Ok, I'm confused.

I've got a mix of Slack 9.x/10.x boxes, kernels 2.4.22-.28.
All are "default" kernels - I've been too chicken/lazy/busy to play with
2.6 kernels and stuff.

Which /dev structure am I running? (Install all packages in the
standard load... nothing from /extra or /testing.)

From what I've been reading udev and devfs are for dynamic devices (and
other new tricks...) - I don't believe I'm running that. What am I
running?

What got me curious was a co-worker installed Linspire and fdisk -l
doesn't give /dev/hda instead it gave us /dev/ide/bus0/part1 or
something like that...

Ray

ray wrote:
> Ok, I'm confused.
>
> I've got a mix of Slack 9.x/10.x boxes, kernels 2.4.22-.28.
> All are "default" kernels - I've been too chicken/lazy/busy to play with
> 2.6 kernels and stuff.
>
> Which /dev structure am I running? (Install all packages in the
> standard load... nothing from /extra or /testing.)
>
> From what I've been reading udev and devfs are for dynamic devices (and
> other new tricks...) - I don't believe I'm running that. What am I
> running?
>
> What got me curious was a co-worker installed Linspire and fdisk -l
> doesn't give /dev/hda instead it gave us /dev/ide/bus0/part1 or
> something like that...
>
> Ray


The default Slackware installation does not use devfs nor udev. udev can
only run on a 2.6 kernel. The name /dev/hda or /dev/ide/bus0/... are
setting due to the distribution. What is important is the major minor
mode that you can see with ls -l. Linspire probably use udev (as many
other distro) and I think is just a configuration of udev (the file
responsible for that are in /etc/udev/...

Olive

Olive wrote:
> ray wrote:
>
>> Ok, I'm confused.
>>
>> I've got a mix of Slack 9.x/10.x boxes, kernels 2.4.22-.28.
>> All are "default" kernels - I've been too chicken/lazy/busy to play
>> with 2.6 kernels and stuff.
>>
>> Which /dev structure am I running? (Install all packages in the
>> standard load... nothing from /extra or /testing.)
>>
>> From what I've been reading udev and devfs are for dynamic devices
>> (and other new tricks...) - I don't believe I'm running that. What
>> am I running?
>>
>> What got me curious was a co-worker installed Linspire and fdisk -l
>> doesn't give /dev/hda instead it gave us /dev/ide/bus0/part1 or
>> something like that...
>>
>> Ray
>
>
>
> The default Slackware installation does not use devfs nor udev. udev can
> only run on a 2.6 kernel. The name /dev/hda or /dev/ide/bus0/... are
> setting due to the distribution. What is important is the major minor
> mode that you can see with ls -l. Linspire probably use udev (as many
> other distro) and I think is just a configuration of udev (the file
> responsible for that are in /etc/udev/...
>
> Olive
>
ok, so what AM I using for the /dev dir? Or am I literally using
"nothing" because /dev/* is created once and doesn't need to be changed
after? I'm assuming as part of the setup there's a script which calls
mknod to make everything in there and that's it? And that explains why
other distros like when I was playing with Gentoo and when I use loadlin
on a new system need an initrd so there's a /dev structure?

The more I learn, the more I realize how little I know.

Ray

On Wed, 02 Mar 2005 16:01:31 -0600, ray wrote:
> ok, so what AM I using for the /dev dir? Or am I literally using
> "nothing" because /dev/* is created once and doesn't need to be changed
> after?

Yes, traditionally UNIX and GNU/Linux use a static /dev. This means all
important device nodes are created one, and kept.

> I'm assuming as part of the setup there's a script which calls
> mknod to make everything in there and that's it?

The device nodes were already pre-created, and are in the "devs" package
of the "a" disk set.

> And that explains why other distros like when I was playing with Gentoo
> and when I use loadlin on a new system need an initrd so there's a /dev
> structure?

initrd is actually something different, it means "initial ramdisk". It is
often used for storing modules that are needed to mount the / filesystem
(such as filesystem and ATA drivers). This way the kernel can be kept
smaller, since almost everything is a module. The disadvantage is that it
is easier to break things, e.g. if the module versions in the initrd image
differ from the kernel that is booted you will have a problem.

-- Daniel

On Wed, 02 Mar 2005 23:16:42 +0100, Daniel de Kok wrote:
> Yes, traditionally UNIX and GNU/Linux use a static /dev. This means all
> important device nodes are created one, and kept.

s/one/once/

Daniel de Kok wrote:
> On Wed, 02 Mar 2005 16:01:31 -0600, ray wrote:
>
>>ok, so what AM I using for the /dev dir? Or am I literally using
>>"nothing" because /dev/* is created once and doesn't need to be changed
>>after?
>
>
> Yes, traditionally UNIX and GNU/Linux use a static /dev. This means all
> important device nodes are created one, and kept.
>
>
>>I'm assuming as part of the setup there's a script which calls
>>mknod to make everything in there and that's it?
>
>
> The device nodes were already pre-created, and are in the "devs" package
> of the "a" disk set.
>
>
>>And that explains why other distros like when I was playing with Gentoo
>>and when I use loadlin on a new system need an initrd so there's a /dev
>>structure?
>
>
> initrd is actually something different, it means "initial ramdisk". It is
> often used for storing modules that are needed to mount the / filesystem
> (such as filesystem and ATA drivers). This way the kernel can be kept
> smaller, since almost everything is a module. The disadvantage is that it
> is easier to break things, e.g. if the module versions in the initrd image
> differ from the kernel that is booted you will have a problem.
>
> -- Daniel
Ah. Thanks for clearing up two questions in one shot.

So... I'm correct in saying I'm running static /dev/ then?

I looked at the package... I see.

Ray