FS#14188 - Use LABEL= in fstab instead of UUID

Attached to Project: Release Engineering
Opened by Mathias Burén (fackamato) - Saturday, 11 April 2009, 17:28 GMT
Last edited by Dieter Plaetinck (Dieter_be) - Sunday, 18 April 2010, 17:37 GMT
Task Type Feature Request
Category AIF
Status Closed
Assigned To Dieter Plaetinck (Dieter_be)
Architecture All
Severity Low
Priority Low
Reported Version 2009.02
Due in Version Undecided
Due Date Undecided
Percent Complete 100%
Votes 1
Private No

Details

Description:

I'm not sure if this is safe, but I'll go at it anyway. What about changing UUID=... to LABEL= in fstab in the Archlinux installation program? The program should thus ask for a label before it formats the partitions. Or, set the labels automatically (boot for /boot, home for /home etc, and of course look for label conflicts)
Also, when it lists the partitions for the user to select mount points, more information could be provided (instead of just sda2, also show its LABEL. If doesn't have a label, show (no label), unnamed, <none> or something).

Why? Lots of users complaining about UUID= not being a very intuitive way of distinguishing between partitions on your system. Using labels makes partitioning easier, when you're messing with menu.lst, fstab or gparted.
This task depends upon

Closed by  Dieter Plaetinck (Dieter_be)
Sunday, 18 April 2010, 17:37 GMT
Reason for closing:  Fixed
Comment by Erwin Van de Velde (evdvelde) - Sunday, 12 April 2009, 10:20 GMT
This is also easier when copying an installed system to another disk. The UUID will change, but if you set the disk labels, you do not have to change fstab using LABEL=
I am using this trick in a testbed with 30+ computers, all OS's just being rsync'ed, without any issues whatsoever.
Comment by Greg (dolby) - Sunday, 12 April 2009, 14:04 GMT
Note that to use labels in fstab you have to manually create them somehow since the installer doesnt prompt you to do so at any stage.
Maybe it would be wise to add a feature request in the Release Engineering section of the flyspray too?
Otherwise i dont see the reason.
Comment by Dieter Plaetinck (Dieter_be) - Saturday, 06 June 2009, 20:48 GMT
actually in aif there's already a gui to specify a label for the FS'es you want to create.
Now just using these labels when creating the fstab...
Comment by Dieter Plaetinck (Dieter_be) - Friday, 05 March 2010, 18:21 GMT
The OP actually did a closure request:
"2010-02-03: A task closure has been requested. Reason for request: uuid's are fine with me, I don't see the reason to spend any time on this anymore."

But I understand that for some people this would be a nice feature. it looks better + what Erwin van de Velde said.

Giving this low prio, if you want this: patch the code and ask us to merge. It actually should not be very hard (see what i said above)
Comment by Dieter Plaetinck (Dieter_be) - Friday, 05 March 2010, 20:17 GMT
BTW, i don't think we write uuids to fstab right now. looks to me like we use the devicefiles.
see  FS#17632  which is a ticket asking for uuid support.
ideally, someday we present a dialog to the user to ask "what do you want? labels, devicefiles, or uuids" explaing pros and cons for each very briefly, and let the user choose.
and for automatic installations you would then override the default by using a variable.
Comment by Dieter Plaetinck (Dieter_be) - Wednesday, 24 March 2010, 15:48 GMT
okay guys. we implemented just that.
now the user can choose what he wants. devicefile, label or uuid.
uuid default for autoprepare, and devicefile for interactive.
the choosen settings are then honored in /etc/fstab and grubs menu.lst (not in other files like /etc/crypttab, if you want that; contribute it)
see commits:
http://github.com/Dieterbe/aif/commit/b2b3b8592d2cec202af80b19fa81fd948e2c191d
http://github.com/Dieterbe/aif/commit/f3ec30f0e0fa7e27a1bffd86fa806f877251e03b
http://github.com/Dieterbe/aif/commit/47fbd4531a556e62be50b12f3376e73e9caaa4c7

Please test this by getting aif-git from AUR
Comment by Dieter Plaetinck (Dieter_be) - Sunday, 18 April 2010, 17:37 GMT
confirmed it myself. devicefiles for autoprepare and UUID's for a manual setup with a dm_crypt thrown in B-)

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