Doesn't that code assume that grub4dos (the BIOS) detects the same devices that are detected by linux and in the same order?
What about special SATA/RAID controllers that are attached to disks that are not enumerated by the BIOS? Other \dev\sd devices?
The BIOS could be set up to boot from SATA disk #3 as the HDD boot device (BIOS hd1 when you boot to grub4dos) but is this enumerated by linux as sda or sdd?
Using UUID overcomes these issues and so should be safer if it is in the correct format?
Sure .
But if it works it works.
Hint: right now the "plain" root= works fine with "plain" devices.
Viceversa the UUID syntax reportedly creates (later) an issue.
It's years that grub (and grub4dos and GRUB2) use BIOS to have device/volume names that can be passed to the linux kernel, besides the different way the devices are numbered they tend to follow the same BIOS order, of course there may be cases when this doesn't happen, but they don't represent but a restricted number of situations.
We have a new user (virgus) that is trying to reproduce some experiments and that needs to learn the basics about grub4dos (and probably about Linux also).
When (if) he will be more familiar with grub4dos (and Linux) and when he will succeed with the "plain" syntax on "plain" devices and when (if) he will fail with the "plain" syntax on "non-plain" devices, then the UUID syntax will be *needed*, while until then it is only some overengineering that will IMHO only confuse the poor guy.
Step by step:
1) provide manually the appropriate /dev/sdxy, manually translating the grub4dos (hdm,n) naming
2) automate the above
3) if this works, it works
4) if this doesn't work, it doesn't work and more sophisticated methods can be used [1]
Wonko
[1] BTW if you re-read the thread, the UUID syntax does already work fine, but most probably, judging from tritant's report, there is the need to change something in the init (or *whatever*) the Linux runs at boot that mounts the "external" NTFS volume via NTFS3G (and this will depend on the specific Linux distro, etc. , etc.)
User wean_irdeh already reported success with it (but using another distro), after I (already) suggested how the UUID syntax would be more "universal":
http://reboot.pro/to...e-2#entry200256