H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> Followup to:  <3F8C1BB6.9010202@sun.com>
> By author:    Mike Waychison <Michael.Waychison@Sun.COM>
> In newsgroup: linux.dev.kernel
> 
>>Here is the quick fix for this in RH 2.1AS kernels:
>>
>>http://www.kernelnewbies.org/kernels/rh21as/SOURCES/linux-2.4.9-moreunnamed.patch
>>
>>It makes unnamed block devices use majors 12, 14, 38, 39, as well as 0. 
>>
>>I don't know if anyone is working out a better scheme for 
>>get_unnamed_dev in 2.6 yet.  It does need to be done though.  A simple 
>>patch for 2.6 would maybe see the unnamed_dev_in_use bitmap grow to 
>>PAGE_SIZE, automatically allowing for 32768 unnamed devices.
>>
> 
> 
> dev_t enlargement, which solves this without a bunch of auxilliary
> majors, should be in 2.6.
> 
> 	-hpa

The problem still remains in 2.6 that we limit the count to 256.  I've 
attached a quick patch that I've compiled and tested.  I don't know if 
there is a better way to handle dynamic assignment of minors (haven't 
kept up to date in that realm), but if there is, then we should probably 
  use it instead.

Mike Waychison