Re: DEVFSv50 and /dev/fb? (or /dev/fb/? ???)

Richard Gooch (Richard.Gooch@atnf.CSIRO.AU)
Mon, 10 Aug 1998 21:36:53 +1000

Raul Miller writes:
> Richard Gooch <Richard.Gooch@atnf.CSIRO.AU> wrote:
> > Note that if you have a configuration which uses devfs solely for
> > its role as an information service provider for devfsd, (i.e. you
> > keep using a disc-based /dev) then one of the things you loose is the
> > ability to lookup non-existent device nodes in /dev and have modules
> > automatically loaded by kmod.
>
> Two cases:
>
> (1) ls /dev would then show what devices are available. [But then,
> it's not really the case of looking up non-existent device nodes in /dev.]
>
> (2) ls /dev would not show what devices are available. [A user space
> daemon which created device entries when the hardware is detected would
> be nicer than this.]
>
> Also, how does the system administrator determine who gets to access
> non-existent device nodes? A root-only mechanism would be secure,
> but then what's the problem with running insmod?

I'm afraid I don't quite see what you're getting at here. Could you
please rephrase it somehow?

> Note: I'm not saying here that temporarily assigned major numbers are a
> bad thing, but at least this "non-existent node" part of the rationale
> seems bogus.

I don't understand where temporarily assign major numbers has crept
in. Why do you mention these?

Regards,

Richard....

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