Re: 2.34 Kernel Won't Boot

[Stephen Powell <zlinuxman@wowway.com>]

On Mon, 23 Aug 2010 05:13:56 -0400 (EDT), David Baron wrote:
> 
> Thanks. This, of course, simply reeds of the /dev/disk/by-uuid symlinks.
> These only refer to partitions, but the boot= goes to disk MBR, i.e. /dev/hda 
> or /dev/sda without any partition number. How do I get that one?

To obtain the proper alias to use for the master boot record in the "boot=..."
line of /etc/lilo.conf, list the files in the /dev/disk/by-id directory.
For example:

   ls -Al /dev/disk/by-id/

Look for one which starts with "ata" and is a symbolic link to ../../sda.  For
example:

   steve@smp3:~$ ls -Al /dev/disk/by-id
   total 0
   lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  9 Aug 21 20:23 ata-ST340014A_5JXDX364 -> ../../sda
   lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Aug 21 20:23 ata-ST340014A_5JXDX364-part1 -> ../../sda1
   lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Aug 21 20:23 ata-ST340014A_5JXDX364-part2 -> ../../sda2
   lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Aug 21 20:23 ata-ST340014A_5JXDX364-part3 -> ../../sda3
   lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  9 Aug 21 20:23 scsi-SATA_ST340014A_5JXDX364 -> ../../sda
   lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Aug 21 20:23 scsi-SATA_ST340014A_5JXDX364-part1 -> ../../sda1
   lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Aug 21 20:23 scsi-SATA_ST340014A_5JXDX364-part2 -> ../../sda2
   lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Aug 21 20:23 scsi-SATA_ST340014A_5JXDX364-part3 -> ../../sda3
   steve@smp3:~$ 

In this example, the first one listed is the one you want.  You would code

   boot=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST340014A_5JXDX364

in /etc/lilo.conf.  Note that there is another symlink which also points to
../../sda.  It starts with "scsi".  You don't want to use that one, because
it only exists when using the libata drivers.  The one which starts with "ata"
will exist with either set of drivers.

-- 
  .''`.     Stephen Powell    
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