From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: "C. Linus Hicks" Date: Thu, 10 Feb 2005 06:25:18 +0000 Subject: Assumptions in start_udev regarding the loop device Message-Id: <1108016718.4753.86.camel@lh4.linush.net> List-Id: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit To: linux-hotplug@vger.kernel.org Okay, so as I was investigating the problem I am having and whether or not it might be fixed in the latest version of udev, I am faced with the fact that the issue I see is actually because of alterations Red Hat has made. The thing is, I would guess they made the specific change I have a problem with because of a perceived shortcoming of udev. This is on a RHEL4 beta-2 system, which is using udev-039-6. The Red Hat version alters start_udev in the make_extra_nodes function adding a call to MAKEDEV to create loop0 - loop7 (among others). The problem I have with this is that it takes no account for how many loop devices are actually enabled in the system. If I add 'options loop max_loop%6' to my modprobe.conf, when the system re-boots, I still get only eight loop devices in /dev. They have hard-coded the number of loop device files to make!? I searched the archives, but I couldn't find any references to this issue, so perhaps the udev developers don't perceive a problem? Is the act of creating loop device files considered to be out of the scope of the project? Red Hat's solution just happens to connect it there. So because of my lack of clarity here, I have cross-posted this message. At this point, I'm guessing a solution to the problem is not in the works. I have altered my start_udev to 'MAKEDEV loop' so that it will use /etc/makedev.d/linux-2.6.x to figure out how many to make. That seems like a better, though imperfect solution. You only have to make sure that your max_loop option value matches what's in makedev.d to get the right number of loop device files. A better solution would be to be able to query how many loop devices are supported, but I haven't found a way to do this. And actually, shouldn't this be handled at module load time, rather than system boot time? (Isn't there a way to create device files when a module is loaded?) Surely others are having this issue? Suggestion to Red Hat: Don't hard-code eight loop devices. Change it to use the value from makedev.d. -- C. Linus Hicks ------------------------------------------------------- SF email is sponsored by - The IT Product Guide Read honest & candid reviews on hundreds of IT Products from real users. Discover which products truly live up to the hype. Start reading now. http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_ide95&alloc_id396&op=click _______________________________________________ Linux-hotplug-devel mailing list http://linux-hotplug.sourceforge.net Linux-hotplug-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/linux-hotplug-devel