Back in February, I asked a question about problems I was having
with the hard disks sequence flip-flopping when I would boot: disk
#1 would be hda and disk #2 would be hdc; or disk #1 would be hde
and disk #2 would be hda.
I receive answers about using labels with the partitions so, I
labeled the partitions and updated /etc/fstab. This is how things now look:
IDE #1 Partition Label Mount Point
1 / /
2 swap1 swap file
3 /usr /usr
4
5 /usr/local /usr/local
6 /var /var
IDE #2 Partition Label Mount Point
1 /var/poptemp /var/poptemp
2 /var/mail /var/mail
The /etc/fstab:
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump>
<pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
LABEL=/ / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
LABEL=/usr /usr ext3 defaults 0 2
LABEL=/usr/local /usr/local ext3 defaults 0 2
LABEL=/var /var ext3 defaults 0 2
LABEL=/var/poptemp /var/poptemp ext3 defaults 0 2
LABEL=/var/mail /var/mail ext3 defaults 0 2
LABEL=swap1 none swap sw 0 0
Now the partitions and mount points get assigned correctly no
matter which order the drives are assigned.
The remaining problem is with the GRUB and the kernel. It was
suggested that a LABEL specification be placed in the
/boot/grub/menu.1st entry so that:
# kopt=root=/dev/hda1 becomes
# kopt=root=LABEL=/
Using a LABEL in the Grub menu does not work because the kernel get confused:
1. If kopt=root=/dev/hda1 and the disk order changes to make
the boot disk be /dev/hde, the boot process stops and drops
into a prompt. I can unmount /boot, mount /boot on the
correct drive, give a CTL-D to the prompt, and the system
would continue to boot.
2. If kopt=root=LABEL=/, the boot process will stop and drop
into a prompt WITHOUT /boot being mounted. I can mount
/boot on the correct drive, give a CTL-D to the prompt,
and the system will continue to boot.
No where have I been able to find any documentation that shows that
the Kernel boot command root= can have a LABEL specified.