[cross-posted to the closed mailing list lpi-updates because of relevant
discussion of L1 content]
On Wed, 8 Aug 2001 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Quoting David A. Bandel on Wed, Aug 08, 2001 at 09:33:51PM -0500 :
> > Are you talking about the new devfs file system that changes all the
> > names? While I believe the system is finally in a somewhat stable state
> > (it's definitely useable, since I have no files in /dev when the root
> > partition is mounted via another running system), I don't think it's
> > widely adopted. Knowledge of this area might be somewhat limited.
>
> Although limited knowledge exists, this is the preferred method for
> managing devices in the 2.4 release of Linux. It should be covered
> wherever it is decided to cover mknod. I actually teach this in my
> fundamentals course since it is necessary to create device files in
> some cases just to get functionality from common hardware (eg. IDE,
> SCSI, Audio, USB, etc.)
>
> > If you're talking about the traditional /dev and the need to create
> > special nodes, at this level, MAKEDEV would not help, since it doesn't
> > know about _all_ devices, just common ones. New devices must be created
> > using mknod and a knowledge of the type (char or block, c or b) and the
> > device major and minor numbers (name is unimportant here, since the
> > kernel handles it via its major minor). I would expect level 1 to have
> > general knowledge of MAKEDEV.
>
> I agree, however, there appears to be no mention of this in level 1.
> There is mention of /dev in comments to 1.104.1 but I was not able
> to find any mention of /dev or mknod or MAKEDEV anywhere in
> 1.104 (Devices, Linux File Systems, Filesystem Hierarchy Standard)
> or 1.105 (Kernel).
Right: the issue is, that there has been no requirements neither in L1 nor
in L2, to understand how the traditional /dev/ or the new Linux 2.4 devfs
works and how to use mknod or MAKEDEV. I think it is an omission.
Now how much of all this is appropriate for a L1 sysadmin? Surely
knowledge of the device files and their use is required. Understanding
about the major|minor number system? When and how to use mknod ? (I
believe I managed to get away with MAKEDEV only thusfar). How frequently
do sysadmins actually have to use mknod in practice?
> > > * lsdev (mentioned in 2.4.2 "Adding New Hardware" and 2.13.5 "General
> > > Trouble Shooting") is not universal, maybe a Red Hat ideosyncracy?
> >
> > lsdev ?? never heard of it (and its not on any of my systems)
>
> It is part of the procinfo package. It basically summarizes information
> found in /proc/dma /proc/interrupts and /proc/ioports.
It is not in my (Debian-based) system either, and Debian does not seem
to have such a package. I got a "procps" package (with sysctl, ps, kill,
top, vmstat etc.) but no lsdev. I do have lspci (which is in the same
lists of the L2 objectives) that comes from a pciutils package.
So please post more info about lsdev.
--
Tom Peters
Director of the Board & Exam Development Specialist,
Linux Professional Institute
e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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