[gentoo-user] Re: mount: "special device /dev/hdc does not exist". What does this mean?

[Nikos Chantziaras <realnc@arcor.de>]

Mick wrote:
> On Sunday 20 July 2008, Nikos Chantziaras wrote:
>> The labels are part of the file system; they're always there.  For
>> example, when booting the 2007.0 LiveDVD (which uses the legacy drivers,
>> meaning /dev/hd* instead of /dev/sd*) the labels are there and I can
>> mount /dev/disk/by-label/GentooRoot just fine.
> 
> Yes, labels . . . been thinking of doing this for the last two years!  I guess 
> I will have to use reiserfstune for my reiserfs partitions.  What about xfs - 
> will xfsprogs do it?

The xfs_admin is used to change the label of XFS partitions: 
http://linux.die.net/man/8/xfs_admin


> Thanks for the tip.  The thing with the conventional device numbering system 
> is that you know which one is first, which second, etc.  With Labels I'll 
> have to add something to it to remind myself that this is the first 
> partition, etc.  Can I have blank spaces in the Label name?

I don't think spaces are allowed.  But you can use underscores or 
capitalization.  Anyway, you don't need to add something to remind you 
of the partition's position; /etc/mtab will use regular device names, so 
you can see what's going on with 'cat /etc/mtab' or simply 'mount' 
without parameters.  On my system, even though I use labels, I get this 
with 'mount':

   /dev/sdc1 on / type ext3 (rw,noatime)
   /dev/sda1 on /windows/C type fuseblk 
(rw,noatime,allow_other,blksize=4096)