*BSD News Article 80940


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From: tedm@agora.rdrop.com
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: IDE cdrom question
Date: 17 Oct 1996 05:59:09 GMT
Organization: Symantec Corp.
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Message-ID: <544hvd$aao@Symiserver2.symantec.com>
References: <53se05$pt2@flood.xnet.com> <53tlh5$9dk@umcc.umcc.umich.edu>
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In <53tlh5$9dk@umcc.umcc.umich.edu>, kli@umcc.umcc.umich.edu (Kelvin Li) writes:
>I've got a small problem with my IDE CD-ROM.  FreeBSD probes and finds my
>CD-ROM controller, but it doesn't generate a device like it does with my
>hard disk.  I've configured it as slave.  I've tried MAKEDEV and it makes
>a device in the /dev directory, but then when i try to mount it, it says
>that it's not configured.  What's going on? 

The so-called "device" that MAKEDEV creates in your filesystem is a piece
of fiction designed to make it easier for us poor humans to interface with
the place where the device actually lives - the Unix kernel.  You can run
MAKEDEV all day and create every device known but unless their compiled
into the kernel nothing is going to happen.

Depending on what your running for a kernel an IDE cdrom may work or it may
not. You didn't say what version of FreeBSD your running, the Generic kernel
for 2.1.5 (the one that the installation procedure puts in) does have ATAPI support
compiled in, as well as the device driver for an IDE cdrom, earlier FreeBSD kernels
didn't.