[SOLVED] hard drives ok, but missing in /dev, can't boot

angrycoder · n00b Joined: 29 Dec 2004 Posts: 17

Recently I rebooted my computer and got an error from fsck.reiserfs saying

remi2402 · Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2005 2:19 am Post subject:

You're probably having a udev issue. Try reemerging it.

Does udev give any errors when you boot ? (it's one of the first services started)

Rémi

angrycoder · n00b Joined: 29 Dec 2004 Posts: 17

well, I didn't see anything about udev when booting.
turns out it wasn't even installed, so I emerged it.

but I still don't see anything about it when booting. Do I have to activate it in a config file?

I still get the exact same problem. I don't think I ever needed udev before (I'm using a 2.6 kernel).

Thanks for your reply though

yabbadabbadont · Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2005 6:24 am Post subject:

If you used genkernel to compile your kernel, you needed to pass it options to make it include udev. You also need to pass an option on the kernel line in grub.conf to tell it to use udev. The old devfs support was dropped in the newest 2.6 kernels, so if you recently upgraded your kernel, I could see how this could happen. Check the installation manual starting with the section on configuring your kernel (7b I think).

If you didn't use genkernel to build your kernel, then I don't have any useful suggestions for you. Sorry.

angrycoder · n00b Joined: 29 Dec 2004 Posts: 17

I didn't use genkernel. But I suppose I can recompile the kernel with udev support, I haven't tried that yet. I haven't recently changed my kernel though so I don't know what caused this. I noticed if I enter the 'maintenence' mode and use their "(none) #" prompt, I can view the filesystem as read-only and in /dev there is a 'discs' directory that isn't normally there when it's properly listing my devices...
in it lists all of my hard drives, is there anyway to use these?

is this related to hotplug/coldplug? i haven't ever installed coldplug, but it was working before without this. I've checked hotplug config files too.

maybe it isn't a udev issue at all? Like I said, the 'emerge system' followed by etc-update changed a lot of config files... I checked a lot of them before booting so I didn't loose anything (since before it's annoying when it overwrites module config files and my nic driver doesn't load)

Like I said, if I use a livecd to boot I can access anything on my root drive, so the hardware is fine.

remi2402 · Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2005 4:51 pm Post subject:

hotplug is a script manager when a device is plugged in. It usually is used to modprobe drivers when a device is plugged in. You don't need hotplug because all your drivers are compiled in the kernel (mass storage and usb related)

Cold plug will do the same thing as hotplug but only when booting. Again, you don't need it for the same reasons.

For udev configuration I recommend you set RC_DEVICES="udev" and RC_DEVICE_TARBALL="no" in /etc/conf.d/rc

That will force a clean udev setup.

Rémi

yabbadabbadont · Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2005 3:27 am Post subject:

Kernels 2.6.13 (I think) and later, no longer contain devfs support. So you will have to configure your kernel and system for udev if you ever switch to a newer kernel. As for your problem, I would guess that the system scripts got updated. Check the settings in /etc/conf.d/rc. As remi2402 noted, the RC_DEVICES setting is probably causing your troubles. If your current kernel uses devfs, and you want to stick with that for a while, then change RC_DEVICES so that it is set to devfs. You system should start working again. (assuming that it hasn't been messed up by all the things that have been tried to fix it)

angrycoder · n00b Joined: 29 Dec 2004 Posts: 17

I removed support for devfs from the kernel and emerged udev, and edited /etc/conf.d/rc appropriately. That file was set up to use devfs initially, so I don't know what else in there changed....either way, udev is better and that's what I'm using now. fixed! thanks guys.