Comment 41 for bug 213439

(In reply to comment #17)
> Adding usb-storage to the initrd seems like the wrong thing to do, since we are
> not trying to boot off usb, right? As for the udev rule vs. the kernel patch...
> well... you'll know best I hope :-)

I went into the same issue with a SCSI based PC, which has an cold plugged USB
storage device.
My solution was to add to /etc/modprobe.conf the line:

alias scsi_controller1 usb-storage

and the rebuild the initrd, without any special parameters.
Note that the first SCSI controller in /etc/modprobe.conf is the one
automatically defined during install time (I guess aha... something).

This solution was needed since the USB storage partitions must be available at
normal mount time, i.e. they are mounted from /etc/fstab and not from gnome-mount.

The question is: does the udev or kenel solution guarantee that usb-storage.ko
is loaded (and settles) in time for the the /etc/fstab mount?

Because an other (working) system, with different hardware, but same external
storage (and not /etc/modprobe.conf modifications), does not seem to have well
defined timings. It seems to me udev loads usb-storage.ko and this,
asynchronously, probes the USB subsystem and attaches the proper drives, i.e. it
will not necessarily finish before /etc/fstab is used to mount all the partitions.
I did not look deep into this (no time, sorry), so maybe my assumption (about
timinings) is wrong. If not, please consider this case before any patches,
updates or whatever are released.

Thanks.