Mount hdc as hda instead (DSL 3.2, Grub)

Noffie · 03-30-2007, 10:39 AM

Hi.

I'm not really a linux n00b per se, but this question strikes me as n00bish. It feels like this is something I should have known by now. :-P

I'm working on these digital sign "image kiosk" type applications at work. They are mini-itx boards that boot up off of Compact Flash. I'm using feh and unclutter, so it's a lot like various "digital picture frame" DIY projects around the net. The compact flash is partitioned like this:

[512MB] FAT32 - Pictures for the "slideshow"
[100MB] ext2 - DSL KNOPPIX image, Grub settings
[400MB] ext2 - /home, feh.unc & unclutter.dsl myDSL extensions

Here's what my grub menu.lst looks like:

Code:

default 0
hiddenmenu
timeout 2

title DSL with mydsl, restore, persistentancy, hostname, and passwords
kernel /boot/linux24 root=/dev/hda2 quiet vga=normal noacpi noapm noscsi nousb nodma noswap frugal mydsl=hda3 home=hda3 host=imsdemo
initrd /boot/minirt24.gz

My problem is this - grub points to hda3 as my home & dsl extensions directory, both of which need to be mounted in order for the "kiosk" to work. Also, my script that runs the show (called from /home/dls/.xinitrc) does a mount /dev/hda1 in order to get at the pictures partition.

HOWEVER, on certain boards we use that don't need the CF-IDE adapter & IDE cable, grub boots up DSL fine but then proceeds to label the flash card as /dev/hdc (NOTE the 'c' instead of an 'a') - this royally messes everything up. No myDSL extension, no .xinitrc or scripts in /home, and even if the script was there to run it would access the wrong partition. So, I have to modify my scripts and the grub menu.lst in order to fix the problem.

My question (finally) - Is there a way to force DSL (or linux in general?) to mount this first and only IDE disk drive as hda instead of hdc?

Thanks,
Adam N
ims3k.com

Khabi · 03-30-2007, 07:49 PM

Well, this is going to depend on a few things. It won't just make it hdc for no reason, so the question is what is it trying to make hda and hdb? I'm going to guess a cdrom drive or something of the like.

My guess is that you have some drivers built into the kernel for those, and its finding those devices first for whatever reason (BIO order, or something else). So check the BIOS first, if that doesn't work, figure out what driver its using for those first two devices and recompile it in the kernel as a module and modprobe that after its booted.

I had nearly the same problem at one point on a different distro and that fixed it.