makedev(8)
NAME
MAKEDEV - create devices
SYNOPSIS
cd /dev; ./MAKEDEV [ -n ] [ -v ] [ update ] cd /dev; ./MAKEDEV [ -n ] [ -v ] [ generic ] [ local ] [ group-keyword ... device ... ] cd /dev; ./MAKEDEV [ -n ] [ -v ] [ -d ] device ...
DESCRIPTION
MAKEDEV is a script that will create the devices in /dev used to interface with drivers in the kernel.
Note that programs giving the error ``ENOENT: No such file or directory'' normally means that the device file is missing, whereas
``ENODEV: No such device'' normally means the kernel does not have the
driver configured or loaded.
OPTIONS
- -n Do not actually update the devices, just print the actions that
- would be performed.
- -d Delete the devices. The main use for this flag is by MAKEDEV
- itself.
- -v Be verbose. Print out the actions as they are performed. This
- is the same output as produced by -n.
CUSTOMISATION
Since there is currently no standardisation in what names are used for
system users and groups, it is possible that you may need to modify
MAKEDEV to reflect your site's settings. Near the top of the file is a
mapping from device type to user, group and permissions (e.g. all CDROM devices are set from the $cdrom variable). If you wish to change
the defaults, this is the section to edit.
GENERAL OPTIONS
- update This only works on kernels which have /proc/interrupts (intro
- duced during 1.1.x). This file is scanned to see what devices are currently configured into the kernel, and this is compared with the previous settings stored in the file called DEVICES. Devices which are new since then or have a different major number are created, and those which are no longer configured are deleted.
- generic
- Create a generic subset of devices. This subset consists of the standard devices, plus floppy drives, various hard drives, CDROM drives, pseudo-terminals, console devices, basic serial devices, busmice, audio devices, video framebuffers, printer ports, and some specialized devices. The generic subset varies somewhat according to architecture; see the /dev/MAKEDEV script itself for details.
- local This simply runs MAKEDEV.local. This is a script that can cre
- ate any local devices.
DEVICE GROUPS
MAKEDEV creates groups of devices when passed keywords for the group. Each listing below shows the MAKEDEV keyword and then lists the devices which will be created. Many devices can also be specified individually.
STANDARD DEVICES
- std Creates this group of standard devices: mem for access to physi
- cal memory, kmem for access to kernel virtual memory, null the null device (infinite sink), port for access to I/O ports, zero the null byte source (infinite source), core, a symlink to /proc/kcore (for kernel debugging), full which always returns ENOSPACE on write, random and urandom random byte generators, and tty to access the controlling tty of a process. The loopback disk devices loop0 through loop7 are also created in the std group. These allow you to use a regular file as a block device. A filesystem image can be mounted, and used as though it were a filesystem on a partition or other block device. loop may also be used as a separate keyword to create the 8 loop devices. Finally, the ram group of memory devices is also created by the std keyword (see below).
MEMORY DEVICES
- ram This is the keyword used to generate the ramdisk devices
- ram{0..16} and the ram symlink. This group does not include initrd.
- initrd Ramdisk which has been pre-initialized by a bootloader. initrd
- is not created in the ram group; it must be specifically included in the command line if you want it to be created.
- cpu or microcode
- Creates the CPU microcode update interface in the cpu/ folder, with devices microcode, and subfolders {0..3} each containing devices msr and cpuid.
- rom Creates the rom{0..7} rrom{0..7} flaxh{0..7} and rflash{0..7}
- flash memory card devices. rrom and rflash devices are readonly.
CONSOLE DEVICES
- console
- This keyword creates virtual consoles; tty{0..63} devices, the corresponding vcs and vcsa devices which are used to generate screen-dumps, and the console device itself plus appropriate symlinks. To create the console device alone, use consoleonly. The device tty0 is the currently active virtual console. The console device serves the same function.
PSEUDO TERMINALS
- pty This keyword creates the Pseudo-TTY masters pty{a..e,p..z} and
- corresponding tty{a..e,p..z} devices, along with ptmx. Each possible argument will create a bank of 16 master and slave pairs. The master pseudo-terminals are pty{p..s}{0..9a..f}, and the slaves are tty{p..s}{0..9a..f}.
SERIAL DEVICES
- ttyS{0..63}
- Standard serial ports. There is no group keyword, you must specify these individually. However ttyS{0..3} are created under the generic option for most architectures.
- cyclades or ttyC
- Creates Cyclades ports ttyC{0..31}.
- digi or ttyD
- Creates Digiboard serial card ports ttyD{0..15}.
- stallion or ttyE
- Creates Stallion devices ttyE{0..255} and staliomem{0..3}.
- computone or ttyF
- Creates CompuTone serial card ports ttyH{0..255} and special devices ip2ipl{0,4,8,12} and ip2stat{1,5,9,13}.
- chase or ttyH
- Creates Chase serial card ports ttyH{0..15}.
- isdnmodem or ttyI
- Creates isdn4linux virtual modem ports ttyI{0..63}.
- isdn-tty
- Also creates isdn4linux virtual modem ports ttyI{0..7}.
- isdnbri
- Creates ISDN BRI driver devices isdn{0..63} isdnctrl{0..63} ippp{0..63} and isdninfo.
- isdn-io
- Also creates ISDN BRI driver devices isdn{0..7} isdnctrl{0..7} ippp{0..7} and isdninfo. The isdn-ippp keyword can be used separately to create only the ippp{0..7} devices.
- ppp Creates a device independent PPP interface.
- dcbri Creates Spellcaster DataComm/BRI ISDN card devices dcbri{0..3}.
- riscom or ttyL
- Creates Riscom serial card ports ttyL{0..15}.
- PAM or ttyM
- Creates PAM multimodem (or ISI serial card) ports ttyM{0..15}.
- ESP or ttyP
- Creates ESP ports ttyP{0..4}.
- rocketport or ttyR
- Creates Rocketport devices ttyR{0..63}.
- ttyV Creates Comtrol VS-1000 serial controller ports ttyV{0..15}.
- specialixIO8 or ttyW
- Creates Specialix IO8+ ports ttyW{0..15}.
- specialix or ttyX
- Creates Specialix ports ttyX{0..15}.
- i2c Creates i2c{0..7} devices for the I2C bus interface.
- tlk Philips SAA5249 Teletext signal decoder {2.6} ports tlk{0..3}.
PARALLEL PORTS
- lp Creates the standard parallel ports lp0, lp1, and lp2 normally
- used for printers. These correspond to ports at 0x3bc, 0x378 and 0x278. Hence, on some machines, the first printer port may actually be lp1.
- par Alternative to lp. The same ports are created, but are named
- par{0..2} instead of lp{0..2}.
- parport
- Creates raw parallel ports parport0, parport1, and parport2.
- slm Creates the Atari SLM ACSI laser printer (68k/Atari) ports
- slm{0..3}.
- pg Parallel port generic ATAPI interface (devices pg{0..3}.
- paride Parallel port IDE disk devices pd{a..d} with 15 partitions on
- each. Also creates pcd{0..3} and pf{0..3}.
OTHER BUS PORTS
- netlink or tap
- Creates NetLink devices route skip fwmonitor and tap{0..15} Ethertap devices. The tapx virtual ethernet device was designed as low level kernel support for Ethernet tunneling. Userland application can write Ethernet frame to /dev/tapX and the kernel will receive this frame from tapX interface. Every frame the kernel writes to a tapX interface can be read by a userland application from the corresponding /dev/tapX device.
- enskip ENskip kernel encryption package.
- qng ComScire Quantum Noise Generator.
- ipsec The Free S/WAN implementation of IPSEC.
- adb On powerpc, creates adb for the Apple Data Bus and adbmouse. On
- m68k, adb creates the ACSI disk device adb and partitions adb1 through adb15.
- hamradio
- Creates the scc{0..7} and bc{0..3} device groups.
- comx Creates COMX devices comx{0..4}.
- irda Creates IrCOMM devices (IrDA serial/parallel emulation) ircomm0
- ircomm1 irlpt0 and irlpt1.
- comedi Control and Measurement devices comedi{0..3}.
MOUSE DEVICES
- busmice
- This keyword creates the following devices: logibm (Logitech bus mouse), psaux (PS/2-style mouse), inportbm (Microsoft Inport bus mouse) and atibm (ATI XL bus mouse) and jbm (J-mouse).
- m68k-mice
- Creates mouse devices for the m68k architecture, including: amigamouse, amigamouse1, atarimouse and adbmouse.
- input On powerpc, this keyword creates the input folder which groups
- input devices mice, mouse{0..3}, event{0..3}, and js{0..3} (joystick), and creates these devices inside.
JOYSTICK DEVICES
js Joystick. Creates js0 and js1.
djs Digital joystick. Creates djs0 and djs1.
USB DEVICES
- usb USB is a general purpose I/O bus which can serve many purposes.
- The usb keyword creates a usb folder, and devices in the folder: lp{0..15} (printer), mouse{0..15} (USB connected mice), ez{0..15} (firmware loaders) scanner{0..15} (scanner interfaces), ttyACM{0..15} and ttyUSB{0..15} (dialout devices), and rio500 the Diamond Rio 500 device.
DISK DEVICES
- fd{0..7}
- Floppy disk devices. The device fdx is the device which autodetects the format, and the additional devices are fixed format (whose size is indicated in the name). The other devices are named as fdx{dqhu}n. The single letter (d, q, hor u) signifies the type of drive: 5.25" Double Density (d), 5.25" Quad Density (q), 5.25" High Density (h) or 3.5" (any model, u). The number n represents the capacity of that format in K. Thus the standard formats are fdxd360, fdxh1200, fdx720, fdx1440, and fdx2880.
- For more information see Alain Knaff's fdutils package.
- Devices fd0* through fd3* are floppy disks on the first controller, and devices fd4* through fd7* are floppy disks on the second controller.
- fd{0..7}-bare
- Creates just the autodetecting floppy device specified, without the fixed format devices.
- hd{a..l}
- AT (ide) hard disks. The device hdx provides access to the whole disk, with the partitions being hdx{1..63}. For i386, the four primary partitions are hdx1 through hdx4, with the logical partitions being numbered from hdx5 though hdx20. (A primary partition can be made into an extended partition, which can hold 4 logical partitions). Other architectures may not differentiate partition types. By default, devices for 20 logical partitions are made. The kernel supports up to 63 partitions per device.
- Drives hda and hdb are the two on the primary controller hdc and hdd are the two drives on the secondary controller. These devices can also be used to access IDE CDROMs. Additional devices hd{e..l} can be created.
- xd{a..d}
- XT hard disks. Partitions are the same as IDE disks, except only 8 partitions are created.
- sd{a..h}
- SCSI hard disks. The partitions are similar to the IDE disks, but there is a limit of 11 logical partitions sdx5 through sdx15, to allow there to be 8 SCSI disks on a system (addresses 0 through 7).
- sd{i..z}
- and sd{a..d}{a..z} The kernel (and MAKEDEV) can handle up to 128 SCSI disks (up to sddx). 15 partition devices are created for each.
- eda edb
- MCA ESDI hard disk. Partitions are handled the same as hd.
- dasd{a..z}
- Direct Access Storage Devices for the s390 architecture. Currently only one device partition is created (for example, dasda1).
- ada{a..p}
- ACSI disk (68k/Atari). 15 partitions are created for each.
- dac960.{0..7}
- Mylex DAC960 PCI RAID controller. For this device, an rd directory is created. 32 logical devices cxd{0..31} are created for each unit x specified, each with 7 partitions cxd{0..31}p{1..7}. The dac960 keyword will create all 7 units at once.
- dpti Adaptec I2O RAID and DPT SmartRAID V I2O controllers. Creates 7
- devices for handling up to 7 controllers.
- ataraid.{0..7}
- Obsolete, device not in current devices.txt. For this device, an ataraid directory is created. dx is created for each unit x specified, and 15 partitions dxp{1..15}. The ataraid keyword will create all 7 units at once.
- i2o.hd{a..d}{a..z}
- I2O based harddisk drives. Device nodes are located in the i2o directory. The filename is followed by a number that specifies the partition on each disk. The numbers are handled the same as hd.
- ida.{0..7}
- Compaq Intelligent Drive Array. For this device, an ida directory is created. 16 logical devices cxd{0..15} are created for each unit x specified, each with 15 partitions cxd{0..15}p{1..15}. The ida keyword will create the first three units.
- cciss.{0..7}
- Compaq Next Generation Drive Array. For this device, a cciss directory is created. 16 logical devices cxd{0..15} are created for each unit x specified, each with 15 partitions cxd{0..15}p{1..15}. The cciss keyword will create the first three units.
- md Creates Metadisk (RAID) disk array with 16 devices.
TAPE DEVICES
- st{0..7}
- SCSI tape devices. This creates the rewinding tape device stx and the non-rewinding tape device nstx, for each of modes 0 through 3.
- qic QIC-11, -24, -120, and -150 tapes. The devices created are
- ntpqic11 tpqic11 ntpqic24 tpqic24 ntpqic120 tpqic120 ntpqic150 and tpqic150 tape devices, along with rmt8, rmt16, tape-d, and tape-reset.
- ftape
- Floppy driver tapes (QIC-117). There are 4 methods of access depending on the floppy tape drive. For each of access methods 0, 1, 2 and 3, the devices qftx zqftx and rawqftx (rewinding) and nqftx nzqftx nrawqdtx (non-rewinding) are created. For compatibility, devices ftape and nftape are symlinks to qft0 and nqft0 respectively.
- ht0 Creates IDE tape devices ht0 and nht0.
- pt{0..3}
- Creates parallel port ATAPI tape devices pt{0..3} and npt{0..3}.
CDROM DEVICES
- sr or scd or scd-all
- Creates scd{0..16} SCSI CD players and sr{0..16} symlinks for these devices. cdrom is a symlink which can be created by the user to the active CD device. It is not created by MAKEDEV.
- pktcdvd
- Provides packet writing devices pktcdvd{0..3} for CD/DVD.
- pcd{0..3}
- Parallel port ATAPI CD-ROM devices
- sonycd Sony CDU-31a CD-ROM
- mcd Mitsumi CD-ROM
- mcdx Obsolete, device not in current devices.txt.
- cdu535 Sony CDU-535 CD-ROM
- lmscd Philips LMS CM-205 CD-ROM. The newer name for this device is
- cm205, but MAKEDEV creates only lmscd at this time.
- cm206cd
- Philips LMS CM-206 CD-ROM
- bpcd MicroSolutions BackPack parallel port CD-ROM (Obsolete - use
- pcd)
- sbpcd{0..15}
- Matsushita (Panasonic/SoundBlaster) CD-ROM. Units {0..3} are created with the keyword sbpcd.
- aztcd Aztech/Orchid/Okano/Wearnes CD-ROM
- gscd GoldStar CD-ROM
- optcd Optics Storage CD-ROM
- sjcd Sanyo CD-ROM
- hitcd Hitachi CD-ROM
SCANNERS
- logiscan
- Logitech ScanMan32 & ScanMan 256.
- m105scan
- Mustek M105 Handscanner.
- ac4096 A4Tek Color Handscanner.
AUDIO DEVICES
- audio This creates the audio devices used by the sound driver. These
- include mixer mixer{1..3} (Mixer controls), sequencer (Audio sequencer), dsp dsp{1..3} (Digital audio), sndstat (Sound card status information), audioctl (SPARC audio control device) and audio audio{1..3} (Sun-compatible digital audio). MIDI devices are midi00 through midi03, midi{0..3}, rmidi{0..3}, smpte{0..3}. In addition, devices mpu401data and mpu401stat are created.
- pcaudio
- Devices for the PC Speaker sound driver. These are pcmixer, pxsp, and pcaudio.
VIDEO DEVICES
- fb Creates framebuffer devices fb{0..7}, fb{0..7}current,
- fb{0..7}autodetect.
- fb{0..7}
- If the framebuffer number x is specifed, a group of fbxuser{0..7} devices is created.
- 3dfx is the 3Dfx Voodoo Graphics device.
- agpgart
- AGP Graphics Address Remapping Table
- video video4linux v4l radio
- Each of these keywords produces the same result: Video capture/overlay devices video{0..63}, Radio devices radio{0..63}, Teletext devices vtx{0..31}, and Vertical blank interrupt devices vbi{0..31}. In addition, the winradio0 and winradio1 devices, and vtx and vttuner devices, and symlinks radio video and vbi are created.
- srnd miroMEDIA Surround board devices srnd0 and srnd1.
- fgrab Matrox Meteor frame grabber {2.6}. Creates mmetfgrab, wvisfgrab,
- iscc0, iscc1, isccctl0, isccctl1, dcxx0, and dcxx1.
MISCELLANEOUS DEVICES
- sg or sg-all
- Generic SCSI devices. The devices created are sg0 through sg16. These allow arbitary commands to be sent to any SCSI device, to query information or control SCSI devices that are not disk, tape or CDROM (for example, scanner or writeable CDROM).
- fd To allow an arbitary program to be fed input from file descrip
- tor x, use /dev/fd/x as the file name. This also creates /dev/stdin, /dev/stdout, and /dev/stderr. (Note, these are just symlinks into /proc/self/fd).
- ibcs2 Devices socksys spx (and symlinks nfsd XOR) needed by the IBCS2
- emulation.
- apm apm_bios Advanced Power Management BIOS device.
- dcf Driver for DCF-77 radio clock.
- helloworld
- Kernel modules demonstration device. See the modules source.
- xfs or arla
- Arla XFS network file system.
- capi CAPI 2.0 interface ports capi20{01..20}.
- ubd User-mode block devices ubd{0..255}.
- nb{0..7}
- Network block devices.
- raw Creates the raw block device interface raw device, the rawctl
- symlink, and raw{1..8}.
- raw1394
- IEEE 1394 (Firewire).
- misc This keyword creates all the following devices. You may find the
- device explanations in other categories in this man page, many under OTHER DEVICES below. logibm, psaux, inportbm, atibm, jbm, amigamouse, atarimouse, sunmouse, amigamouse1, smouse, pc110pad, adbmouse, beep, modreq, watchdog, temperature, hwtrap, exttrp, apm_bios, rtc, openprom, relay8, relay16, msr, pciconf, nvram, hfmodem, led, mergemem, pmu.
- Network Devices
- Linux used to have devices in /dev for controlling network devices, but that is no longer the case. To see what network devices are known by the kernel, look at /proc/net/dev.
OTHER DEVICES
Many of these devices are architecture-specific.
scc Z8530 HDLC driver (HAM radio)
bc Baycom radio modem (HAM radio)
- cfs0 or cfs or coda
- Coda network file system
- sunmouse
- Sun mouse
- smouse Simple serial mouse driver
- pc110pad
- IBM PC-110 digitizer pad
- vrtpanel
- Vr41xx embedded touch panel
- vpcmouse
- Connectix Virtual PC Mouse
- beep Fancy beep device
- modreq Kernel module load request {2.6}
- watchdog
- Watchdog timer port
- temperature
- Machine internal temperature
- hwtrap Hardware fault trap
- exttrp External device trap
- rtc Real Time Clock
- efirtc Real Time Clock
- openprom
- SPARC OpenBoot PROM
- relay8 Berkshire Products Octal relay card
- relay16
- Berkshire Products ISO-16 relay card
- msr x86 model-specific registers {2.6}
- pciconf
- PCI configuration space
- nvram Non-volatile configuration RAM
- hfmodem
- Soundcard shortwave modem control {2.6}
- graphics
- Linux/SGI graphics device
- opengl Linux/SGI OpenGL pipe
- gfx Linux/SGI graphics effects device
- lcd Front panel LCD display
- led Front panel LEDs
- mergemem
- Memory merge device
- pmu Macintosh PowerBook power manager
- isictl MultiTech ISICom serial control
- ac Applicom Intl Profibus card
- nwbutton
- Netwinder external button
- nwdebug
- Netwinder debug interface
- nwflash
- Netwinder flash memory
- userdma
- User-space DMA access
- smbus System Management Bus
- lik Logitech Internet Keyboard
- ipmo Intel Intelligent Platform Management
- vmmon VMWare virtual machine monitor
- tcldrv Technology Concepts serial control
- specialix_sxctl
- Specialix serial control
- specialix_rioctl
- Specialix RIO serial control
- smapi or thinkpad
- IBM Thinkpad smapi device, and a symlink thinkpad.
- srripc QNX4 API IPC manager
- usemaclone
- Semaphore clone device
- ipmi or ipmikcs
- Intelligent Platform Management
- uctrl SPARCbook 3 microcontroller
- gtrsc Gorgy Timing radio clock
- cbm Serial CBM bus
- jsflash
- JavaStation OS flash SIMM
- xsvc High-speed shared-mem/semaphore service
- vrbuttons
- Vr41xx button input device
- toshiba
- Toshiba laptop SMM support
- perfctr
- Performance-monitoring counters
- intel_rng
- Intel i8x0 random number generator
- atomicps
- Atomic shapshot of process state data
- irnet IrNET device
- smbusbios
- SMBus BIOS
- ussp_ctl
- User space serial port control
- crash Mission Critical Linux crash dump facility
- nas_xbus
- NAS xbus LCD/buttons access
- d7s SPARC 7-segment display
- zkshim Zero-Knowledge network shim control
- sexec Signed executable interface
- kchuid Inter-process chuid control
- mptctl Message passing technology (MPT) control
- button/gulpb
- Transmeta GULP-B buttons
- compaq/cpqphpc
- Compaq PCI Hot Plug Controller
- compaq/cpqrid
- Compaq Remote InsightDriver
- elographics/e2201
- Elographics touchscreen E271-2201
- fujitsu/apanel
- Fujitsu/Siemens application panel
- i2o/ctl
- I2O configuration manager
- impi/bt
- IMPI coprocessor block transfer
- impi/smic
- IMPI coprocessor stream interface
- input/mouse
- Linux/SGI Irix emulation mouse
- input/keyboard
- Linux/SGI Irix emulation keyboard
- modems/mwave
- MWave modem firmware upload
- mvista/hssdsi
- Montavista PICMG hot swap system driver
- mvista/hasi
- Montavista PICMG high availability
- net/tun
- TAP/TUN network device
- ni/natmotn
- National Instruments Motion
- scanners/cuecat
- :CueCat barcode scanner
- touchscreen/ucb1x00
- UCB 1x00 touchscreen
- touchscreen/mk712
- MK712 touchscreen
- video/em8300
- EM8300 DVD decoder control
- video/em8300_mv
- EM8300 DVD decoder video
- video/em8300_ma
- EM8300 DVD decoder audio
- video/em8300_sp
- EM8300 DVD decoder subpicture
- watchdogs/{0..3}
- Watchdog devices 0 through 3
SEE ALSO
Linux Allocated Devices, maintained by H. Peter Anvin,
<Peter.Anvin@linux.org>, and devices.txt in the Linux kernel source.
AUTHOR
- Nick Holloway, rewritten and updated by Chris Tillman