[BBLISA] Why do Linux rescue CDs make SATA disks look like SCSI ?

[Brian O'Neill]

mcallister at mit.edu wrote:
> This has annoyed me for some time.  I manage a farm of PCs with SATA disks.
> When I boot RHEL4 in rescue mode, or Knoppix, the disks appear as SCSI
> devices (sdX instead of hdX).  This complicates working with boot loader
> issues and make the use of SMART tools impossible.
> 
> These systems are on an isolated network and are still running RH7.3.
> Today I tried the RH7.3 CD to see what it would do and was pleasantly
> surprised to see my hdX devices.
> 
> Can anyone enlighten me as to why the newer distros do this SCSI emulation ?
> Is there some way to force them to use the ide-disk driver instead ?
> 

I believe it has been a general push in the latest kernels to totally 
abstract the disk controllers as scsi devices. Although there is some 
backwards compatibility for purposes of upgrades, new installations 
favor the SCSI emulation. Since the Live CDs are generally the latest 
kernel and "start fresh" like a new installation, they use this as well.

-Brian