Hello, it's the first time for me to use a mailing group. So I hope it's the right place. At the moment I installed opensuse 11.0 on a machine with two harddiscs and one raid system with adaptec raid controller. I have installed linux on one harddisc before I build the raid combination. After that I rebooted the machine. At this moment the device id's changed. Now I have following harddisc's: fileserver:~ # fdisk -l WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sda'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted. Disk /dev/sda: 8996.8 GB, 8996872257536 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1093807 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0x00000000 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 1 267350 2147483647+ ee EFI GPT Disk /dev/sdb: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0x2e2e2e2e Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdb1 1 1045 8393931 82 Linux swap / Solaris /dev/sdb2 * 1046 30401 235802070 f W95 Ext'd (LBA) /dev/sdb5 1046 2351 10490413+ 83 Linux /dev/sdb6 2352 3004 5245191 83 Linux /dev/sdb7 3005 30401 220066371 83 Linux Disk /dev/sdc: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0x2e2e2e2e Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdc1 1 1045 8393931 82 Linux swap / Solaris /dev/sdc2 * 1046 30401 235802070 f W95 Ext'd (LBA) /dev/sdc5 1046 2351 10490413+ 83 Linux /dev/sdc6 2352 3004 5245191 83 Linux /dev/sdc7 3005 30401 220066371 83 Linux Disk /dev/dm-0: 161.0 GB, 161037403136 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19578 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0x00000000 Disk /dev/dm-0 doesn't contain a valid partition table Most time I use partition labels to mount the partitions. I can't remember why. But the partitions of sdb and sdc have the same labels: fileserver:~ # !for for device in sdb5 sdc5 sdb6 sdc6 sdb7 sdc7; do tune2fs -l /dev/${device} | grep "Filesystem volume name"; done Filesystem volume name: rootOnSdb Filesystem volume name: rootOnSdb Filesystem volume name: tmpOnSdb Filesystem volume name: tmpOnSdb Filesystem volume name: varOnSdb Filesystem volume name: varOnSdb sdb is the default disc for linux. sdc should be a spare part. So this is the mount table: fileserver:~ # mount /dev/sdb5 on / type ext3 (rw,acl,user_xattr) proc on /proc type proc (rw) sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw) debugfs on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw) udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw) devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,mode=0620,gid=5) /dev/sdb6 on /tmp type ext3 (rw,acl,user_xattr) /dev/sdb7 on /var type ext3 (rw,acl,user_xattr) /dev/sda1 on /fileserverShare type ext3 (rw,acl,user_xattr) /dev/sda2 on /backup type ext3 (rw,acl,user_xattr) fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw) securityfs on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw) none on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw) proc on /var/lib/ntp/proc type proc (ro) /dev/mapper/cr_sda3 on /home type ext3 (rw,acl,user_xattr) Now I will show you what I have found. 1. I touched a file on /root. / is the mountpoint of /dev/sdb5. So the file must be storage on /dev/sdb5. fileserver:~ # date Mi 10. Dez 10:34:03 CET 2008 fileserver:~ # echo `date` >> /root/foo.bar fileserver:~ # ls -l /root/foo.bar -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 29 2008-12-10 10:34 /root/foo.bar fileserver:~ # cat /root/foo.bar Mi 10. Dez 10:34:19 CET 2008 fileserver:~ # 2. I mount /dev/sdc5 to /local/sdc/ fileserver:~ # mount -v /local/sdc/ /dev/sdc5 on /local/sdc type ext3 (rw,acl,user_xattr) 3. I list the entry of /local/sdc/root/ fileserver:~ # ls -l /local/sdc/root/ total 92 -rw------- 1 root root 13431 2008-12-10 10:03 .bash_history drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2008-12-09 13:00 bin -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1332 2005-11-23 17:06 .exrc -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 29 2008-12-10 10:34 foo.bar drwx------ 2 root root 4096 2008-12-05 11:47 .gnupg drwxr-xr-x 6 root root 4096 2008-12-05 10:56 inst-sys drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2008-12-05 11:20 .kbd drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2008-12-08 10:09 ldap_datenbank_sicherung -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 57 2008-12-08 16:32 .ldaprc -r-------- 1 root root 102 2008-12-09 11:17 Liesmich.txt drwx------ 2 root root 4096 2008-12-05 11:33 .ssh -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 20859 2008-12-05 11:34 .suse_register.log -rw------- 1 root root 9526 2008-12-10 09:44 .viminfo -rw------- 1 root root 0 2008-12-09 13:31 .Xauthority fileserver:~ # cat /local/sdc/root/foo.bar Mi 10. Dez 10:34:19 CET 2008 At this moment I was confused about the existing file foo.bar under /local/sdc/. Because I can't explain why it exists. First I think there was an error on my side. So I delete /local/sdc/root/foo.bar. fileserver:~ # rm -vf /local/sdc/root/foo.bar removed `/local/sdc/root/foo.bar' fileserver:~ # fileserver:~ # ls -l /local/sdc/root total 88 -rw------- 1 root root 13431 2008-12-10 10:03 .bash_history drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2008-12-09 13:00 bin -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1332 2005-11-23 17:06 .exrc drwx------ 2 root root 4096 2008-12-05 11:47 .gnupg drwxr-xr-x 6 root root 4096 2008-12-05 10:56 inst-sys drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2008-12-05 11:20 .kbd drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2008-12-08 10:09 ldap_datenbank_sicherung -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 57 2008-12-08 16:32 .ldaprc -r-------- 1 root root 102 2008-12-09 11:17 Liesmich.txt drwx------ 2 root root 4096 2008-12-05 11:33 .ssh -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 20859 2008-12-05 11:34 .suse_register.log -rw------- 1 root root 9526 2008-12-10 09:44 .viminfo -rw------- 1 root root 0 2008-12-09 13:31 .Xauthority The file doesn't exist anymore on /local/sdc/root/. Now I check /root. fileserver:~ # ls -l /root/ total 88 -rw------- 1 root root 13431 2008-12-10 10:03 .bash_history drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2008-12-09 13:00 bin -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1332 2005-11-23 17:06 .exrc drwx------ 2 root root 4096 2008-12-05 11:47 .gnupg drwxr-xr-x 6 root root 4096 2008-12-05 10:56 inst-sys drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2008-12-05 11:20 .kbd drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2008-12-08 10:09 ldap_datenbank_sicherung -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 57 2008-12-08 16:32 .ldaprc -r-------- 1 root root 102 2008-12-09 11:17 Liesmich.txt drwx------ 2 root root 4096 2008-12-05 11:33 .ssh -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 20859 2008-12-05 11:34 .suse_register.log -rw------- 1 root root 9526 2008-12-10 09:44 .viminfo -rw------- 1 root root 0 2008-12-09 13:31 .Xauthority The file foo.bar doesn't exist anymore here. But why? Can someone explain me what happens on this machine? Regards Manfred