Re: device syntax again

["Yoshinori K. Okuji" <okuji@enbug.org>]

On Tuesday 18 January 2005 15:52, Hollis Blanchard wrote:
> For now let's not talk about where aliases are created. What about my
> original question: grub has just booted, and when it asks what device
> it was booted from (the /chosen/bootpath property) it gets this:
> 	/pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/ide@3/disk@0,0
> (that is the real "disk" device on Vincent's UltraSparc). The next
> thing we want to do is load a config file from the same device. What
> value should we put into "prefix"?

This has already been discussed. Marco suggested to have a "boot drive" 
for this.

> Is the only reason you're suggesting this "alias" scheme is to keep
> the PC-style device syntax?

Don't call it "PC-style". This is not accurate. It is GRUB-style as _we_ 
define the syntax.

> 1) complexity and bugs in code to translate between the two,

Why? You can simply register a new device with a device path. What is 
complex?

> 2) frustrating UI requirements ("no no, you have to run 'alias'
> first"), and

GRUB can automatically create aliases.

> 3) require users to learn yet another syntax.

We have already discussed this, and I got no objection to my opinion at 
that time. I'm surprised that you refrain this.

Don't assume that ordinary users know Open Firmware or EFI. Basically, 
they don't know anything quite technical. So GRUB should provide an 
unique syntax rule so that users do not have to learn new things when 
they get new architectures.

And, have you ever asked any ordinary person to 
type /pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/ide@3/disk@0,0 rather than hd0? I'm sure that 
she will be scared. In addition, this would make remote assistance very 
hard. It should be easy to imagine how difficult it is to pronounce the 
long and mysterios string by phone.

As far as I know, most people use /dev/hda instead 
of /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/disc on Linux, whenever possible. 
This is simply because shorter is easier. Ordinary people think "the 
first IDE disk" instead of "the hard disk attached to the master of the 
first IDE bus of the main controller". Don't you agree?

Okuji