Can't boot -- disks missing from /dev

[kikibobo]

I probably did something silly, since I did an emerge -uDN world without giving it my full attention. I also ran genkernel without really following along, so this is almost certainly My Fault. However, your help is much appreciated...

This is an amd64 system, running a modern Gentoo. I hadn't updated it for a few months (it was turned off, in fact), so I did an emerge --sync and emerge -uDN world, and didn't think much of it.

Now when I try to boot it, it scans devices ok. The bios sees both its physical disks. And, well, it starts to boot ok, so at least one disk is there.

It then does:

* Populating /dev/ with existing devices through uevents ... [ok]
* Waiting for uevents to be processed ... [ok]
* Mounting devpts at /dev/pts ... [ok ]
* Checking root filesystem ...
fsck.jfs

[omitted]

Error: Cannot open device /dev/sda3

[omitted]

* Filesystem coun't be fixed [ !! ]

Then asks me for my root password.

/etc/mtab now says that /dev/sda3 is /, but when I do an ls in /dev/, there is no sda3! There are no disks whatsoever to be found in /dev

Plus, / is mounted read-only, so I can't change /etc/fstab to auto-mount /boot.

dmesg has nothing interesting, and of course there is not /var/log/messages.

I do have a finix disk I can boot, but I don't have a clue where to start. Just wiping it is an option (everything important is backed up), but I'd prefer not to, obviously.

Thanks in advance for any help,
Eric

[NeddySeagoon]

kikibobo,

You have a new udev with

[Bombe]