Re: should an end user stick to a kernel with an initrd?

[Regid Ichira <regid23@nt1.in>]

On Fri, 27 Sep 2013 19:06:43 -0400, Tom H wrote:
> On Fri, Sep 27, 2013 at 3:28 PM, Regid Ichira <regid23@nt1.in> wrote:
> > On Fri, Fri, 27 Sep 2013 13:34:56 -0400, Tom H wrote:
> >> On Fri, Sep 27, 2013 at 3:12 AM, Ralf Mardorf wrote:
> >>> On Thu, 2013-09-26 at 19:07 -0400, Stephen Powell wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>> Traditional device names, such as /dev/sda, /dev/sdb,
> >>>> (and therefore the partitions on those devices, such
> >>>> as /dev/sda1, /dev/sdb1, etc.) are not assigned in a predictable
> >>>> manner anymore.  This device name assignment can change from one boot
> >>>> to the next.
> >>>
> >>> This never happened on my machine.
> >>
> >> This won't happen if you have just one disk. ;)
> >>
> >> On a more serious note, do you really think that all the people
> >> maintaining distributions thought "using sdX is far too simple and
> >> easy, let's start using human-non-parsable UUIDs?!"
> >
> > 1. Saying traditional disks names not siigned in a predictable manner
> >    seem to contradict the fact that one can write
> >        root=/dev/hdd3
> >    in the kernel command line, such as in lilo.
> > 2. I have 2 disks.  It never happened to me.
> > 3. In the old days, the way you physically attached the disks, be it
> >    IDE or SCSI, completely determined their enumeration in the hd
> >    and sd name space.  I think that has not changed by newer kernels.
> >    I guess Sievers was reffering to that fact when he
> >         also points out that the device naming policy is
> >         already in the kernel
> >    Quote taken from https://lwn.net/Articles/331818/.
> >    Some of the comments in that URL seem to me supporting my claim.
> > 4. I think that the LABEL mechanism of /etc/fstab is different,
> >    predated, and more rigid, from that of a UUID.  Again, it seem to
> >    me supported by some of the comments in
> >    https://lwn.net/Articles/331818/.
> > 5. Indeed, network interface enumeration was not that solid, and
> >    required user space tools to remedie.
> 
> As I said, more or less, in a reply to Ralf, can you guarantee that no
> other Linux user will have a disk renamed?
>

  If I understand 
http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/apcs04.html.en correctly,
then yes.  I can guarantee, as long as you don't have udev rules, or
other deliberate commands for renaming, including, perhaps by initrd,
that no other Linux user will have a disk renamed.  Hotplug devices
might differ.  I am not sure if hotplug devices actually require such
rules to guarantee stable names.