[SOLVED] Cannot enable DEVFS support

Bungopolis · Last edited by Bungopolis on Sat May 01, 2004 12:26 am; edited 1 time in total

I've installed Gentoo (from 2004.0 Minimal x86 LiveCD) onto an Athlon system.

When I first configured the Kernel (manual), I chose not to include DEVFS (becuase menuconfig lists it as obsolete... docs should have a note about ignoring this).

Of course when I booted I got the following error, because DEVFS is required:

slycordinator · Advocate Joined: 31 Jan 2004 Posts: 3065 Location: Korea

MOUNT YOUR /BOOT BEFORE COPYING THE NEW KERNEL. OTHERWISE, THIS WILL HAPPEN EVERY TIME

So here's what you gotta do:
1) As root in a shell, enter the command "mount /boot"
2) cd to the source directory
3) copy the kernel from that directory to your /boot
4) enter "umount /boot"
5) restart computer; notice that you don't get the message anymore.

edit: sorry if this comes off as mean (the way I put it) but this kind of error in kernel compilations is happenening all the time

Twist · Guru Joined: 03 Jan 2003 Posts: 414 Location: San Diego

Does the directory /dev exist on your root partition?

Are you sure you mounted /boot before doing a "make install" from your new kernel here? If you didn't, then you will have what looks like a valid image in the /boot directory, but it will be ignored because it's on the wrong file system.

-Twist

Bungopolis · Posted: Sat May 01, 2004 12:31 am Post subject:

Unbelievable.. this is the 5th time I have installed linux on a box and the 5th time I have made this mistake!

Obviously you are correct, I had simply forgotten to mount boot....

Sorry, and thanks

SDKB · n00b Joined: 12 Apr 2004 Posts: 9

Well, that looks like my problem solved!

/me goes to try

SDKB · n00b Joined: 12 Apr 2004 Posts: 9

Yup, it works, what got me was that when i recompiled my kernel and cp'd to boot, on a ls -l the files were there and with the right time stamp, ie. looking like i had just copied them there. Should've rung alarm bells that the grub directory, amongst other things, wasn't there... doh

Maybe this should be hinted at in the gentoo FAQ, http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/faq.xml, since there is already a question in there titled "My kernel doesn't boot (properly), what should I do now?" All it gives is instructions for booting live cd and chrooting, failing to mention that the procedure is different if the kernel doesn't boot "(properly)" as opposed to not booting at all.

Thanks for the help anyway!

hookooekoo · Apprentice Joined: 02 May 2004 Posts: 196

I am getting the same error message, when I go back to recompile kernel the following opts are not even available.

ryceck · Apprentice Joined: 13 Jan 2004 Posts: 195

Why do u guyz even use devfs... the word (OBSOLETE) doesn't stand there without a reason

Just use UDEV instead cuz that is gonna replace devfs anyway.
Just emerge udev and hotplug, add hotplug to boot-runlevel edit the /etc/conf.d/rc to exclude devfs and ur off

No more devfs-trouble and ur also working with the future alternative

I have been working with udev for the past 2 months without trouble

hookooekoo · Apprentice Joined: 02 May 2004 Posts: 196

It is what the gentoo handbook said to do, it didn't make sense to me, the whole obsolete thing.

I will try what you suggested.

tomthewombat · Posted: Sat Jul 17, 2004 3:11 pm Post subject:

you should have to edit that rc file to turn devfs off

UDEV Guide: http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/udev-guide.xml

you can turn the "device tarball" off in that guide though. I reccomend it, if you can get every device to register itself properly on every boot.
_________________
http://www.wombatorium.net

Decibels · Veteran Joined: 16 Aug 2002 Posts: 1623 Location: U.S.A.

If you decide to go UDEV, then recompile your kernel with the Devfs

aclarke · n00b Joined: 27 Jun 2004 Posts: 11 Location: CA USA

Thank you very much for what's contained here, as it fixed one of my problems.

I do have a question though. When I log in, there is a /boot directory there. Then when I type "mount /boot", I get a different one. What is the initial /boot directory for? I erased the contents and my computer still seems to work fine ... actually it still seems to function with the same problems it did before.

So do I have a problem in my setup? Is mount /boot supposed to happen automatically, or do I have it the way it's supposed to be?

Thanks,
- Andrew.

jkcunningham · Posted: Sun Jul 25, 2004 3:14 pm Post subject:

Before you mount your boot partition, you have to have a mount point. /boot is the mount point. Anything you put in that directory before you mount the position there will be inaccessible so long as the partition is mounted. As far as your file system is concerned, you've remapped that location to the partition.

-Jeff

aclarke · n00b Joined: 27 Jun 2004 Posts: 11 Location: CA USA

Thanks Jeff. So once my computer has finished booting and I've logged in, if I cd /boot, should I get the "placeholder" boot directory or the actual /boot partition I created? As it is now I just get the placeholder directory unless I "mount /boot" manually.

I'm trying to figure out if I have my computer set up correctly or if I'm missing a step.

Thanks,
- Andrew.

jkcunningham · Posted: Thu Jul 29, 2004 1:46 am Post subject:

With a normal Gentoo installation, you will be looking at the 'placeholder' /boot directory, because Gentoo is set up to only mount the real /boot partition during the boot process and then it unmounts it again (for security purposes). Anytime you want to play around with the real /boot partition, you need to be su and mount it first. Try this as an experiment and you'll see what I mean: after your machine has booted, do:

aclarke · n00b Joined: 27 Jun 2004 Posts: 11 Location: CA USA

Thanks Jeff! I really appreciate your explanation.

- Andrew.

lbermude · n00b Joined: 19 Jul 2004 Posts: 5

What to do if?

jkcunningham · Posted: Thu Jul 29, 2004 2:52 am Post subject: Re: cannot mount /boot

[quote="lbermude"]What to do if?

lbermude · n00b Joined: 19 Jul 2004 Posts: 5

jkcunningham · Posted: Thu Jul 29, 2004 3:05 am Post subject:

If you didn't make your /boot in a separate partition, then, yes you are correct: you wouldn't ever mount /boot (there's nothing to mount). Anytime your root partition is mounted, boot is available. And when you look in that directory you will see your linux kernel, etc.

Hope that helps.

-Jeff