-
-udev - a userspace implementation of devfs
-
-For more information on the design, and structure of this project, see the
-files in the docs/ directory.
-
-To use:
-
-- You must be running a 2.6 version of the Linux kernel.
-
-- Your 2.6 kernel must have had CONFIG_HOTPLUG enabled when it was built.
-
-- Make sure sysfs is mounted at /sys. You can mount it by running:
- mount -t sysfs none /sys
-
-- Make sure you have the latest version of the linux-hotplug scripts. They are
- available at linux-hotplug.sf.net or from your local kernel.org mirror at:
- kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/hotplug/
- They are required in order for udev to work properly.
-
- If for some reason you do not install the hotplug scripts, you must tell the
- kernel to point the hotplug binary at wherever you install udev at. This can
- be done by:
- echo "/sbin/udev" > /proc/sys/kernel/hotplug
-
-- Build the project:
- make
-
- Note:
- There are a number of different flags that you can use when building
- udev. They are as follows:
- prefix
- set this to the default root that you want udev to be
- installed into. This works just like the 'configure --prefix'
- script does. Default value is ''. Only override this if you
- really know what you are doing.
- USE_KLIBC
- if set to 'true', udev is built and linked against the
- included version of klibc. Default value is 'false'.
- USE_LOG
- if set to 'true', udev will emit messages to the syslog when
- it creates or removes device nodes. This is helpful to see
- what udev is doing. This is enabled by default. Note, if you
- are building udev against klibc it is recommended that you
- disable this option (due to klibc's syslog implementation.)
- USE_SELINUX
- if set to 'true', udev will be built with SELinux support
- enabled. This is disabled by default.
- DEBUG
- if set to 'true', debugging messages will be sent to the syslog
- as udev is run. Default value is 'false'.
- KERNEL_DIR
- If this is not set it will default to /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build
- This is used if USE_KLIBC=true to find the kernel include
- directory that klibc needs to build against. This must be set
- if you are not building udev while running a 2.6 kernel.
-
- So, if you want to build udev using klibc with debugging messages, you
- would do:
- make USE_KLIBC=true DEBUG=true
-
-- Install the project:
- make install
-
- This will put the udev binary in /sbin, create the /udev and /etc/udev
- directories, and place the udev configuration files in /etc/udev. You
- will probably want to edit the *.rules files to create custom naming
- rules. More info on how the config files are set up are contained in
- comments in the files, and is located in the documentation.
-
-- Add and remove devices from the system and marvel as nodes are created
- and removed in /udev/ based on the device types.
-
-- If you later get sick of it, uninstall it:
- make uninstall
-
-
-Things are still quite rough, but it should work properly. If nothing
-seems to happen, make sure your build worked properly by running the
-udev-test.pl script as root in the test/ subdirectory of the udev source
-tree.
-
-Development and documentation help is very much appreciated, see the TODO
-file for a list of things left to be done.
-
-
-Any comment/questions/concerns please let me and the other udev developers
-know by sending a message to the linux-hotplug-devel mailing list at:
- linux-hotplug-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
-
-greg k-h
-greg@kroah.com
+udev - userspace device management
+
+For more information see the files in the docs/ directory.
+
+Important Note:
+ Integrating udev in the system has complex dependencies and differs from distro
+ to distro. All major distros depend on udev these days and the system may not
+ work without a properly installed version. The upstream udev project does not
+ recommend to replace a distro's udev installation with the upstream version.
+
+Requirements:
+ - Version 2.6.22 of the Linux kernel for reliable operation of this release of
+ udev. The kernel must not use the CONFIG_SYSFS_DEPRECATED* option.
+
+ - The kernel must have sysfs, unix domain sockets and networking enabled.
+ Unix domain sockets (CONFIG_UNIX) as a loadable kernel module is not
+ supported.
+
+ - The proc filesystem must be mounted on /proc/, the sysfs filesystem must
+ be mounted at /sys/. No other locations are supported by udev.
+
+ - The system must have the following group names resolvable at udev startup:
+ disk, cdrom, floppy, tape, audio, video, lp, tty, dialout, kmem.
+ Especially in LDAP setups, it is required, that getgrnam() is able to resolve
+ these group names with only the rootfs mounted, and while no network is
+ available.
+
+Operation:
+ Udev creates and removes device nodes in /dev/, based on events the kernel
+ sends out on device discovery or removal.
+
+ - Very early in the boot process, the /dev/ directory should get a 'tmpfs'
+ filesystem mounted, which is populated from scratch by udev. Created nodes
+ or changed permissions will not survive a reboot, which is intentional.
+
+ - The content of /lib/udev/devices/ directory which contains the nodes,
+ symlinks and directories, which are always expected to be in /dev, should
+ be copied over to the tmpfs mounted /dev, to provide the required nodes
+ to initialize udev and continue booting.
+
+ - The old hotplug helper /sbin/hotplug should be disabled on bootup, before
+ actions like loading kernel modules are taken, which may cause a lot of
+ events.
+
+ - The udevd daemon must be started on bootup to receive netlink uevents
+ from the kernel driver core.
+
+ - All kernel events are matched against a set of specified rules in
+ /lib/udev/rules.d/ which make it possible to hook into the event
+ processing to load required kernel modules and setup devices. For all
+ devices the kernel exports a major/minor number, udev will create a
+ device node with the default kernel name, or the one specified by a
+ matching udev rule.
+
+Please direct any comment/question/concern to the linux-hotplug mailing list at:
+ linux-hotplug@vger.kernel.org
~ianmdlvl / elogind.git / blobdiff