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

[Stan Hoeppner <stan@hardwarefreak.com>]

>>   With scsi, the disk address is determined by its physical
>> connection to the scsi cable.

This is absolutely not correct.  SCSI device IDs have always been
programmed at the endpoint device via DIP switches, jumpers, or a dial.
 There was one short lived exception to this.

In the late 1990s the industry created the SCAM extension, or SCSI
Configured Automatically.  This was an effort to make it easier for non
technically savvy end users to install external devices such as
scanners, optical drives, tape drives, without need to manually set
device IDs.  Cable proximity of devices was not involved in SCAM
enumeration and assignment.  It was a negotiated protocol.

However, it was removed from the SCSI specification not long after
introduction because it caused many more problems than it solved,
specifically, it would change the boot hard drive ID and prevent systems
from booting.  It also wreaked havoc on software RAID systems when it
auto reassigned IDs of the member drives, which obviously destroyed the
array.  I never fell victim to this because I didn't buy into the
Adaptec hype.  They started enabling SCAM by default in their
controllers.  I simply disabled it, and assigned IDs as I always had.  A
number of my colleagues did buy into the "easy install" hype and were
bitten by it.

-- 
Stan