How to load sata_nv before pata_amd on Kubuntu Hardy 8.04

[Nigel Henry]

On Sunday 07 November 2010 13:45, Jonas Norlander wrote:
> 2010/11/4 Nigel Henry <cave.dnb2m97pp at aliceadsl.fr>:
> > I added a pata harddrive to my machine that already has 2 sata
> > harddrives.
> >
> > Hardy is loading pata_amd before sata_nv. Is there a way to load sata_nv
> > first?
> >
> > I have a bunch of distros on this machine, with many FAT32 data
> > partitions shared, so the drive order is important.
> >
> > Dapper is loading them in the correct order: 1, sda; 2, sdb; 3, hda (no
> > libata).
> >
> > Intrepid is loading them in the correct order: 1, sda; 2, sdb; 3, sdc
> > (the pata drive).
> >
> > All the Fedora installs are as Intrepid above.
> >
> > Had a problem with drive ordering with Archlinux, but appending the
> > kernel line in grub with -earlymodules --sata_nv resolved that problem.
> > Archlinux uses mkinitcpio for the initramfs so that wouldn't work for the
> > Hardy problem, but is there something similar I could append the kernel
> > line with in Hardy, that would load the sata_nv module before the pata
> > one?
> >
> > Many thanks for any assistance with this problem.
> >
> > Nigel.
>
> I'm not sure I understand why you want the devices in specific order?
> It's not very often you need to access the device nodes direct, rather
> through the mount point. Do you use LABEL or UUID  to mount the
> partitions?
>
> / Jonas

Hi Jonas.

Mainly for consistency across the 10 distros that are installed on this 
machine. I don't use Label or UUID's to mount them, but just point to the 
device nodes for the partitions I want to mount.

Anyway, I've resolved the problem now by running update-initramfs after 
listing the load order of the modules in /etc/initramfs-tools/modules as 
below.
Default loading:
libata
ata_generic
pata_acpi
pata_amd
sata_nv

New load order:
libata
sata_nv
ata_generic
pata_acpi
pata_amd

Then:
sudo update-initramfs -u -k `uname -r`

Now fdisk -l shows the newly added pata drive as sdc instead of sda, and the 2 
sata drives are back at sda, and sdb where they should be thus matching their 
position on all the other distros.

Job done, and I've learned a bit about the initramfs at the same time.

All the best.

Nigel.