# help -- disk name problem - SOLVED

## Moriah

I am booting from a live cd on an x86 32-bit box with old ide drives.  The live cd names them /dev/hda1, etc., but the kernel I build names them /dev/sda1, etc.  This would not be a problem, except that I am using lvm and initramfs to boot with the root filesystem under lvm.  The livecd uses pvcreate /dev/hda1 and vgcreate and lvcreate to set up this volume, but when the kernel tries to boot, it looks for /dev/hda1 and only finds /dev/sda1, so it cannot mount the root filesystem, and thus fails to boot.

How do I solve this device naming problem?

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## NeddySeagoon

Moriah,

Its time to retire that liveCD.

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## Moriah

I did retire it.    :Cool: 

But then I downloaded the latest minimal x86 install live cd and booted it, and it still named my drive /dev/hda1 instead of /dev/sda1, so I will still have the same problem.     :Crying or Very sad: 

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## m0p

http://www.sysresccd.org/

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## Moriah

That url doesn't work.  The name is registered, so its probably spelled correctly, but there's nobody home.    :Sad: 

I take it that cd will present the ide drives as /dev/sda1, etc.  So I can build the system using it.

Another trick I used to use before the live cd's had lvm support on them, was to put 3 partitions on the drive: /boot and 2 more, one for a non-lvm system, and another for an lvm system.  I would then build  a gentoo-sources kernel on the non-lvm partition,and include the lvm utilities, and boot that.  Then I would build the lvm system from there.  

I could use that 2-step method to build an lvm-based root filesystem on the 3rd partition.  After I boot the 3rd partition, I would do a pvcreate to make the 2nd partition, where the non-lvm system was, available to lvm.  I would then expand the volume group to include the extra space, then expand the logical volume to include that space, and finally expand the filesystem on that logical volume.

In this case, I would keep the non-lvm system around to use for recovery, since I could not mount the lvm-controlled root filesystem with a live cd, since the name conflict would mess me up.

I still don't like it.  The guys that make the live cd's need to get their naming conventions in accord with the current disk drivers, so we don't have to go thru these gyrations.

Either that, or the lvm guys need to allow some flexibility in the names of the physical drives, such as allowing you to change the names after the logical volumes had been set up.

Or maybe I could just use a symlink to solve my woes?    :Idea:   :Twisted Evil: 

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## pigeon768

 *Moriah wrote:*   

> That url doesn't work.

  Bizarre... fortunately, the disk images are hosted elsewhere.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/systemrescuecd/files/

The gentoo livecds are pretty horrible. For the most part, gentoo users have used sysresccd, which is gentoo based. (and excellent)

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## NeddySeagoon

Moriah,

I'm really surprised to learn that the current liveCD sees your PATA devices as /dev/hd..   as udev no longer makes the required /dev nodes.

Still using /dev/hd.. on the liveCD just has to be a bug.

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## Moriah

That's kind of what I thought too, but I fetched the sysresccd and it seems to be much better.  I am setting up that systm right now using it.  Kernel is built, installing syslog-ng, etc.  then grub.  I hope to get it to boot before I go to bed.

(Yeah, I've heard that before!    :Shocked:  )

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## Moriah

Booted on the very first try !!!     :Very Happy:   :Very Happy:   :Very Happy: 

So we do most likely have a problem with the current livecd when run with lvm on the root filesystem and ide disk controllers.    :Evil or Very Mad: 

Neddy, can you clue me how *BEST* to report this?

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## NeddySeagoon

Moriah,

File a bug in the normal way. If nothing happens I'll give you a name to poke.

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## Moriah

Well, this just *PROVES* that Linux, and Gentoo in particular, are really quite good peices of software:  it's been so long since I've had to file a bug report that I cannot even remember what I used for a username and password on the gentoo bugzilla site.  I've already tried all the "usual" ones that I typically use for such stuff, and none of them works.    :Embarassed: 

I don't really want to open another account.  Is there any way to recover my old username and reset the password?   :Question: 

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## NeddySeagoon

Moriah,

Your username should be your email address.

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## Moriah

After some experimentation while updating some other systems, I have discovered that I do not need to have the /dev/sd? device nodes on the livecd; I can just create them manually with mknod when I populate the dev/ directory of my initramfs before I make my kernel.

Given this workaround, I do not think we really have a bug after all -- just an inconvenience.    :Rolling Eyes: 

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## cwr

Given that the LiveCD will often be run by inexperienced users, I'd rate it as a bug.

Will

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