On Sat, 5 Sep 1998, Ken Nakata wrote:

> On Sat, 05 Sep 1998 11:35:36 +0200, Ulrich Hausmann wrote:
> > when I booted in single user mode, I didn't get that error msg. But
> > looking in /dev/, obviously, sd1a is still missing. Now, the files there
> > (in /dev/) are that kinds of links (aliases or so?) to real pyhsical
> > partitions? And if so, isn't it possible to rebuild one "by hand"?
> > Especially since there are, as I saw two program files (or scripts?)
> > MAKEDEV and MAKEDEV.local.
> 
> For now, booting into single-user mode and doing:
> 
> 	mount -u /; cd /dev; ./MAKEDEV sd1
> 
> should make the device files sd1[a-g] and rsd1[a-g].  Later you should
> read makedev(8) man page but it may not be installed on your system.

That could work if he had simply forgotten to make the devices. What
probably happened here is that the swapper trashed his superblock and his
root directory. I vote reinstall.

I realize that that's painfully slow, but once he gets a bootable,
reliable system on one SyQuest cartridge, he'll never have to use the
installer again.