Connecting an external device through a fiber cable causes a host running Liunx SuSe to not boot. "waiting for device /dev/sda2 to appear: not found". Somehow, the host thinks that the external device is now device /dev/sda2 once it is connected. The modules.conf file is empty on this SuSe host (can change the boot order of scsci and fiber if this were Red Hat). Looking for info on SuSe boot process.

If you added an FibreChannel device this may have several LUNs.
For each LUN Linux will create a sdx device on its own. You may
end with /dev/sda for FC LUN1, /dev/sdb for FC LUN2 and your former
boot device /dev/sda2 will now be /dev/sdc2.

Currently I don't know myself how to influence the boot order so
that the internal disk is always checked first or how to configure
grub to boot from /dev/sdc in the Suse boot menu.

Axel

Thanks Axel,

Found a solution for my boot issue.

There is a file name /etc/sysconfig/kernel and in this file you need to make sure that your internal scsi controller is loaded before the module for you driver loads. Appears that when the host boots and it is attached to the symm the driver loads first and then sees the symm devices before the internal drive.
The file may look something like the following:

INITRD_MODULES="qla2300 aic79xx jbd ext3"
You need to modify it to have the scsi controller load before your driver. Depending on what HBA you are using it will be specified how to do this in the documentation.You can obtain this documentation from either the Qlogic or Emulex website. If you are unable to obtain the documents then let me know I can send them to you.
The file should appear something like this after you modify it using the appropriate HBA:

INITRD_MODULES="aic79xx qla2300 jbd ext3"

After you modify this file you need to create a new ramdisk, reboot the host and it should be all set.
To make new ramdisk….mkinitrd -k vmlinuz -i initrd-whatever kernel you are running

Thanks Max. This is good to know.
I check whether udev would be a better practical solution but as long as the old
scheme works ...

One last question is for me how to access the grub menu when booting Suse.
I had to boot with Knoppix, mount the boot disk, edit /boot/grub/menu.lst, reboot.
Only then I was able the change the INITRD_MODULES line in sysconfig/kernel.

Axel