Using debootstrap

[Richard Owlett]

My goal is a very minimalist install to a flash drive. It will NOT have
GRUB - GRUB on this machine is on a dedicated partition for convenience
in some of my experiments.

From reading several references I believe my command should be:

debootstrap --arch=i386 --include=apt-get --variant=minbase
--no-check-gpg --print-debs --keep-debootstrap-dir stable
/media/richard/rco /media/cdrom0/????

I have two questions:
1. What should replace "????" as I'll be using DVD1 of Debian 9.1.0
as my "repository"?
2. As I expect the console display may exceed the scroll back limits,
I wish to pipe the console display for later reference without
impeding answering any prompts I get. I've seen a description for
doing that, but I can't remember it. Pointers?

[Henning Follmann]

How about
man debootstrap
?

I'll copy the synopsys for you(r lazy ...) here
debootstrap [OPTION...] SUITE TARGET [MIRROR [SCRIPT]]

after stable you provide the target (your usb stick)


-H

--
Henning Follmann | hfol...@itcfollmann.com

[Richard Owlett]

Two problems with with your answer <grin>
1. the man page was one of my half-dozen references.
2. you answered neither of my questions.

[Henning Follmann]

What did you not understand in the man page?
can I continue copying stuff from the man page to you:

debootstrap bootstraps a basic Debian system of SUITE into TARGET from
MIRROR by running SCRIPT. MIRROR can be an http:// or https:// URL,
a
file:/// URL, or an ssh:/// URL.

if you don't provide a Mirror it will consult your sources list.

Happy to read the man page to you buddy.

[Abdullah Ramazanoglu]

On Wed, 25 Apr 2018 09:19:13 -0500 Richard Owlett said:

> I have two questions:
> 1. What should replace "????" as I'll be using DVD1 of Debian 9.1.0
> as my "repository"?
> 2. As I expect the console display may exceed the scroll back limits,
> I wish to pipe the console display for later reference without
> impeding answering any prompts I get. I've seen a description for
> doing that, but I can't remember it. Pointers?

No idea about (1), but for (2) you can use this:

~# command 2>&1 | tee command.log

With "tee" you create/squash the output file anew. With "tee -a" you append to
it.

Regards
--
Abdullah Ramazanoglu

[Greg Wooledge]

Or run the commands inside a screen(1) session. That's what the release
notes advise for distribution upgrades.

[Abdullah Ramazanoglu]

On Wed, 25 Apr 2018 12:03:40 -0400 Greg Wooledge said:

> ... I meant a script(1) session. Sorry. But I bet screen also has
> some logging capabilities, if you want to do it that way.

I was still reading apt-cache definition for screen and scratching my head when
your second message arrived. :)

But yes, screen has also some configurable logging capabilities.

~$ apt-cache show screen

Description-en: terminal multiplexer with VT100/ANSI terminal emulation
GNU Screen is a terminal multiplexer that runs several separate "screens" on
a single physical character-based terminal. Each virtual terminal emulates a
DEC VT100 plus several ANSI X3.64 and ISO 2022 functions. Screen sessions
can be detached and resumed later on a different terminal.
.
Screen also supports a whole slew of other features, including configurable
input and output translation, serial port support, configurable logging,
and multi-user support.

Regards
--
Abdullah Ramazanoglu

[Greg Wooledge]

[Felix Dietrich]

> From reading several references I believe my command should be:
>
> debootstrap --arch=i386 --include=apt-get --variant=minbase \
> --no-check-gpg --print-debs --keep-debootstrap-dir stable \
> /media/richard/rco /media/cdrom0/????

> What should replace "????" as I'll be using DVD1 of Debian 9.1.0 as my
> "repository"?

Have a look at the Debian GNU/Linux Installation Guide under Appendix D
[1]. The guide suggests that you can use a cdrom mounted on /cdrom by
providing a file URL for the MIRROR parameter: file:///cdrom/debian/ .
The same might work for an installation DVD.

> 2. As I expect the console display may exceed the scroll back limits,
> I wish to pipe the console display for later reference without
> impeding answering any prompts I get. I've seen a description for
> doing that, but I can't remember it. Pointers?

The _tee_ program writes output passed to it over STDIN both to its
STDOUT (the terminal) and a file provided as an argument:

debootstrap … | tee /tmp/debootstrap.output

Though by piping the output to _tee_ graphical prompts will no longer
work. You could also just increase your scrollback buffer size or use a
screen multiplexer, like _tmux_, if your terminal emulator does not
allow setting an high enough value.

[1] https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/apds03.html.en#idm46014282700896

--
Felix Dietrich

[Felix Dietrich]

Henning Follmann <hfol...@itcfollmann.com> writes:

> On Wed, Apr 25, 2018 at 09:19:13AM -0500, Richard Owlett wrote:
>> From reading several references I believe my command should be:
>>
>> debootstrap --arch=i386 --include=apt-get --variant=minbase --no-check-gpg
>> --print-debs --keep-debootstrap-dir stable /media/richard/rco
>> /media/cdrom0/????
>>
>> I have two questions:
>> 1. What should replace "????" as I'll be using DVD1 of Debian 9.1.0
>> as my "repository"?

>

> How about man debootstrap?

>
> I'll copy the synopsys for you(r lazy ...) here
> debootstrap [OPTION...] SUITE TARGET [MIRROR [SCRIPT]]
>
> after stable you provide the target (your usb stick)

Am I misunderstanding you here? Your answer seems unnecessarily curt
and actually misses his question (the question marks he used to indicate
his point of confusion are at the MIRROR parameter). Even if he had
been confused about the usage of the TARGET parameter he deserved a more
polite and helpful answer because, as you have just experienced,
sometimes one misunderstands, what has been written. Maybe I am just to
sensitive, though.

--
Felix Dietrich

[Richard Owlett]

That's what I had seen. Thank you.

How does one search for some concept for which you have no keywords?

TIA

[Richard Owlett]

I've just browsed the first few paragraphs of the man page.
It looks fascinating. Will have to experiment.
Thank you.

[Richard Owlett]

On 04/25/2018 11:03 AM, Greg Wooledge wrote:
> ... I meant a script(1) session. Sorry. But I bet screen also has
> some logging capabilities, if you want to do it that way.
>

As the man page says:
> It is useful for students who need a hardcopy record of an interactive
> session as proof of an assignment, ...

Just the tool, though screen(1) may be useful for other projects.
Thanks.

[rhkr...@gmail.com]

On Wednesday, April 25, 2018 03:17:40 PM Richard Owlett wrote:
> How does one search for some concept for which you have no keywords?

Well:

* think about it, even some phrases if not keywords

* describe what you are looking for here--maybe someone can help you with
some keywords (but, start a new thread, as what you're looking for is
presumably not related to Using debootstrap

[Curt]

On 2018-04-25, Richard Owlett <row...@cloud85.net> wrote:

> My goal is a very minimalist install to a flash drive. It will NOT have
> GRUB - GRUB on this machine is on a dedicated partition for convenience
> in some of my experiments.
>
> From reading several references I believe my command should be:
>
> debootstrap --arch=i386 --include=apt-get --variant=minbase
> --no-check-gpg --print-debs --keep-debootstrap-dir stable
> /media/richard/rco /media/cdrom0/????

> I have two questions:
> 1. What should replace "????" as I'll be using DVD1 of Debian 9.1.0
> as my "repository"?

https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/amd64/apds03.html.en


"if you have a stretch Debian GNU/Linux CD mounted at /cdrom, you could
substitute a file URL instead of the http URL: file:/cdrom/debian/"

so if this info isn't obsolete, in your case, I dunno:

file:/media/cdrom0/debian/ ?

> 2. As I expect the console display may exceed the scroll back limits,
> I wish to pipe the console display for later reference without
> impeding answering any prompts I get. I've seen a description for
> doing that, but I can't remember it. Pointers?
>
>

--
"Three prisoners were locked in a cell. When the largest of them finished his
food, he immediately ate the others. Too bad. An apostrophe in the right place
might have prevented a horrible crime." Joe Gunn

[deloptes]

Henning Follmann wrote:

> Happy to read the man page to you buddy.
>
>
> -H

while I can understand your feeling quite well, I had to teach myself either
to ignore affecting questions or to answer for the sake of the answer.

sometimes it is really frustrating how one can not understand obvious
things, however not all are same age, have same background or level of
intelligence.

its better you give example in such case

debootstrap [OPTION...] stable /mypath/to/target/installation file:///DVD1

this is how I understand it, correct if I'm wrong

regards

[Henning Follmann]

I am no expert on the install ISO images but if I understand correctly
there is a "debian" directory on it. So I guess:
debootstrap [OPTION...] stable /mypath/to/target/installation
file:///DVD1/debian

however just hope that the current DVD is also "stable"

[Felix Dietrich]

deloptes <delo...@gmail.com> writes:

> its better you give example in such case
>
> debootstrap [OPTION...] stable /mypath/to/target/installation file:///DVD1
>
> this is how I understand it, correct if I'm wrong

Almost: as has been stated elsewhere in this thread, at least according
to Appendix D of the Debian Installation Guide [1] you may provide a
„file://” URL to the debian/ directory below the mount point of the disc
for the MIRROR parameter, e.g.: file:///cdrom/debian/

Admittedly, I have not to tested either this or your variant.

[David Wright]

I haven't used a full CD/DVD for years, only netinst, so I'm reduced
to guessing like everyone else here. My guess is a simple file:///media/cdrom0/

If the usual link is there, then file:///media/cdrom/ would be as good.

Justifications:

netinst has top level directories like .disk/, dists/ and pool/, and a
README.html file which corresponds to what's outlined at the start of
https://www.debian.org/CD/faq/

The build log for the 14 disk set at
https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/log/20180310/
contains lines like these three:
libisofs: WARNING : Cannot add /debian to Joliet tree. Symlinks can only be added to a Rock Ridge tree.
libisofs: WARNING : Cannot add /dists/stable to Joliet tree. Symlinks can only be added to a Rock Ridge tree.
libisofs: WARNING : File "/pool/main/g/golang-github-shurcool-sanitized-anchor-name/golang-github-shurcool-sanitized-anchor-name-dev_0.0~git20160918.0.1dba4b3-1_all.deb" can't be added to Joliet tree, because its path length is larger than 240
which imply that pool is top-level, and that debian is a symlink
which would almost certainly point to ./ and likewise dists/stable
would point to dists/stretch (but netinst doesn't bother with these
symlinks).

Cheers,
David.

[Richard Owlett]

Apparently file:////media/cdrom0/debian/ work.
I say "apparently" because:
1. I get no "file not found" messages.
2. I have some undiagnosed problems using debootstrap.

[Richard Owlett]

The purchased DVD is Debian 9.1.0. My OS used is stable installed via
netinst.

[Richard Owlett]

Taking those questions in reverse order ;}

SCRIPT(1) was the command I had been trying to recall. I does things in
a comfortable way.

I was reading man page for SCREEN(1) when SCRIPT(1) was suggested. Part
of the recommendation for SCREEN(1) was it being mentioned in the
release notes for *upgrades*. In fact the release notes describe using
it for _remote_ upgrades, not local new installs via debootstrap.

Doing:
> debootstrap --verbose --arch=i386 --include=apt-get --variant=minbase

> --no-check-gpg --print-debs --keep-debootstrap-dir stable /media/richard/rco

> file:////media/cdrom0/debian/
generates no error messages.
HOWEVER, very few files are actually written to the flash drive
at /media/richard/rco and a subsequent run of
"debootstrap --second-stage"
yields a file not found message.

I have some ideas about my problems and will have time this weekend.
Thank you.

[Richard Owlett]

On 04/27/2018 06:38 AM, Richard Owlett wrote:
>
> Doing:
>> debootstrap --verbose --arch=i386 --include=apt-get --variant=minbase
>> --no-check-gpg --print-debs --keep-debootstrap-dir stable
>> /media/richard/rco
>> file:////media/cdrom0/debian/
> generates no error messages.
> HOWEVER, very few files are actually written to the flash drive
> at /media/richard/rco and a subsequent run of
>    "debootstrap  --second-stage"
> yields a file not found message.
>
> I have some ideas about my problems and will have time this weekend.
>

I just ran a couple of quick tests of what should be a more typical case
with no different results.

QUESTION:
Has anyone personally used debootstrap to install to a flash drive?

My environment is:
OS is i386 Debian stable
DVD is DVD-1 of Debian 9.1.0
Flash drive has a:
4 GB ext2 partition
4 GB swap partition

TIA

[songbird]

Richard Owlett wrote:
...

> QUESTION:
> Has anyone personally used debootstrap to install to a flash drive?

not yet... :)

i'm currently having other bigger fish to fry...

> My environment is:
> OS is i386 Debian stable
> DVD is DVD-1 of Debian 9.1.0
> Flash drive has a:
> 4 GB ext2 partition
> 4 GB swap partition

get rid of swap partition and change ext2 to ext4 and use all
space on drive for that.

don't ask me what i think of uefi...

when using flash drive on main system you can use the
main system drive swap (modify /etc/fstab on flash drive to use
main system drive swap).


songbird

[Richard Owlett]

On 04/27/2018 08:00 AM, songbird wrote:
> Richard Owlett wrote:
> ...
>> QUESTION:
>> Has anyone personally used debootstrap to install to a flash drive?
>
> not yet... :)
>
> i'm currently having other bigger fish to fry...
>
>
>> My environment is:
>> OS is i386 Debian stable
>> DVD is DVD-1 of Debian 9.1.0
>> Flash drive has a:
>> 4 GB ext2 partition
>> 4 GB swap partition
>
> get rid of swap partition and change ext2 to ext4 and use all
> space on drive for that.

Done. No change :{

>
> don't ask me what i think of uefi...

<chuckle>

>
> when using flash drive on main system you can use the
> main system drive swap (modify /etc/fstab on flash drive to use
> main system drive swap).

I know. When my first attempt failed I added the swap partition "just in
case" debootstrap expected to see it on the destination device.

>
>
> songbird
>
>

[deloptes]

Richard Owlett wrote:

> QUESTION:
> Has anyone personally used debootstrap to install to a flash drive?

I do install in a directory and then copy the content to the flash drive
then chroot and make it bootable

alternatively you ma install into directory where flash drive is mounted and
then chroot and make it bootable

forget not that you need to mount the system related /proc/ etc.

this is what I am using

mount --make-unbindable -obind /proc/ $SYSTEM/proc/ && \
mount --make-unbindable -obind /dev/ $SYSTEM/dev/ && \
mount --make-unbindable -obind /dev/pts $SYSTEM/dev/pts && \
mount --make-unbindable -obind /run $SYSTEM/run && \
mount --make-unbindable -obind /sys $SYSTEM/sys/ && \
chroot $SYSTEM su -


For the umount

umount $SYSTEM/proc/ && \
umount $SYSTEM/dev/pts && \
umount $SYSTEM/dev/ && \
umount $SYSTEM/run/ && \
umount $SYSTEM/sys/


regards

[Richard Owlett]

On 04/27/2018 08:49 AM, deloptes wrote:
> Richard Owlett wrote:
>
>> QUESTION:
>> Has anyone personally used debootstrap to install to a flash drive?
>
> I do install in a directory and then copy the content to the flash drive
> then chroot and make it bootable

I was installing to the flash drive because I have less than 1GB
available on my hard drive.

>
> alternatively you ma install into directory where flash drive is mounted

I thought I was doing that. My TARGET is "/media/richard/rco" where
"rco" is the label of a partition on the flash drive.

> and
> then chroot and make it bootable

I'm not that far yet.
My immediate goal is for debootstrap to write what would "resemble" a
system to the flash drive.

The error message when attempting "debootstrap --second-stage" is
"cat: /usr/share/debootstrap/suite: No such file or directory".

[rhkr...@gmail.com]

On Friday, April 27, 2018 10:16:22 AM Richard Owlett wrote:
> I thought I was doing that. My TARGET is "/media/richard/rco" where
> "rco" is the label of a partition on the flash drive.

Just chiming in from left field: have you mounted that partition?

[deloptes]

Richard Owlett wrote:

> The error message when attempting "debootstrap --second-stage" is
> "cat: /usr/share/debootstrap/suite: No such file or directory".

I don't recall to be using second stage. I just make debootstrap with
perhaps architecture and I think it takes the minimal as default.



Systems$ ls
ARM BUSTER GEOD Geode_Old JESSIE RaspBerryPI SID STRETCH

Systems$ ls */usr/share/debootstrap/
BUSTER/usr/share/debootstrap/:
functions scripts

SID/usr/share/debootstrap/:
functions scripts

AFAIR all is installed via debootstrap. There is a small chance that before
Buster it was installed somehow different, but could be that it is
something new with this second stage

regards

[Felix Dietrich]

Richard Owlett <row...@cloud85.net> writes:

> On 04/25/2018 09:19 AM, Richard Owlett wrote:
>> My goal is a very minimalist install to a flash drive. It will NOT
>> have GRUB - GRUB on this machine is on a dedicated partition for
>> convenience in some of my experiments.
>

> Doing:

> debootstrap --verbose --arch=i386 --include=apt-get \
> --variant=minbase --no-check-gpg --print-debs \
> --keep-debootstrap-dir stable /media/richard/rco \
> file:////media/cdrom0/debian/
>
> generates no error messages. HOWEVER, very few files are actually
> written to the flash drive at /media/richard/rco and a subsequent run
> of "debootstrap --second-stage" yields a file not found message.

You are providing „--print-debs” as an argument to „debootstrap” which
will cause „debootstrap” to print the packages it would install and
exit. Here is the manual entry for „--print-debs”:

Print the packages to be installed, and exit. Note that a TARGET
directory must be specified so debootstrap can download Packages
files to determine which packages should be installed, and to
resolve dependencies. The TARGET directory will be deleted unless
--keep-debootstrap-dir is specified.

Do not specify „--print-debs” if you want „debootstrap” to install the
packages.

Also: if you run debootstrap from the same target architecture (or a very
similar one like creating an i386 environment from an amd64 host, I
suspect) you do not need to run the second stage manually.

--
Felix Dietrich

[Richard Owlett]

On 04/27/2018 12:06 PM, Felix Dietrich wrote:
>[SNIP]

>
> Do not specify „--print-debs” if you want „debootstrap” to install the
> packages.

*BINGO!!!!*
Proofreading one's own work is intrinsically error prone ;/

But it doesn't solve all my problems. Captured the session with
SCRIPT(1). I haven't yet decoded the permission bits displayed by
the "ls -Rdl ..." lines. I don't see the two error messages being
consistent with what I *think* I see when using Caja.
Yepp, I have some homework to do. ;}


> Script started on Fri 27 Apr 2018 02:22:42 PM CDT
>
> ls -Rdl /media/root/rco1
>
>
> ls -Rdl /usr/sbin/debootstrap
>
>
> ls -Rdl /media/root/rco1
>
>
> debootstrap --verbose --arch=i386 --include=apt-get --variant=minbase --no-check-gpg stable /media/root/rco1 file:////media/cdrom0/debian/
>
>
> exit
> root@debian-jan13:~#
> root@debian-jan13:~# ls -Rdl /media/root/rco1
> drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Apr 27 14:08 /media/root/rco1
> root@debian-jan13:~#
> root@debian-jan13:~#
> root@debian-jan13:~# ls -Rdl /usr/sbin/debootstrap
> -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 18981 Mar 10 2017 /usr/sbin/debootstrap
> root@debian-jan13:~#
> root@debian-jan13:~#
> root@debian-jan13:~# ls -Rdl /media/root/rco1
> drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Apr 27 14:08 /media/root/rco1
> root@debian-jan13:~#
> root@debian-jan13:~#
> root@debian-jan13:~# debootstrap --verbose --arch=i386 --include=apt-get --variant=minbase --no-check-gpg stable
> /media/root/rco1 file:////media/cdrom0/debian/
> /usr/sbin/debootstrap: 1454: /usr/sbin/debootstrap: cannot create /media/root/rco1/test-dev-null: Permission denied
> E: Cannot install into target '/media/root/rco1' mounted with noexec or nodev
> root@debian-jan13:~#
> root@debian-jan13:~#
> root@debian-jan13:~# exit
> exit
>
> Script done on Fri 27 Apr 2018 02:22:42 PM CDT

[Richard Owlett]

Yes. I've pulled boners like that. But not this time ;/
Thanks

[Kushal Kumaran]

The error says the filesystem containing /media/root/rco1 is mounted
with noexec or nodev. Is that in fact the case? Look at the
/proc/mounts entry for that mountpoint.

The operation debootstrap is attempting appears to be the equivalent of

mknod /media/root/rco1/test-dev-null c 1 3

You can try it out to verify after you fix the mount options to not
include nodev.

--
regards,
kushal

[Richard Owlett]

I don't know.

> Look at the /proc/mounts entry for that mountpoint.

I used Caja (MATE's file manager) to look at /proc/mounts without
finding anything resembling the needed information. I'm missing some
understanding.

>
> The operation debootstrap is attempting appears to be the equivalent of
>
> mknod /media/root/rco1/test-dev-null c 1 3
>
> You can try it out to verify after you fix the mount options to not
> include nodev.
>

I started with the man page for "mknod" and followed links 2 or 3 levels
discovering how little I know ;/ It's 1 AM my time to quit for "day".
Much reading to do.

Thanks.

[Richard Owlett]

On 04/29/2018 12:59 AM, Richard Owlett wrote:
> On 04/28/2018 10:57 PM, Kushal Kumaran wrote:
>> Richard Owlett <row...@cloud85.net> writes:
>>
>>> On 04/27/2018 12:06 PM, Felix Dietrich wrote:
>>>> [SNIP]
>>>>

mount -l
gives
/dev/sdc1 on /media/richard/rco1 type ext4
(rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,data=ordered,uhelper=udisks2) [rco1]

>>
>> The operation debootstrap is attempting appears to be the equivalent of
>>
>>    mknod /media/root/rco1/test-dev-null c 1 3
>>
>> You can try it out to verify after you fix the mount options to not
>> include nodev.
>>
>
> I started with the man page for "mknod" and followed links 2 or 3 levels
> discovering how little I know ;/  It's 1 AM my time to quit for "day".
> Much reading to do.
>

The man page for mount hints its possible to remove nodev but there is a
dearth of useful examples. Also have not found a good description of
"nodev".

[Andy Smith]

Hi Richard,

On Sun, Apr 29, 2018 at 06:43:42AM -0500, Richard Owlett wrote:
> On 04/29/2018 12:59 AM, Richard Owlett wrote:
> >On 04/28/2018 10:57 PM, Kushal Kumaran wrote:
> >>You can try it out to verify after you fix the mount options to not
> >>include nodev.

[…]

> The man page for mount hints its possible to remove nodev but there is a
> dearth of useful examples.

# mount -o remount,dev /dev/sdc1

"man mount" says:

If you want to override mount options from /etc/fstab you have to
use the -o option:

mount device|dir -o options

as regards "remount" option it later says:

remount
Attempt to remount an already-mounted filesystem.
This is commonly used to change the mount flags
for a filesystem, especially to make a readonly
filesystem writable. It does not change device or
mount point.

> Also have not found a good description of "nodev".

Same man page:

dev Interpret character or block special devices on the
filesystem.

nodev Do not interpret character or block special
devices on the file system.

While a filesystem is mounted "nodev", it can't have device special
files created on it.

Cheers,
Andy

--
https://bitfolk.com/ -- No-nonsense VPS hosting

[Richard Owlett]

On 04/29/2018 07:11 AM, Andy Smith wrote:
> Hi Richard,
>
> On Sun, Apr 29, 2018 at 06:43:42AM -0500, Richard Owlett wrote:
>> On 04/29/2018 12:59 AM, Richard Owlett wrote:
>>> On 04/28/2018 10:57 PM, Kushal Kumaran wrote:
>>>> You can try it out to verify after you fix the mount options to not
>>>> include nodev.
>
> […]
>
>> The man page for mount hints its possible to remove nodev but there is a
>> dearth of useful examples.
>
> # mount -o remount,dev /dev/sdc1
>
> "man mount" says:
>
> If you want to override mount options from /etc/fstab you have to
> use the -o option:
>
> mount device|dir -o options

That got me further :}
But still nothing got written to target :{

I have a secondary machine on which I've made space for a Debian install
and a target partition. >50 years of trouble shooting has taught me to
eliminate as many unknowns as possible. The primary reason I was using
the flash drive was I could not make enough space on this hard drive.

>
> as regards "remount" option it later says:
>
> remount
> Attempt to remount an already-mounted filesystem.
> This is commonly used to change the mount flags
> for a filesystem, especially to make a readonly
> filesystem writable. It does not change device or
> mount point.
>
>> Also have not found a good description of "nodev".
>
> Same man page:
>
> dev Interpret character or block special devices on the
> filesystem.
>
> nodev Do not interpret character or block special
> devices on the file system.
>
> While a filesystem is mounted "nodev", it can't have device special
> files created on it.

I had read, but not understood, those passages.
As I've said on occasion, "If retirement isn't for learning, what use is
it?" ;/

Thanks


>
> Cheers,
> Andy
>