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

["Thomas Mueller" <mueller6724%bellsouth.net@localhost>]

I now notice a page on www.netbsd.org, 

NetBSD Documentation: Other FAQs and HOWTOs

with a section on rebuilding /dev

 The /dev directory contains the necessary device files for accessing hardware 
and pseudo devices. If it becomes damaged, much strangeness can ensue. To 
rebuild the /dev directory, you should first boot single-user (it should be 
possible to perform while multiuser, but this is not recommended), then:

mkdir /newdev
cd /newdev
cp /dev/M* .
sh MAKEDEV all
cd /
mv dev olddev; mv newdev dev
rm -r olddev

I wonder if rebuilding/updating the NetBSD system from source would fix the 
/dev.

I notice the instructions say nothing about booting single-user after 
installing the new kernel but before installing the new world.

Instructions for FreeBSD advise booting single-user after "make buildworld, 
"make buildkernel" and "make installkernel".

Maybe that would be a good idea for NetBSD too?

I prefer to use NetBSD-current rather than 6.x.

Some advantages are device athn support which includes Atheros AR9271, and 
NAME= in /etc/fstab.

An internal media reader plays advice with /dev/sd* numbering.

I can "boot netbsd-sandy6.1 -a" at boot prompt and get a prompt to specify root 
device, but there the system hangs, and won't recognize any keyboard input.

I just checked the /dev/directory of that NetBSD-current amd64 USB stick, 
GPT-partitioned so no NetBSD disklabel problems, from FreeBSD, and only a few 
things were there including MAKEDEV and MAKEDEV.local , also altq, fd and log.

Tom