device name changes hdx -> sdx (New ide/pata subsystem)

isofluran · 2006-12-07 10:08:30

This is just a hint for all who may have problems changing the device names for using the new pata subsystem within kernel 2.6.19.
While updating you see a message like this:

Changes:
New PATA/IDE subsystem - EXPERIMENTAL
----------
To use the new pata drivers, change the 'ide' hook to 'pata' in /etc/mkinicpio.conf HOOKS=
The new system changes: /dev/hd? to /dev/sd?
Don't forget to modify GRUB, LILO and fstab to the new naming system.
eg: hda3 --> sda3, hdc8 --> sdc8
piix/ata_piix (Intel chipsets) - IMPORTANT
----------
If you have enabled ide/pata/sata HOOKs in /etc/mkinitcpio.conf the 'ata_piix' module will be used.
This may cause your devices to shift names, eg:
- IDE: devices from hd? to sd?
- SATA: sda might shift to sdc if you have 2 other disks on a PIIX IDE port.
To check if this will affect you, check 'mkinitcpio -M' for piix/ata_piix

Its simple, I thought ... but:
If, as in my case (for historical reasons), the harddisk is master on the second controller (hdc) and on the first are only optical devices, the new hd device has to be named sda, because the optical devices are named srx, sry etc. The first hd gets an "a", the second a "b" and so on. This is independent from the names given by the system before.

This might be simple for some, but it has taken hours yesterday until I understood and had fixed this on my machine ...

phrakture · 2006-12-07 15:51:30

isofluran wrote:

If, as in my case (for historical reasons), the harddisk is master on the second controller (hdc) and on the first are only optical devices, the new hd device has to be named sda, because the optical devices are named srx, sry etc. The first hd gets an "a", the second a "b" and so on. This is independent from the names given by the system before.

That probably wouldn't be simple for alot of people. Many thanks for tracking this down and reporting it.
While it seems like it's a rare case (typical setup uses hda for the HDD and hdc for optical), it's worth knowing.

cactus · 2006-12-07 16:04:03

so, someone who has a cd drive on the ide bus (hda), and only sata disks (sda, sdb), would the hda cdrom become sda, in effect shifting the sata disks down by one letter?

Mr Green · 2006-12-07 16:35:48

well if you read like that then its possible ... my main worry you would need to edit fstab etc ... but thats what I thought hook solved...

hda goes to sda would shift my main drive sda to sdb arrggghhh!!!

Thats why I wanted to test kernel26 from testing before it hits repos cause I am going to end up with a dead boot!

Ok I'm not panicking yet I'm just thinking ahead to all those my system does not start threads.......

Pierre · 2006-12-07 18:29:27

cactus wrote:

so, someone who has a cd drive on the ide bus (hda), and only sata disks (sda, sdb), would the hda cdrom become sda, in effect shifting the sata disks down by one letter?

No, cd-drives will become /dev/sr0 etc. More interesting is the case when you have an raid-array over pata and sata-disks and you want to boot from it. ;-) (setting the sata and pata-hooks at the same time left me with a non-booting initrd)

rpgcyco · 2006-12-08 06:29:51

cactus wrote:

so, someone who has a cd drive on the ide bus (hda), and only sata disks (sda, sdb), would the hda cdrom become sda, in effect shifting the sata disks down by one letter?

I have that exact setup and because optical drives become srX, I did not have to modify GRUB's menu.lst or fstab.

- Rpg Cyco

Arch Linux

#1 2006-12-07 10:08:30

device name changes hdx -> sdx (New ide/pata subsystem)

#2 2006-12-07 15:51:30

Re: device name changes hdx -> sdx (New ide/pata subsystem)

#3 2006-12-07 16:04:03

Re: device name changes hdx -> sdx (New ide/pata subsystem)

#4 2006-12-07 16:35:48

Re: device name changes hdx -> sdx (New ide/pata subsystem)

#5 2006-12-07 18:29:27

Re: device name changes hdx -> sdx (New ide/pata subsystem)

#6 2006-12-08 06:29:51

Re: device name changes hdx -> sdx (New ide/pata subsystem)

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