chapter06/makedev.xml


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<sect1 id="ch06-MAKEDEV" xreflabel="Makedev">
<title>Creating devices with Makedev-&makedev-version;</title>
<?dbhtml filename="makedev.html" dir="chapter06"?>

<para>The MAKEDEV package contains a script for making device nodes.</para>

<screen>Estimated build time:           &makedev-time;
Estimated required disk space:  &makedev-compsize;</screen>

&aa-makedev-down;
&aa-makedev-dep;

<sect2><title>&nbsp;</title><para>&nbsp;</para></sect2>

<sect2>
<title>Making devices</title>

<para>Note that unpacking the <filename>MAKEDEV-&makedev-version;.bz2</filename>
file doesn't create a directory for you to <userinput>cd</userinput> into, as
the file contains only a shell script.</para>

<para>Install the <userinput>MAKEDEV</userinput> script:</para>

<screen><userinput>bzcat MAKEDEV-&makedev-version;.bz2 &gt; /dev/MAKEDEV
chmod 754 /dev/MAKEDEV</userinput></screen>

<para>Run the script to create the device files:</para>

<screen><userinput>cd /dev
./MAKEDEV -v generic-nopty</userinput></screen>

<para>The meaning of the arguments:</para>

<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para><userinput>-v</userinput>: This tells the script to run in
verbose mode.</para></listitem>

<listitem><para><userinput>generic-nopty</userinput>: This instructs
<userinput>MAKEDEV</userinput> to create a generic selection of commonly used
device special files, except for the ptyXX and ttyXX range of files. We don't
need those files because we are going to use Unix98 PTYs via the
<emphasis>devpts</emphasis> file system.</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>

<para>If it turns out that some special device <filename>zzz</filename> that
you need is missing, try running <userinput>./MAKEDEV -v zzz</userinput>.
Alternatively, you may create devices via the <userinput>mknod</userinput>
program. Please refer to its man and info pages if you need more
information.</para>

<para>If you wish your system to be FHS-compliant, then the
<filename>MAKEDEV</filename> script has to remain present in the
<filename class="directory">/dev</filename> directory. This way it is always
available for making extra device nodes.</para>

<para>Additionally, if you were unable to mount the devpts filesystem earlier
in <xref linkend="ch06-proc"/>, now is the time to try the alternatives. If
your kernel supports the devfs file system, run the following command to mount
devfs:</para>

<screen><userinput>mount -t devfs devfs /dev</userinput></screen>

<para>This will mount the devfs file system over the top of the new static
<filename>/dev</filename> structure. This poses no problems, as the device nodes
created are still present, they are just hidden by the new devfs
filesystem.</para>

<para>If this still doesn't work, the only option left is to use the MAKEDEV
script to create the ptyXX and ttyXX range of files that would otherwise not be
needed. Ensure you are still in the <filename>/dev</filename> directory then run
<userinput>./MAKEDEV -v pty</userinput>. The downside of this is, we are
creating an extra 512 device special files which will not be needed when we
finally boot into the finished LFS system.</para>

</sect2>

&aa-makedev-shortdesc;
&aa-makedev-desc;

</sect1>