XFree Local Multi-User HOWTO
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# 3.3. Creating needed device files

If you are not using the devfs file system, you might need to create several device files needed for the new input sub-system in the Backstreet Ruby kernel:

| Note
| Most current distributions should already provide the necessary device files, so try booting Backstreet Ruby without creating the device files and in case you don't miss input devices omit this section. Any distribution that came with XFree-4.3.0 and linux-2.4.20 should provide these device files.

    cd /dev
    mkdir input.old
    mv mouse js? input.old
    mkdir input
    cd input
    mknod js0 c 13 0
    mknod js1 c 13 1
    mknod js2 c 13 2
    mknod js3 c 13 3
    mknod mouse0 c 13 32
    mknod mouse1 c 13 33
    mknod mouse2 c 13 34
    mknod mouse3 c 13 35
    mknod mice c 13 63
    mknod event0 c 13 64
    mknod event1 c 13 65
    mknod event2 c 13 66
    mknod event3 c 13 67
    cd ..
    ln -s input/js0 js0
    ln -s input/js1 js1
    ln -s input/mice mouse

If you use devfs, all required devices will be created automatically by devfs.

Mandrake is an example of one distribution that uses devfs. Debian does not use devfs by default, but the kernel supports devfs; in order to activate devfs you have to add "devfs=mount" to the "append" line of your boot loader and install devfsd (the devfs demon). Distributions that do not use devfs are Red Hat and SuSE.

You can check whether devfs is used by issuing the following commands:

- To check whether support for devfs is enabled in your kernel

  cat /proc/filesystems | grep devfs

- To check whether devfs is used/mounted

  mount | grep devfs

If you get an empty string this means that devfs is not used; if you get something like the following output, devfs is activated:

    [root@mc contrib]# cat /proc/filesystems | grep devfs
    nodev   devfs
    nodev   usbdevfs
    [root@mc contrib]# mount | grep devfs
    none on /proc/bus/usb type usbdevfs (rw)
    none on /dev type devfs (rw)
    [root@mc contrib]#

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