From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Oct 7 03:00:57 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 178DA16A4B3 for ; Tue, 7 Oct 2003 03:00:57 -0700 (PDT) Received: from smtp1.adl2.internode.on.net (smtp1.adl2.internode.on.net [203.16.214.181]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 60CDC43F85 for ; Tue, 7 Oct 2003 03:00:55 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from doconnor@gsoft.com.au) Received: from midget.dons.net.au (ppp56-75.lns1.adl2.internode.on.net [150.101.56.75])h979xYTK029479; Tue, 7 Oct 2003 19:29:34 +0930 (CST) Received: from localhost (root@localhost.dons.net.au [127.0.0.1]) by midget.dons.net.au (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id h979xVfa090547; Tue, 7 Oct 2003 19:29:32 +0930 (CST) (envelope-from doconnor@gsoft.com.au) From: "Daniel O'Connor" To: ecsd , freebsd-current@freebsd.org Date: Tue, 7 Oct 2003 19:29:30 +0930 User-Agent: KMail/1.5.3 References: <3F8279C5.9070300@ecsd.com> In-Reply-To: <3F8279C5.9070300@ecsd.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Message-Id: <200310071929.30826.doconnor@gsoft.com.au> X-Spam-Score: -5 () IN_REP_TO,QUOTED_EMAIL_TEXT,REFERENCES,SIGNATURE_SHORT_DENSE,SPAM_PHRASE_03_05,TO_LOCALPART_EQ_REAL,USER_AGENT,USER_AGENT_KMAIL X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.26 (www . roaringpenguin . com / mimedefang) Subject: Re: cannot create partition entries for /dev/ad3 X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 07 Oct 2003 10:00:57 -0000 On Tuesday 07 October 2003 18:01, ecsd wrote: > I have a WintTV card that should be /dev/bktr0. I have tried using "devfs" > to remedy this: > > host[157] # fxtv > open("/dev/bktr0") failed: No such file or directory > > but I cannot see what to do, precisely and in order, to make the device > exist. I think you have a pretty fundamental misconception about /dev and devfs. Makeing devices in /dev doesn't create those devices, or install their drivers. In reality you need both the /dev entry AND the driver to be able to access a device. What devfs does is just make it so that you don't have to bother changing /dev to reflect newely loaded drivers - the drivers tell devfs to create the device nodes to reflect what hardware they have actually found. > I can't tell if use of devfs makes permanent changes to a system definition > file so that changes are retained across reboots. I don't see a reference > to a system file I would modify to make devices exist. The man page for > devfs does not provide an example of creating a device - or if it does, it > doesn't explain what /other/ commands are needed in tandem to make the > device usable (extant.) If devfs will create devices to correspond to > devices defined in the kernel config file, then where is the bktr device? You don't WANT to create device nodes in devfs, that's like the whole [user visible] point! kldload bktr might help you out. If you have it, or it's in the kernel read dmesg, if THAT doesn't help and the device used to work, email a list, or the device maintainer. The only reason most people will ever touch /dev is to either make devices (hence no longer necessary with devfs), or change permissions. The later is more difficult with devfs, but IMHO the tradeoff is worthwhile. -- Daniel O'Connor software and network engineer for Genesis Software - http://www.gsoft.com.au "The nice thing about standards is that there are so many of them to choose from." -- Andrew Tanenbaum GPG Fingerprint - 9A8C 569F 685A D928 5140 AE4B 319B 41F4 5D17 FDD5