[NTLUG:Discuss] Kernel 2.6.13.x considerations...

[Leroy Tennison]

Spicerun wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I just thought I would arrogantly post something you guys may or may 
> not be aware of:
>
> As was mentioned in another thread,
>
> The Kernel Developers have removed /devfs from the linux-2.6.13.x 
> series kernels, so I would expect it to be gone from any future kernel 
> starting with the 2.6.13 series.
>
> What this means is:
>
> 1)  You will need to install udev (or something like it) for the 
> device filesystem.  If you merely compile the 2.6.13.x kernel, and try 
> to boot with it without having udev installed, you will probably find 
> that in 99% of the cases, you will not boot up at all.
>
> 2)  Doing some research on udev (without going into configuring udev's 
> rules), I find that udev makes device links only for the devices that 
> it detects on boot.  Most of the X windows startup failures I have 
> heard about are due to the /dev/mouse or /dev/psaux links no longer 
> being made by udev, and X suddently cannot find your pointer device.  
> The solution that I know most people have done, including me, is to 
> change the /dev/mouse device in the xorg.conf, or XFConfig-4 files to 
> /dev/input/mice (mice seems to be preferred as that actually seems to 
> change to always point to the active mouse in your system, rather than 
> using /dev/input/mouse).  Now, I know a you can make a link to the 
> real device yourself in the directory, but you run the chance that 
> udev may not make that link at any given bootup, especially if udev 
> doesn't detect the device.
>
> Hope you find this helpful.
>
>
>
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>
I hate to throw cold water on the udev discussion but /dev/input/mice 
caused me problems as best as I can tell.  The default SuSE 9.2 install 
used that.  Problem was I has to set psmouse.proto={bare | imps} as a 
kernel parameter to keep the mouse behavior from being crazy (greatly 
exaggerated responses to mouse movements if they were predictable at 
all).  When I did and rebooted X presented a message "New Hardware 
Found".  Reluctantly I let it configure the "new hardware" (I had a sane 
mouse at that moment) and it did without negative effect.  Then I went 
and looked at XF86Config.  It had been rewritten using the non-udev 
style device name.  I probably need to do some more research but this is 
a cautionary note.