base# ls -l ip* crw------- 1 root wheel 29, 0 May 14 16:45 ipl crw------- 1 root wheel 29, 1 May 14 16:45 ipnat crw------- 1 root wheel 29, 2 May 14 16:45 ipstate from sys/arch/i386/i386/conf.c: cdev_ipf_init(NIPFILTER,ipl), /* 44: ip-filter device */ which looks like ip-filter has major 44, not 29. .mrg.