What actually is devfs/what does it do

[cage47]

I've done searches on this and haven't seen a good answer. I've seen references to it, but what the hell does it actually do? I installed Mandrake 8.2 and devfs is installed, it wasn't in 8.0. Do I need it?

I thought it was causing a little performance degrade when I went from hdb to hda on my install but it turns out hda is getting old and doesn't perform as well as hdb (hda=maxtor 4gig). Can it/should it be disabled?

[marvin]

Originally posted by cage47:
<STRONG>I've done searches on this and haven't seen a good answer. I've seen references to it, but what the hell does it actually do? I installed Mandrake 8.2 and devfs is installed, it wasn't in 8.0. Do I need it?</STRONG>

<STRONG>I thought it was causing a little performance degrade when I went from hdb to hda on my install but it turns out hda is getting old and doesn't perform as well as hdb (hda=maxtor 4gig). Can it/should it be disabled?</STRONG>
The kernel docs have this FAQ (http://www.atnf.csiro.au/people/rgooch/linux/docs/devfs.html) included. Maybe that one answers your questions.

It is optional to use it but I guess you have to decide when you compile the kernel. The link above probably have the correct answer...

[cage47]

Thanks, that was what I needed. At least I know WHAT it does. Now as to WHY Mandrake includes it as default if it's not NEEDED.

[Molecule Man]

DevFS is the future. It is suppose to make hotswapping devices easier.

[cage47]

No. in Mandrake 8.0 it is NOT turned on by default. That's why I was wondering what it was/did. I've had 8.0 installed for 9 months and just upgraded to 8.2. One word of warning. DON'T MESS WITH IT! I didn't know what it was so in lilo I disabled it. Then I read up on what it and decided it would be best to leave it installed, so I reset it in LILO, then HOLY SH*T, did it hit the fan. Inode errors all over the place. Fatal errors that even 2 runs of fsck couldn't fix. I'm going to do reinstall 3 today. (I messed some other things up exploring anyhow).