From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Dec 3 03:17:54 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7786D106564A for ; Sat, 3 Dec 2011 03:17:54 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from lists@midsummerdream.org) Received: from smtpauth21.prod.mesa1.secureserver.net (smtpauth21.prod.mesa1.secureserver.net [64.202.165.38]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 075978FC0C for ; Sat, 3 Dec 2011 03:17:53 +0000 (UTC) Received: (qmail 13719 invoked from network); 3 Dec 2011 02:51:13 -0000 Received: from unknown (70.131.50.227) by smtpauth21.prod.mesa1.secureserver.net (64.202.165.38) with ESMTP; 03 Dec 2011 02:51:13 -0000 Message-ID: <4ED98E9F.9010401@midsummerdream.org> Date: Fri, 02 Dec 2011 20:51:11 -0600 From: Rob User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; rv:8.0) Gecko/20111105 Thunderbird/8.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: AHCI driver and static device names X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: lists@midsummerdream.org List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 03 Dec 2011 03:17:54 -0000 I was getting ready to install the latest FreeBSD 9-RCs image, and I found that 9 now defaults to using the ahci driver for sata disks. This would be great if it weren't for the fact that the ahci driver seems to do dynamic device name assignment as opposed to the static ones used with the older drivers. I've looked around on google and while this is mentioned (in old threads), the "solution" is to use labels or elaborate mapping via hints which really aren't solutions imo. If I have 15 disks in an array, I want to be able to label them and know which bay is which device name. If I have to replace a drive, I have no idea what dynamic device name it will have when it comes time to partition (and label, if I were using that). I could probably figure it out by looking at what disks are used on the system, but that's more work that it really should be. Is there a way to use the ahci driver and get static device names? Rob