# hda or hdc?? [solved]

## houtworm

I use the gentoo sources 2.6.25-r6 for a while, because all next kernels refused to boot.

Finally I found the error: ext2 support was switched off..

Ok, so now I tried gentoo-sources-2.6.31-r5 .. with lots of errors.

At this moment, gentoo runs at /dev/hdc

I removed /dev/hda and /dev/hdb because they had errors, so only /dev/hdc was left.

In grub.conf:

```
# For booting Gentoo

title  gentoo 2.6.25-r6

root (hd0,0)

kernel /kern2625r6 root=/dev/hdc2
```

Everything is ok.

But now with the new kernel.. it needs:

```
# For booting Gentoo

title  gentoo 2.6.31-r5

root (hd0,0)

kernel /kern2631r5 root=/dev/hda2
```

Why /dev/hda??

Ok, now I see a lot of errors while booting.

The kernel sees:

REISERFS (device hda2): found reiserfs format...

..

checking local filesystems...

  Failed to open the device `/dev/hdc2': No such file or directory

And also the other hdc partitions were not found.

Well.. perhaps that is because /etc/fstab has still /dev/hdc in it, so I changed that into /dev/hda

checking local filesystems...

  Failed to open the device `/dev/hda2': No such file or directory

And the other hda partitions were not found.

But in both cases I could see everything at / (/dev/hda2  hdc2..)

..so I could change /etc/fstab  :Smile: 

But now.. does anybody know what is going on here?

How can I fix this?

Perhaps I should move hdc to hda internal (swap IDE connection)?

Physical there is no hda or hdb at this moment.

--Kees

----------

## krinn

Have a look here https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-4570091.html#4570091

It's for intel controllers, but not only intel controller do that now

With newer kernel disks are now named sd(ab...) instead of hd(ab...)

----------

## houtworm

Hi Krinn, thanks for your reply!

Well.. I don't have Intel stuff on my motherboard.

It is a VIA chipset.

I tried the VIA pata but the kernel won't start.

```
00:11.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
```

But why does it read my drive? It does boot, but with errors. I can't mount any partitions because there is no /dev/hd*

I will try all the VIA stuff and Promise stuff together.. and see what happens.

--Kees

----------

## houtworm

..no luck. Kernel crashes and does nothing.

When it boots I also gets an error about udevd

udevd[744]: error getting socket: Function not implemented

perhaps that is because of the drives errors..

I think I will burn a stage 3 CD and boot with that, to see if that gives any clue  :Smile: 

--Kees

----------

## arch_dude

I had an error of this type when I first built a kernel for my current system. This type of error occurs when the disk device drivers in your new kernel cannot see one or more of physical disk controllers, usually due to some sort of kernel configuration error. The drives (actually the controller ports) are assigned letter names in the order they are found. your old system found a particular 2-port controller and assigned the ports the name s "hda" and "hdb," and then found another controller and assigned it the letters "hdc" and (perhaps) "hdd." since the new kenel did not see the first controller, it treats the second controller as its first controller and assigns its first port the name "hdc." This is a generic problem description, independent of any particular hardware.

Look at the error messages on the console or in dmesg to see if there are any clues about this. If not, look at the dmesg from your old kernel and compare to the new one to see which controller the old one found that the new one is not finding.

----------

## houtworm

Hi arch_dude, thanks for your reply!

Yes that sounds like my problem  :Smile: 

The new kernel sees hda, but it should be hdc because it is on the 2nd controller.

So I will try to plug my hd to the first controller.. perhaps friday or saturday,

I will let you know what happens..

my cdplayer died, I think. I cannot boot from it anymore. So I have to do it without it.

--Kees

----------

## arch_dude

It is possible that your CD_ROM drive died, but it is much more likely that it is connected to the "missing" controller: that is, your motherboard has a PATA controller with two ports that your new kernel cannot "see" correctly, and the CD-ROM drive is connected to one of its ports.

Physically moving your HD may temporarily fix your problem, but once you rebuild the kernel with the correct driver configuration, the "missing" controller will re-appear and the drive names will change again.

In my case, the problem was caused by a symbol clash between two different kernel drivers for different controllers. I fixed the problem by removing the drivers for all of the disk controller hardware that is not in my system. This was almost a year ago so I do not remember the exact problem, but the error message about the symbol clash went away and my controller re-appeared. Again, I suspect that you have a problem of this general type, not the same specific problem that I had.

----------

## houtworm

I think my 1st IDE controller died. WHen connecting my harddrive to it, the bios finds no drive. The cdrom player was also connected to the 1st controller, but did not work.

So now I have my hard disk as master on the 2nd ide channel (as it was before) and my cdrom player (as slave)  also.

Now I can boot from the Gentoo installation cd. That has kernel 2.6.30-r8. In /dev it only shows hda  what is /dev/hdc with kernel 2.6.25-r6

So a broken first ide controller is not that bad.

But I can't boot anymore from kernel 2.6.31-5 or 2.6.31-r6. They both hang... 

...kernel_init...

...kernel_thread_helper...

..nothing..

I tried to change /root=dev/hdc2  into  /root=/dev/hda2  but no luck.

I can't read what is above (before it hangs) because it has already scrolled off my screen.

I don't know what I changed (trying pata and back to ata), because at first it booted, be it with a lot of errors.

So... the question is.. how can I see the kernel config from the live cd?

That would be a starting point for making my own kernel.

----------

## houtworm

It works!!

Finally..

I used a .config from pappy and edited a little and now my system boots..

krinn was right, I can use the pata driver for my harddisk. But I tried and it did not work.. so there must be another setting that I overlooked.

Now it works just fine with the via-pata driver.

And alsa in the kernel  :Smile: 

thank you all  :Smile: 

----------

