I have just installed slackware 13.37 and my first hard disk (where slackware is installed) is /dev/sdf.
It has all the removable devices as /dev/sda to /dev/sde.
The removable devices are card slots and usb ports on my epson printer and so if the printer is not attached then the system does not boot.
Does anyone know how to get the fixed disks listed before the removable ?

Thanks.

Are you using the huge kernel or the generic one with an initrd?

How about providing the contents of /var/log/dmesg so we can see what the boot sequence is finding?

I am using the huge (smp) kernel.
Here is the relevant part of dmesg :
root@darkstar:/home/david# dmesg | grep disk
[ 2.397561] sd 12:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI removable disk
[ 2.399311] sd 12:0:0:1: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk
[ 2.401061] sd 12:0:0:2: [sdc] Attached SCSI removable disk
[ 2.402436] sd 12:0:0:3: [sdd] Attached SCSI removable disk
[ 2.616443] sd 13:0:0:0: [sde] Attached SCSI removable disk
[ 5.003374] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdf] Attached SCSI disk
[ 5.488155] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdh] Attached SCSI disk
[ 5.518512] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdg] Attached SCSI disk
root@darkstar:/home/david#

If this is a brand new install only hours old, I would disconnect the epson printer and reinstall. Connect and configure the printer later.

You should note that I didn't ask for the edited contents of dmesg. I might, just MIGHT, want to know what drivers were intialized as part of your startup.

O.K. Here is the full dmesg attached

Yes, this is a brand new install.
If I disconnect the printer and re-install then my first hard disk (that I will install on) will be /dev/sda.
But if I then re-connect the printer and re-boot will it still list the removable devices first and so find a removable disk on /dev/sda and so still not boot ?

Attached Files

dmesg.txt (30.7 KB, 20 views)

I have disconnected the printer and done a new installation.
Because of the other usb ports on my computer the installation disk is now /dev/sde. So slackware is still listing the connected removable drives before the fixed disks
And when I reconnect the printer and re-boot I get a kernel panic because /dev/sde is now a removable drive and the root filesystem cannot be found.
So slackware is still listing the removable drives before the fixed disks.

Does anyone know how to fix this ?

I would like to have the fixed disks listed before the removable disks.

Two possible ways may work:

Use UUID in /etc/fstab, or
Make some udev rules that target the devices, or
Both?

Type in a terminal:

and post that output.

This is just weird.

Also you can specify UUID in lilo.conf

This isn't that strange, I've had it happen with a server which had a power cut while a backup drive was plugged in. On reboot it picked up the backup drive first and tried to use it for root.

You use this phrase several times: 'Slackware lists'. What do you mean by that? Do you mean fdisk lists them that way, or what tool/config-file are you talking about?

OP:

In you your lilo.conf you can do this:

root = /dev/disk/by-id/ata-SAMSUNG_SV1604N_S01FJ10X999999 OR
root = "UUID=/dev/disk/by-uuid/18843936-00f9-4df0-a373-000d05a5dd44"

These files are symlinks to sdaN so you can tell easily which is which.

This may be a dim comment, but there seems to be a lot of scsi stuff going on...do you actually have any scsi kit onboard?
Hard to imagine why a printers removable drive would have anything to do with scsi.

Years ago we used scsi drivers to manage optical drives iirc, but I think those days are passed, it is rare to find scsi drives in recent desktop hardware.

I wonder whether during the install you said yes to a load of scsi drivers that you didn't need, and they got greedy...

tobyl

USB drives are treated as scsi disks.

Oh yes silly me, but the other disks?

$ cat dmesg.txt |grep scsi
[ 0.882143] scsi: <fdomain> Detection failed (no card)
[ 0.882975] iscsi: registered transport (qla4xxx)
[ 0.947612] scsi2 : sata_sil24
[ 0.947880] scsi3 : sata_sil24
[ 0.950072] scsi4 : sata_nv
[ 0.950318] scsi5 : sata_nv
[ 0.952094] scsi6 : sata_nv
[ 0.952338] scsi7 : sata_nv
[ 0.954121] scsi8 : sata_nv
[ 0.954363] scsi9 : sata_nv
[ 0.955968] scsi10 : pata_amd
[ 0.956218] scsi11 : pata_amd
[ 1.393012] scsi12 : usb-storage 1-4:1.0
[ 1.611612] scsi13 : usb-storage 1-9:1.0
[ 2.395456] scsi 12:0:0:0: Direct-Access Generic USB SD Reader 1.00 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
[ 2.396951] scsi 12:0:0:1: Direct-Access Generic USB CF Reader 1.01 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
[ 2.398700] scsi 12:0:0:2: Direct-Access Generic USB SM Reader 1.02 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
[ 2.400450] scsi 12:0:0:3: Direct-Access Generic USB MS Reader 1.03 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
[ 2.613459] scsi 13:0:0:0: Direct-Access EPSON Stylus Storage 1.00 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
[ 4.989278] scsi 4:0:0:0: Direct-Access ATA SAMSUNG HD103SJ 1AJ1 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
[ 5.481438] scsi 5:0:0:0: Direct-Access ATA SAMSUNG HD103SJ 1AJ1 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
[ 5.482010] scsi 6:0:0:0: Direct-Access ATA SAMSUNG HD103UJ 1AA0 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
[ 6.289222] scsi 9:0:0:0: CD-ROM HL-DT-ST BD-RE BH10LS30 1.00 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
[ 6.317271] sr0: scsi3-mmc drive: 40x/40x writer dvd-ram cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray
[ 6.317766] sr 9:0:0:0: Attached scsi CD-ROM sr0
[ 7.819514] sd 12:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0
[ 7.819750] sd 12:0:0:1: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 0
[ 7.823558] sd 12:0:0:2: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
[ 7.823799] sd 12:0:0:3: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 0
[ 7.824037] sd 13:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg4 type 0
[ 7.824271] sd 4:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg5 type 0
[ 7.824504] sd 5:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg6 type 0
[ 7.824739] sd 6:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg7 type 0
[ 7.824975] sr 9:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg8 type 5