[PATCH] add HOWTO detailing how to use udev to manage /dev

1 files changed, 73 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/HOWTO-udev_for_dev b/HOWTO-udev_for_dev
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..75a858f22a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/HOWTO-udev_for_dev
@@ -0,0 +1,73 @@
+HOWTO use udev to manage /dev
+
+  This document describes one way to get udev working on a Fedora-development
+  machine to manage /dev.  This procedure may be used to get udev to manage
+  /dev on other distros, if you modify some of the steps.
+  
+  This will only work if you use a 2.6 based kernel, preferably the most
+  recent one.  This does not prevent your machine from using a 2.4
+  kernel, if you boot into one, udev will not run and your old /dev will
+  be present with no changes needed.
+
+
+NOTE NOTE NOTE NOTE NOTE NOTE NOTE
+  This is completely unsupported.  Attempting to do this may cause your
+  machine to be unable to boot properly.  USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.  Always
+  have a rescue disk or CD handy to allow you to fix up any errors that
+  may occur.
+NOTE NOTE NOTE NOTE NOTE NOTE NOTE
+
+
+ - Build and install udev as specified in the README that comes with
+   udev.  I recommend using the following build options to get the
+   smallest possible binaries:
+	make USE_KLIBC=true USE_LOG=false DEBUG=false
+
+ - disable udev from the boot process by running:
+ 	chkconfig udev off
+   or
+   	chkconfig --del udev
+   as root.
+
+ - place the start_udev script somewhere that is accessible by your
+   initscripts.  I placed it into /etc/rc.d with the following command:
+	copy extras/start_udev /etc/rc.d/
+	
+ - modify the rc.sysinit script to call the start_udev script as one of
+   the first things that it does, but after /proc and /sys are mounted.
+   I did this with the latest Fedora startup scripts with the patch at
+   the end of this file.
+
+ - reboot into a 2.6 kernel and watch udev create all of the initial
+   device nodes in /dev
+
+
+If anyone has any problems with this, please let me, and the
+linux-hotplug-devel@lists.sourceforge.net mailing list know.
+
+A big thanks go out to the Gentoo developers for showing me that this is
+possible to do.
+
+Greg Kroah-Hartman
+<greg@kroah.com>
+
+
+----------------------------------
+Patch to modify rc.sysinit to call udev at the beginning of the boot
+process:
+
+
+--- /etc/rc.sysinit.orig	2004-02-17 11:45:17.000000000 -0800
++++ /etc/rc.sysinit	2004-02-17 13:28:33.000000000 -0800
+@@ -32,6 +32,9 @@
+ 
+ . /etc/init.d/functions
+ 
++# start udev to populate /dev
++/etc/rc.d/start_udev
++
+ if [ "$HOSTTYPE" != "s390" -a "$HOSTTYPE" != "s390x" ]; then
+   last=0
+   for i in `LC_ALL=C grep '^[0-9].*respawn:/sbin/mingetty' /etc/inittab | sed 's/^.* tty\([0-9][0-9]*\).*/\1/g'`; do
+
+