I have inotify support enabled in my config, but it doesn't appear in dmesg nor is a device node created. Someone else had the same problem here: http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-288526-postdays-0-postorder-asc-highlight-inotify-start-300.html rbrown@solinari ~ $ uname -r 2.6.13-gentoo-r2 rbrown@solinari ~ $ grep -i inotify /boot/.config-2.6.13-gentoo-r2 CONFIG_INOTIFY=y rbrown@solinari ~ $ ls /dev/ino* ls: /dev/ino*: No such file or directory rbrown@solinari ~ $ dmesg | grep -i inotify rbrown@solinari ~ $ Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. 2. 3. Portage 2.0.51.22-r2 (default-linux/x86/2005.0, gcc-3.3.6, glibc-2.3.5-r1, 2.6.12-gentoo-r6 i686) ================================================================= System uname: 2.6.12-gentoo-r6 i686 AMD Athlon(tm) Processor Gentoo Base System version 1.6.13 dev-lang/python: 2.3.5-r2 sys-apps/sandbox: 1.2.12 sys-devel/autoconf: 2.13, 2.59-r6 sys-devel/automake: 1.4_p6, 1.5, 1.6.3, 1.7.9-r1, 1.8.5-r3, 1.9.6 sys-devel/binutils: 2.15.92.0.2-r10 sys-devel/libtool: 1.5.18-r1 virtual/os-headers: 2.6.11-r2 ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86" AUTOCLEAN="yes" CBUILD="i686-pc-linux-gnu" CFLAGS="-O2 -fomit-frame-pointer -march=athlon-tbird" CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3/share/config /usr/share/config /var/qmail/control" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf /etc/terminfo /etc/env.d" CXXFLAGS="-O2 -fomit-frame-pointer -march=athlon-tbird" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" FEATURES="autoconfig distlocks sandbox sfperms strict" GENTOO_MIRRORS="ftp://mirrors.blueyonder.co.uk/mirrors/gentoo" MAKEOPTS="-j2" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage_mail" SYNC="rsync://rsync.uk.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage" USE="x86 alsa apm arts avi bitmap-fonts crypt cups eds emboss encode foomaticdb fortran gdbm gif gpm gstreamer gtk2 imlib ipv6 jpeg ldap libg++ libwww mad mikmod motif mp3 mpeg mssql mysql ncurses nls nptl nptlonly odbc ogg oggvorbis opengl oss pam pdflib perl png python quicktime readline samba sdl spell ssl tcpd tiff truetype-fonts type1-fonts vorbis xml2 xmms xv zlib userland_GNU kernel_linux elibc_glibc" Unset: ASFLAGS, CTARGET, LANG, LC_ALL, LDFLAGS, LINGUAS
Take a look at http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-2732450.html#2732450.
As dsd states in the forum post, a device node is no longer used for interaction with the inotify subsystem. Also, inotify does not announce its presence in the kernel ring buffer (dmesg) now that it has been merged. Any version of gamin >=0.1.2 should work fine and 0.1.5 is the earliest version current available in portage. If you are a gnome user and having problems with nautilus integration then be sure to upgrade gamin and re-emerge gnome-vfs if necessary.