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Subject: Re: DEVFS vs "regular /dev"
To: scrappy@ki.net (Marc G. Fournier)
Date: Thu, 21 Mar 1996 11:57:18 -0800 (PST)
From: "JULIAN Elischer" <julian@ref.tfs.com>
Cc: hackers@freebsd.org
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.91.960321141107.29201D-100000@ki.net> from "Marc G. Fournier" at Mar 21, 96 02:12:44 pm
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> 
> On Thu, 21 Mar 1996, Rodney W. Grimes wrote:
> 
> > These problems may have been corrected.  I do know for certain that certain
> > /dev/ entries missing causes the system to hang very early in init, and you
> > can not even get up single user to fix it.  This _needs_ fixed badly, you
> > should be able to
> > rm -r /dev
> > reboot
> > and get the system up single user, if not you have a chicken and egg
> > problem as to how to repair a damaged or loss /dev tree.
> >
> 	That's what got me started playing with the DEVFS code.  I figured
> I'd try to boot the system using devfs instead of the "normal /dev", and
> found that /dev/ttyv* wasn't being created, so I couldn't login.  I've got
> my system now to the point that I could do 'rm -r /dev' and be able to boot
> without any problems.
well, not quite..
because init tries to open some devices before the fstab is used to mount the 
disks and devfs..

you could always alter init to directly mount /dev....
> 
> Marc G. Fournier | POP Mail  Telnet Acct  DNS Hosting
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> 
>