Bug#273087: kernel-source-2.6.8: CONFIG_DEVFS_MOUNT=y makes disk partitions inaccessible

[David Liontooth <liontooth@cogweb.net>]

Andres Salomon wrote:

> On Thu, 23 Sep 2004 12:55:04 -0700, David Liontooth wrote:
>
>  
>
> > Package: kernel-source-2.6.8
> > Version: 2.6.8-6
> > Severity: normal
> >
> > When I use CONFIG_DEVFS_MOUNT=y on a dual xeon, the main /dev/hda drive still boots
> > fine to /dev/hda1, but swap on /dev/hda2 won't mount on boot or with "swapon -a", fdisk
> > sees nothing, and cfdisk says "FATAL ERROR: Cannot open disk drive". Booting with
> > "devfs=nomount" solves the problem.
> >    
>
> I'm failing to see the bug, here.  Your system didn't mount swap because
> you told the kernel to mount devfs on /dev; devfs uses a different naming
> scheme for devices.  So, you must modify /etc/fstab to use the devfs
> names, or you can install the devfsd package for backwards compatibility.
>
> CONFIG_DEVFS_FS's help screen says, "This is work in progress. If you want to use this,
> you *must* read the material in <file:Documentation/filesystems/devfs/>,
> especially the file README there."
>
> The README says things like, "IF YOU CONFIGURE TO MOUNT DEVFS AT BOOT, MAKE SURE YOU
> INSTALL DEVFSD BEFORE YOU BOOT A DEVFS-ENABLED KERNEL!"  I don't know how
> to make it more clear than that.
>
>
>
>  
>
> > This is pretty alarming and it took me a while to pinpoint the problem,
> > so I hope at least a warning can be inserted in the help screen.
> >
> >    
>
> There's far too much devfs documentation to fit into the help screen,
> that's why it says to read the README.
>
>
>  
Fair enough. Please close the bug report. However, I suggest adding the 
warning you quote from the README into the 

CONFIG_DEVFS_MOUNT help screen -- lightly edited, "If you say yes to this option, make sure you modify /etc/fstab accordingly or install devfsd."

Imagine all the Linux users with even less clue than me -- there's just so much to learn! The main constraint on Linux adoption by the great masses is simply knowledge, 
so making it slightly simpler to avoid major mistakes will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
David