This turned out to be a problem with the transition from devfs to udev. As
far as I can tell, udev does not create /dev/console and /dev/null. Since
my system did not contain /dev/console or /dev/null, I could not boot.
For reference by anyone else reading this bug report, here's a tiny howto
on transitioning from devfs to udev.
Introduction: There's a difference between devfs and udev. Devfs makes the
"console" and "null" files available by the time the files are needed
during the boot. udev starts later, so you must supply your own copy of
/dev/console and /dev/null.
Action: Therefore, before trying to boot using udev only, make certain you
have a "console" and "null" file in /dev. Of course, if your system is
running, you have these files now -- but the question is, were they part of
the /dev directory, or did devfs put it there? Here's how to check.
* First, mount the root directory someplace other than /, so that the /dev
directory can be examined as a standalone -- so it can be seen as it looks
without stuff that devfs puts there. As root, issue the command:
# mount -o bind / /mnt
(where /mnt is some random mouting point).
* Next, look at /mnt/dev. You need to have two special files there, console
and null:
crw------- root root 5, 1 Nov 28 16:50 console
crw-rw-rw- root root 1, 3 Nov 28 16:51 null
If you have them already, you're all set. On my system, I had "null" and it
was *not* a "c" (special character) file; it was an ordinary file. I got
rid of that file and issued the following commands to create console and null:
# mknod -m 660 console c 5 1
# mknod -m 660 null c 1 3
* Unmount the / file system:
# umount /mnt.
* Make certain you have udev! 2.6.14-2 requires udev to boot, but you are
responsible for actually installing udev.
* Once /dev/console and /dev/null exist, you can boot using udev only. (For
example, on my system, a boot using udev only is done by removing the
"devfs=mount" command from lilo.) There's other stuff to do to convert
completely to udev, but this gets you started.
--
Moshe Yudkowsky
Disaggregate
2952 W Fargo
Chicago, IL 60645 USA
www.Disaggregate.com
www.PebbleAndAvalanche.com
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
+1 773 764 8727
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