Bug report out of context: Harcy handling of /dev/sd? devices is unacceptable

[Rashkae]

Alan E. Davis wrote:


> 
> Assignation of blame is a minor issue.  I am concerned that (contrary to
> your opinion) Ubuntu has slipped a fast one.  There is no UUID in gentoo
> /etc/fstab at this point, so in what way was that *mandated by kernel
> changes?*
> 

UUID is not mandated by kernel, but change for /dev/hd? to /dev/sd? is.


>>
>> I still haven't figured out what you think is a bug.
>>
>>>     The new fstab using UUID has been a major headache.
>> Not half as much as NOT using UUID would have been.
>>

You will learn the mistake of your assumptions in time.  I know you
don't believe me, and I won't convince you, but the change was made by
people who know much more for a *very* good reason.  UUID is the only
way to stop the system from not working when hardware is changed, or
kernel changes device assignment, or or or....  Otherwise, we're back to
the days of instructing people with broken system to boot from rescue cd
and edit fstab... yeah, that's so much less hassle for average users.

> 
> 
> I don't want this to degenerate into a contest between distros, but when I
> installed Hardy from a CD, and booted, grub complained about not finding the
> partition.  I didn't set it up, grub did.  I had to edit /boot/grub/menu.lst
> to allow Ubuntu to boot the system it had itself installed.
> 

This is a direct result of mixed SATA/PATA, assuming your CD-rom is IDE.
 When you boot from the CD-rom, the BIOS gives ide precedence, and your
IDE hard drive is considered drive 0.  Then when you switch to booting
on SATA, the BIOS gives SATA precedence, and identifies the SATA drive
as drive 0, and of course, re-numbers everything else.  I'd be surprised
if any distro can install from an IDE device to a SATA device, with
other IDE hard drives, and not need a little post-install tweaking.



> Then the /etc/fstab assignment of the device was different than what grub
> sees.
> 

Grub uses device numbers (hd0, hd1 etc.),, fsttab doesn't.  That's
always been the case.


> I've not seen this elsewhere.  If it's not a bug, what is it?
> 

PEBKAC