Troubleshooting • Re: UUID or PARTUUID in fstab

~ $ sudo blkid
/dev/sda2: LABEL="rootfs" UUID="21724cc6-e5a3-48a1-8643-7917dba3a9fb" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="e4b3a324-02"
/dev/sda1: LABEL_FATBOOT="bootfs" LABEL="bootfs" UUID="EACA-13DA" BLOCK_SIZE="512" TYPE="vfat" PARTUUID="e4b3a324-01"
/dev/loop0: TYPE="swap"
/dev/zram0: LABEL="zram0" UUID="fe16b2d4-3c79-4a58-8825-303aaf7e54a2" TYPE="swap"

With the fstab;
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
PARTUUID=e4b3a324-01 /boot/firmware vfat defaults 0 2
PARTUUID=e4b3a324-02 / ext4 defaults,noatime 0 1

What should I be using? PARTUUID or UUID or either ?

What is most convenient for you as a human. So human normally read/like labels. Businesses and machines have other reasons.

What I do for more then a decade for RPi computers after initial start, is change fstab and various other things, like labels of filesystems. New contents of fstab:If you order a coffeemachine from a webshop, the webshop puts your homeaddress on the outside of the package. You are likely more interested on what is inside the box, like the brand and type and power/voltage of the coffemachine. So you also will label it 'black_machine' or so. Or do you still use the sticker from the carton box with your homeaddress printed on to distinguish the coffeemachine from the vacuumcleaner?

PARTUUID is an outside ID
UUID is an inside ID
LABEL is an inside ID as well, but human friendly

Statistics: Posted by redvli — Fri Feb 06, 2026 8:20 am

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