Forcing sda

[Peter Abrahamsen <peter@abrahamsen.com>]

Hullo,

For much-too-many-months (I swear, I think this started happening after
2.1.24), my kernel has only occasionally seen /dev/sda. I can run run 'echo
scsi add-single-device > /proc/scsi/scsi' to access it after I've booted,
but that's not convenient. Also, during the stints when the kernel /does/
see /dev/sda (SCSI 0:0:0:0), it throws off the numbering of disks, which
means the kernel can't find my root partition, and I end up rebooting over
and over until the kernel goes back to normal again.

This problem has been pointed out before, by more than just myself. It seems
to be something wrong with the harddrives shipped with some computers of
this particular model (7600). Actually fixing the problem seems way beyond
my abilities, but I was wondering if anyone could tell me a kernel argument
or somesuch which would force sda to be that scsi ID, or reserve sda
somehow? It would save me a lot of trouble.

Here's the contents of /proc/scsi/scsi, after I've run add-single-device:
Attached devices:
Host: scsi0 Channel: 00 Id: 03 Lun: 00
  Vendor: MATSHITA Model: CD-ROM CR-8005A  Rev: 4.0i
  Type:   CD-ROM                           ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Host: scsi0 Channel: 00 Id: 04 Lun: 00
  Vendor: IBM      Model: DDRS-39130       Rev: S97B
  Type:   Direct-Access                    ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Host: scsi0 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00
  Vendor: QUANTUM  Model: FIREBALL1280S    Rev: 630G
  Type:   Direct-Access                    ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Host: scsi1 Channel: 00 Id: 04 Lun: 00
  Vendor: YAMAHA   Model: CRW8424S         Rev: 1.0j
  Type:   CD-ROM                           ANSI SCSI revision: 02

I believe scsi0 is mesh, and scsi1 is 53c94, but I might have those
reversed.

Thanks so much,

Peter