Making Debian ignore a drive

[Bill McGonigle]

On Apr 10, 2007, at 10:43, klussier at comcast.net wrote:

> I can install to sdb and after the intall is done, re-configure  
> GRUB to use the correct drive, and everything is fine.

I know this isn't what you asked, but it's an alternate solution -  
use filesystem labels in GRUB.

Set the BIOS to boot the USB stuff later than your (SATA/SCSI) disks.

When the system is booted, do:

   e2label /dev/sdb1 myrootdisk

then in grub, add

   root=LABEL=myrootdisk

to the kernel line.

Then, sit back and don't worry about the BIOS messing up your drive  
order.  Taunt your BIOS for fun.

Even better, setup RAID and do, e.g.:

   root=/dev/md1

instead.  Let the md subsystem assemble your drives for you based on  
UUID.  And don't worry about spindle motor failures anymore. :)

-Bill

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