When udev starts, it creates a tmpfs or ramfs over the /dev. That means the orginial contents of /dev are inaccessible (other than bind --move /dev elsewhere, but that would be unsafe on a running system!). It is useful to have the old /dev accessible for various reasons: for example, one could do something like this (perhaps on shutdown in /etc/conf.d/local.stop): rsync -a --delete /dev /lib/udev So that if the system is broken and the user does something like "init=/bin/bb" to reapir it, all the device nodes are still there. Other uses exist, like to keep it pruned of everything but "null" and "console" or ehance/modify/replace RC_DEVICE_TARBALL. One possible bug with the patch is "bind --mount" only exsists as of 2.4.0; however the udev homepage says it requires at least 2.6.0 anyway. The udev ebuild itself does not seem to directly depend on kernel >= 2.6.0, although it may do so indirectly.
Created attachment 85154 [details, diff] Patch ls /lib/rcscripts/addons/udev-start.sh to bind-mount old /dev Note: /lib/rcscripts/addons/udev-stop.sh is not patched to unbind-mount it; as /lib/rcscripts/addons/udev-stop.sh does not seems to unmount the temporary storage
I really don't see why everyone should have irrelevant old /dev tree bind-mounted somewhere. If you need it, then do it yourself.
No, we do not need to show the old static /dev anywhere in the tree. So closing this, sorry.
