Re: Naming harddisks (Linux)


"Douglas Mayne" <doug@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:pan.2007.08.21.16.53.28.289686@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On Tue, 21 Aug 2007 11:32:25 +0200, Ravishankar S wrote:

Hello,

I would like to get some clarification on linux's naming convention for
haddisks. What I knew was:

/dev/hda ../dev/hd(x) for fixed hard disks interfaced by parallel ATA

/dev/sda.. /dev/sda(x) for fixed hard disks interfaced by either serial
ATA
or SCSI ATA. But I also see that for an USB drive it uses /dev/sd(x) as
the
device.


On my VAIO laptop with Ubuntu live dvd,

Harddisk is being recongnized as /dev/sda and USB drive as /dev/sdb.
Does
this mean I have a SCSI hard disk instead of normal ATA harddisk ? In
Vista
it shows normal ATA disk..

But..GRUB does not recognize the hard disk at all. It simply recognized
(hd0) as the usb drive. Why is that happenning.
Does GRUB recognize SCSI drives ?

If I install GRUB during installing, will it work or will I not be able
to
boot..?

Kind Regards,
Ravishankar

You may need just a bit more background knowledge. All of the remaining
discussion requires some basic understanding of the hardware environment
in the PC world and the rules for disk partitioning. This post explains
the rules for disk partitioning:
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.os.linux.misc/msg/d3544c061662cacf

Back to your problem...
The naming convention you are seeing with respect to SATA and USB is
normal. The first step in understanding the boot process is to
understand which environment is active at that moment, and which naming
convention is used by that respective environment. There can be various
_separate_ working environments as the bootstrap proceeds.

1. BIOS setup.
2. Bootloader
3. Linux (kernel -> initrd -> root filesystem)

When any of these environments are active, then you may need to give
input using the naming convention that it expects. For example, you
might need to specify which drive to boot first from within the
environment of BIOS setup. All three environments (above) require proper
input to proceed to the point where your system is "fully operational."
I'll define "fully operational" as when your system ends bootstrap and
offers a login prompt.

Even more background...

hi doug,

thanks really for such detail on bootloading.
i solved the problem by using NeoGrub and EasyBCD 1.6. How I usethe Windows
Vista bootloader to boot my Ubuntu Linux.
I can now continue to experiment with the installed version of linux.

Kind Regards,
Ravishankar


.

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