Re: Modules and DevFS

Brian May (bam@snoopy.apana.org.au)
01 Feb 2001 09:05:58 +1100


>>>>> "William" == William Knop <w_knop@hotmail.com> writes:

William> Correct me if I'm wrong, but DevFS only makes /dev
William> entries when a device is present, and the device is not
William> present until the module is loaded. So if I want to
William> access /dev/hda and the IDE module has not been loaded
William> yet, I will get a message telling me the device doesn't
William> exist or some such instead of autoloading the module and
William> being happy. Same goes for hotswap devices, right? I boot
William> directly into X and have to crash out (otherwise it
William> continually tries to unsuccessfully load X) so I could
William> enable my USB mouse and various other devices.

My /etc/modutils/devfsd has

probeall /dev/discs scsi-hosts sd_mod ide-probe-mod ide-disk DAC960

perhaps it should have something similar for /dev/hd*?

As a work around, put something like this:

alias /dev/hdd ide-cd

or (not tested; just guessing):

alias /dev/hd* /dev/ide

in /etc/modutils/aliases, and run update-modules.

William> I realize modularizing the entire IDE subsystem is not
William> really good anyway, because every time it reloads it will
William> rescan the bus... But what about USB? Suppose I don't
William> have any IDE or USB devices, but want support so I can
William> use them later. Especially in the case of USB,
William> plugability is a must for desktop "home" systems.

I am not really familiar with USB.

-- 
Brian May <bam@snoopy.apana.org.au>
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