Re: mountkernfs, mountvirtfs, and devpts.sh

[Bill Moseley <moseley@hank.org>]

On Tue, Apr 27, 2004 at 09:40:29AM +0000, Miquel van Smoorenburg wrote:
> Sounds like you don't have tmpfs enabled in the kernel.
> 
> >tmpfs is trying to mount but it's not configured:
> >
> >laptop:/etc/init.d# fgrep TMPFS /boot/config-2.6.5-xfs-toshiba 
> ># CONFIG_TMPFS is not set
> 
> Ouch ?

I'm not using tmpfs for anything that I know of.  That's why I didn't
enable it on my last kernel build.  Do systems expect that tmpfs will
be available?  I see I've got it enabled on other machines but /dev/shm
is empty.  Why use the RAM if it's not needed.

[BTW -- can tmpfs get swapped to disk?  That would seem to defeat the
purpose, I guess.]


> >But it looks like it is:
> >
> >laptop:/etc/init.d# fgrep tmpfs /proc/filesystems
> >nodev   tmpfs
> 
> Yes. That's arguably a kernel bug, but the circumstances leading
> to it are so complicated I doubt anyone wants to touch that one again.

Ok, good.  I though I was going crazy.

> >I assume I need devpts for virtual terminal support.  Is that a correct
> >assumption?
> 
> Well, old-style pty's will still work.
> 
> Now, what was your question again ?

I guess I was trying to understand devpts by asking a question.  I'm not
entirely clear what devpts is or does and why it's needed and when it's
not.  Does it only provide the ALT+Fn virtual terminal switching or is
is needed for ssh'ing into the box?  What would happen if it didn't get
mounted?

Thanks,

-- 
Bill Moseley
moseley@hank.org