source: chapter06/makedev-inst.xml@ d725552

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

<sect2>
<title>Creating devices</title>

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

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

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

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

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

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

<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para><userinput>-v generic-nopty</userinput>: The
<userinput>-v</userinput> parameter tells the MAKEDEV script to run in verbose
mode. The <userinput>generic-nopty</userinput> parameter instructs MAKEDEV 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 a device you need is missing, try running
<userinput>./MAKEDEV -v &lt;device&gt;</userinput>. Alternatively, you may
create devices via the <emphasis>mknod</emphasis> program. Please refer to
the man and info pages of <emphasis>mknod</emphasis> if you need more
information.</para>

<para>Also, if earlier in Chapter 6 you were unable to mount the devpts
filesystem because your host uses devfs, we will now mount that devfs
system over top of this new static /dev structure.  This poses no problems,
as the device nodes created are still present, they are just hidden by the
new devfs filesystem.  Run the following command to mount devfs, if necessary:
</para>

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

</sect2>