Option to use /dev values instead of UUID values

[Liam Proven]

On Mon, Mar 15, 2010 at 8:23 PM, Karl Larsen <klarsen1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 03/15/2010 01:03 PM, Dotan Cohen wrote:
>> On 15 March 2010 20:14, Amedee Van Gasse (ub)<amedee-ubuntu at amedee.be>  wrote:
>>
>>> On Mon, March 15, 2010 18:23, Dotan Cohen wrote:
>>>
>>>>> It would be helpful if you gave your reasons for wanting this feature.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>> I often have several bootable partitions, and if I have to edit fstab
>>>> by hand it is easier if the /dev values are used.
>>>>
>>> What is your definition of "easier"?
>>> * that you don't need an external program to lookup the relation between
>>> UUID and device?
>>> * that a UUID is longer and harder to remember?
>>>
>> Yes, those two. A UUID is not hard to remember. It is impossible.
>>
>>
>>
>>> * something else?
>>>
>>>
>> If I have to write them down (sometimes I do) I can do that easily
>> with /dev notation. Not so with UUID.
>>
>>
>         Yes! Whoever invented the UUID should be ashamed! I realize
> that the UUID is supposed to correct when you remove a partition but who
> does this ever or at all? As for using the simple /dev/sda3 like, I do
> that for all the things I put in fstab.

You are, as ever, being an idiot, Karl.

For starters, I, like many power users, professionals and so on, add
and remove partitions on machines all the time.

But using partition IDs, be they UUIDs or GUIDs or whatever, is a
majorly beneficial move. It enables the OS to correctly find its
volumes and boot even when:
- the motherboard died and the disks were moved onto a new one;
- the system drive is moved into an external case;
- the partitions are copied onto new physical media if the old media
was failing;
- the partitions were moved onto a new larger drive as part of an upgrade.

It is harder work for those who manually edit fstab, yes, but the
payback is immense. As someone who fixes computers for a living, I
would be very unhappy if someone who was too lazy to copy & paste
UUIDs chose not to use them and as a result I was unable to rely on
Ubuntu still working if its partitions were rearranged.

-- 
Liam Proven • Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/liamproven
Email: lproven at cix.co.uk • GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lproven at gmail.com
Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 • Cell: +44 7939-087884 • Fax: + 44 870-9151419
AOL/AIM/iChat/Yahoo/Skype: liamproven • LiveJournal/Twitter: lproven
MSN: lproven at hotmail.com • ICQ: 73187508