/dev/console

[Nagilum <nagilum@stargate.kersur.net>]

I'm wondering how to get /dev/console to work properly in Debian.

I'm running Debian 2.1 slink, and a 2.2.12 kernel.  I've seen that the
Debian distribution sets /dev/console up as a symlink to /dev/tty0, while
slackware and Redhat create an actual device with Major # 5 and Minor # 1.

Is there a practical reason for this disparity?  I'm just trying to figure
out why this was done in Debian... also, I can't seem to get console
messages to log to the console on my Debian box, whereas the same setup
works fine in slackware.

Example: I have:
auth,authpriv.*                 /dev/console

in my syslog.conf.  These messages should then be logged to the console
(among other places).  The slackware 7 box handles it fine, but I don't
get any console output at all on the Debian machine. 

I've even tried creating the device (MAKEDEV console) and using it for the
syslog messages, but still -- I get nothing on the console.

Can anyone help me with getting the console device to work properly?  I
really can't see what else to try, it's a fairly basic problem, it just
seems to me like it should "work."  ;)