[Techtalk] devfs issues (I think)

[Malcolm-Rannirl]

I'm having a very odd problem with my development system (heavily cut down 
linux distribution, 2.4.17 kernel). The system installs fine, but the first 
boot after install fails (see boot log excerpt below) resulting in X not 
working (because of non-existant /dev/mouse). However the second boot (and 
all boots thereafter) works fine (no config files are touched, just hit 
ctrl-alt-delete when it gets to the login prompt). On the surface it looks 
like a file system permissions problem, but the system is not changed between 
boots.

This has me rather confused.

Has anyone seen anything like this before, or have any clue what I might be 
doing wrong.



first boot:
...
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem) read only
Freeing unused kernel memory
INIT: version 2.78 booting
Bringing up the loopback interface
Setting up hostname
Initialising DevFS... can't create lock file /etc/mtab~15: Read-only file 
system (use -n flag to override) [FAILED]
Initialising DefFSd...Error opening file: ".devfsd" No such file or directory 
[FAILED]
ln: cannot create symbolic link '/dev/mouse' to '/dev/psaux': Read only file 
system
Activating swap...Adding Swap: xxxk swap-space (priority -1) [OK]


second boot:

VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem) read only
Freeing unused kernel memory
INIT: version 2.78 booting
Bringing up the loopback interface
Setting up hostname
Initialising DevFS... [OK]
Initialising DefFSd...Started device management daemon for /dev [OK]

modprobe: Can't locate module /dev/mouse
modprobe: Can't locate module /dev/mouse
modprobe: Can't locate module /dev/mouse
Activating swap...Adding Swap: xxxk swap-space (priority -1) [OK]


relevant section of init script:

# Begin /etc/init.d/checkfs
# load devfsd to get old dev mappings
echo -n "Initialising DevFS..."
mount -t devfs devfs /dev
evaluate_retval

echo -n "Initialising DevFSd..."
/sbin/devfsd /dev -n
evaluate_retval
ln -s /dev/psaux /dev/mouse

echo -n "Activating swap..."
/sbin/swapon -a
evaluate_retval


-- 
"Just fear me, love me, do as I say, and I will be your slave."
- Jareth 

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