do this later or if an USB stick is already plugged in
>> >> at boot time, the HD gets a different device number again.
>> >>
>> >> Can somebody else confirm such a behaviour with the 2.6.36 kernel and
>> >> how can this brought back to normal operation?
>> >
>> > This has been solved long ago: Label your filesystems and mount them by
>> > label.
>>
>> I did this long ago, therefore I can switch between the old and new
>> kernel easily.
>>
>> > For example, don't put "/dev/sda3" in your fstab, but label that
>> > filesystem with a name like "root_fs" and use
>> > "/dev/disk/by-label/root_fs" in fstab.
>> >
>> > Ext2/3/4 filesystem can be labeled with the "e2label" tool.  For
>> > example:
>> >    e2label /dev/sda3 root_fs
>> >
>> > After that, modify your fstab accordingly.
>>
>> And how does this help the kernel to find the root device where
>> /etc/fstab is located ?
>
> Does
>
> boot=LABEL=<boot_device_label>
>
> in grub config work for you?

I hoped so, but actually no. Grub complains at boot time not finding the 
root device. Is this available in the grub-0.97 series at all?

- Jörg