Maybe a hint?

Posted Jan 16, 2026 17:53 UTC (Fri) by rgmoore (✭ supporter ✭, #75)
In reply to: Maybe a hint? by mjg59
Parent article: Debian discusses removing GTK 2 for forky

I think the big thing that came with 2.4 was devfs, which made hot plug practical. In 2.2, /dev was static and had to be populated with every conceivable device when it was created, which wasn't really compatible with hotplug. With devfs, /dev became dynamic and could add new devices as they were connected. I certainly remember following 2.4 development very carefully because USB support was insufficient for ordinary desktop use. Fore example, I had to use my fancy new optical mouse through a USB-to-PS2 converter because USB support wasn't good enough.

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Maybe a hint?

Posted Jan 19, 2026 10:27 UTC (Mon) by taladar (subscriber, #68407) [Link] (1 responses)

Devfs didn't last very long though before it was replaced by udev.

Maybe a hint?

Posted Jan 19, 2026 19:15 UTC (Mon) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523) [Link]

And eventually got replaced back by the new devfs :)

I actually used devfs way into 2010 on my own device (a RouterBoard) by porting the devfs. It was easier with a minimal userspace than udev.