Re: Creating /dev/dk* nodes so as to be persistent

[Alan Barrett <apb%cequrux.com@localhost>]

On Wed, 02 Oct 2013, Thomas Mueller wrote:
> Running "mount" by itself shows
>
> tmpfs on /dev type tmpfs (union, local)

OK.  A tmpfs /dev is created automatically by init(8), if 
/dev/console does not exist at boot time.  This is desirable 
for some types of installation media, and to help with recovery 
if /dev is corrupted, but is not usually desirable for a normal 
running system.

Usually, the installation process will create a fully-populated 
/dev directory on the new system's disk.  Then, when the new 
system is booted, /dev/console will exist, and a tmpfs /dev will 
not be created.

Something seems to have gone wrong in your installation process 
such that you don't have a fully-populated /dev directory on disk.

Now, going back to an earlier part of the message:

> I originally installed from source, building either from FreeBSD 
> or NetBSD.
>
> NetBSD installations are on USB 2.0 sticks, as opposed to hard 
> drive.
>
> I use hard drive to keep source and pkgsrc trees and do the 
> compiling work.

If you install "by hand" then you have to manually run MAKEDEV 
all, or allow etcupdate(8) to do it for you.  I notice that 
postinstall(8) does not run MAKEDEV for you, and that might be a 
bug.  It's certainly a bug that there is no good documentation for 
how to install "by hand".

> I remember going into $DESTDIR/dev and running ./MAKEDEV all

OK, you did run MAKEDEV all, but you probably ran it in the tmpfs 
/dev directory, not in the underlying directory on disk, so the 
effects are lost on every boot.

> Should I edit /dev/MAKEDEV and add a line to make nodes dk16, 
> ...?

I'd just run something like (cd /dev ; ./MAKEDEV dk16 dk17 ), but 
it has to be run in the underlying /dev directory on disk, not in 
the tmpfs /dev directory that will be lost on reboot.

> Running "mount" by itself shows
>
> tmpfs on /dev type tmpfs (union, local)

I replied to that first, because it'e the key to understanding 
what went wrong.

--apb (Alan Barrett)