SEO

The LABEL directive is a very good idea, which replaces
the older /dev/sda format in the /etc/fstab file.

However, I can't find a way to make the LABEL work with
an additional disk, the only LABELs that work properly are
those added by the RedHat installation procedure.

This is what I tried:

# e2label /dev/sdb /home/client

and I placed this line in the fstab file:

LABEL=/home/client /home/client ext2 defaults 1 2

but when I tried to mount, I got this error message:

# mount /home/client
mount: no such partition found

How can I make the LABEL work?

TIA,

-Ramon F. Herrera

On 24 Sep 2003 13:50:45 -0700, Ramon F Herrera wrote:
> The LABEL directive is a very good idea, which replaces
> the older /dev/sda format in the /etc/fstab file.

It is not when you try to have two redhat release on the same
disk.

>
> However, I can't find a way to make the LABEL work with
> an additional disk, the only LABELs that work properly are
> those added by the RedHat installation procedure.
>
> This is what I tried:
>
> # e2label /dev/sdb /home/client
>
> and I placed this line in the fstab file:
>
> LABEL=/home/client /home/client ext2 defaults 1 2
>
> but when I tried to mount, I got this error message:
>
> # mount /home/client
> mount: no such partition found

Hmmmm, too much of a newbie here, but I have never seen a /home/client
mount point, but if it is supposed to work, if you do a
cd /
ls
do you see a mount point /home/client

ramon@conexus.net (Ramon F Herrera) writes:

> This is what I tried:
>
> # e2label /dev/sdb /home/client
>
> and I placed this line in the fstab file:
>
> LABEL=/home/client /home/client ext2 defaults 1 2
>
> but when I tried to mount, I got this error message:
>
> # mount /home/client
> mount: no such partition found
>
> How can I make the LABEL work?

Try rebooting your box so the kernel will reread the partition table.

Vilmos

ramon@conexus.net (Ramon F Herrera) said:
>The LABEL directive is a very good idea, which replaces
>the older /dev/sda format in the /etc/fstab file.
....
>This is what I tried:
>
># e2label /dev/sdb /home/client
>
>and I placed this line in the fstab file:
>
>LABEL=/home/client /home/client ext2 defaults 1 2
>
>but when I tried to mount, I got this error message:
>
># mount /home/client
>mount: no such partition found
>
>How can I make the LABEL work?

It looks slightly suspicious that you're using a raw disk for the e2label,
instead of having partitions. This might be throwing off some of the
programs.

So, even if you only want to have a single filesystem on the disk, create
a partition (spanning the whole disk) for the fs, and label that partition
(/dev/sdb1).

Just guessing, but as it's rather unconventional to use the whole-disk
devices for filesystems, this might be the reason for your problems.
--
Wolf a.k.a. Juha Laiho Espoo, Finland
(GC 3.0) GIT d- s+: a C++ ULSH++++$ P++@ L+++ E- W+$@ N++ !K w !O !M V
PS(+) PE Y+ PGP(+) t- 5 !X R !tv b+ !DI D G e+ h---- r+++ y++++
"...cancel my subscription to the resurrection!" (Jim Morrison)

Ramon F Herrera wrote:
>
> This is what I tried:
>
> # e2label /dev/sdb /home/client

/dev/sdb is the MBR of the disk. You need to make a partition on
it such as /dev/sdb1 and use that for the e2label device.

--
Confucius: He who play in root, eventually kill tree.
Registered with The Linux Counter. http://counter.li.org/
Slackware 9.0 Kernel 2.4.22 i686 (GCC) 3.3
Uptime: 16:31, 1 user, load average: 0.42, 0.33, 0.39

Ramon F Herrera wrote:

> The LABEL directive is a very good idea, which replaces
> the older /dev/sda format in the /etc/fstab file.

It isn't a very good idea.
It is an extremely bad idea,
which has caused endless problems,
and whose merit is miniscule.

--
Timothy Murphy
e-mail: tim@birdsnest.maths.tcd.ie
tel: +353-86-233 6090
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland

In article <8vHcb.33345$pK2.59993@news.indigo.ie>, Timothy Murphy <tim@birdsnest.maths.tcd.ie> wrote:
>Ramon F Herrera wrote:
>
>> The LABEL directive is a very good idea, which replaces
>> the older /dev/sda format in the /etc/fstab file.
>
>It isn't a very good idea.
>It is an extremely bad idea,
>which has caused endless problems,
>and whose merit is miniscule.
>
IMHO LABELs and and mounting by labels is a god send!

Especially since RedHat 8 has broken something with their "kernel
security" patches that makes the system install USB drives before
SCSI drives -- meaning if my USB CF reader is plugged in, it gets
/dev/sda instead of SCSI0 ID0. Were it not for having mounted /
and everything else by label my system would be dead and I'd
still be wondering why! Too bad labels don't work for swap as
that stays broken if the CF reader is plugged in when booting.

--wally.

Timothy Murphy wrote:

> Ramon F Herrera wrote:
>
>
>>The LABEL directive is a very good idea, which replaces
>>the older /dev/sda format in the /etc/fstab file.
>
>
> It isn't a very good idea.
> It is an extremely bad idea,
> which has caused endless problems,
> and whose merit is miniscule.

Umm. Not true. It's *extremely* useful if you image and reorder
partitions or add disks or swap them from machine to machine, and it's
especially useful for dual or triple-boot systems.

On Wed, 24 Sep 2003 13:50:45 -0700, Ramon F Herrera wrote:

> The LABEL directive is a very good idea, which replaces
> the older /dev/sda format in the /etc/fstab file.
>
> However, I can't find a way to make the LABEL work with
> an additional disk, the only LABELs that work properly are
> those added by the RedHat installation procedure.
>
> This is what I tried:
>
> # e2label /dev/sdb /home/client
>
> and I placed this line in the fstab file:
>
> LABEL=/home/client /home/client ext2 defaults 1 2
>
> but when I tried to mount, I got this error message:
>
> # mount /home/client
> mount: no such partition found
>
> How can I make the LABEL work?

I think you need to label the partitions of your HD accordingly. Meaning
that the partitions need to get a name, for instance using Partition Magic
or whatever partitioning program. Or else the partition can't be found and
you'd have to refer to "hdd1" etc. in your fstab.

Flip

> TIA,
>
> -Ramon F. Herrera

Nico Kadel-Garcia wrote:

>> It isn't a very good idea.
>> It is an extremely bad idea,
>> which has caused endless problems,
>> and whose merit is miniscule.
>
> Umm. Not true. It's *extremely* useful if you image and reorder
> partitions or add disks or swap them from machine to machine, and it's
> especially useful for dual or triple-boot systems.

On the bad side, it is obvious from postings on the linux newsgroups
that many people have problems because of disk-labels.

So what can you say on the good side?

To start with, very few people "image and reorder" partitions,
whatever that means, so we can ignore that.

How exactly does it help with dual-boot systems?

As for adding or swapping disks, far from helping
it is obvious from many posts
that it causes great confusion,
basically because the same label may be used in two places.
eg someone adds a disk and either they
or more likely the installation process
labels one partition /usr ,
and it turns out there is already a partition
on another disk labelled /usr .

Or another cause of confusion is where the labels
in /etc/fstab and lilo.conf don't match.

I can't think of any situation where labelling saves
more than 5 seconds _once_ when you are adding a disk, etc.

I repeat -- using disk-labels instead of proper names like /dev/hda3
is a very bad idea,
and whoever thought of it should be sent to Guantanomo Bay.


--
Timothy Murphy
e-mail: tim@birdsnest.maths.tcd.ie
tel: +353-86-233 6090
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland