The new makedev package is erasing people's /dev/ directories. Apparently the maintainer script has a bug that causes /dev/ to become a file which makes dpkg erase /dev/ and replace it with a file.. Bugs all round. Since this is rather serious, I have erased makedev from potato/bianry-all - a copy of the .deb is in my home dir. I have also purged it from the primary mirrors. Daniel Jacobowitz has NMU'd it just now as well. Jason Debian Admin