# /dev/inotify missing?

## sanmartin

My /dev/inotify device node seems to be missing and I don't know why.  I'm using gentoo-sources-2.6.13-r1 on an Athlon64.

udev rule is unchanged from the default:

```
martin@steeve /etc/udev $ grep inotify -R .

./rules.d/50-udev.rules:KERNEL=="inotify",      NAME="misc/%k", SYMLINK+="%k", MODE="0666"

```

inotify is definitely installed in my active kernel:

```
martin@steeve /etc/udev $ zcat /proc/config.gz |grep INOTIFY

CONFIG_INOTIFY=y

```

suspicious lack of the device node:

```
martin@steeve /etc/udev $ ls /dev/inotify

ls: /dev/inotify: No such file or directory

```

on my laptop the inotify node is a symlink in this directory, but it's not here either:

```
martin@steeve /etc/udev $ ls /dev/misc/

rtc

```

Does anyone have any idea why my inotify node isn't there?  The laptop is morph-sources, not gentoo-sources.  Does inotify work for other people who use gentoo-sources?  Help would be appreciated.

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## chunderbunny

The actual inotify node should be in /dev/misc, but udev creates a symlink from /dev/inotify. Is the original node present (ie, what's in /dev/misc)?

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## sanmartin

nope, the only thing in /dev/misc is rtc.  See the ls output above.

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## Blood Fluke

Have you tried abandoning udev and just using DevFS + devfsd ?

I've found it solves quite a few problems.

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## sanmartin

I really don't want to abandon udev.  let's just pretent that's not an option   :Smile: 

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## tweakt

 *Blood Fluke wrote:*   

> Have you tried abandoning udev and just using DevFS + devfsd ?
> 
> I've found it solves quite a few problems.

 

Quit living in the past... devfs is dead. Good luck trying that with 2.6.13  :Wink: 

```
commit 2c6e5a839f92591a4bc6cac4a575d42151645af3

Author: Greg KH <gregkh@suse.de>

Date:   Tue Jun 21 15:24:19 2005 -0700

    [PATCH] devfs: remove devfs from Kconfig preventing it from being built

    

    Here's a much smaller patch to simply disable devfs from the build.  If

    this goes well, and there are no complaints for a few weeks, I'll resend

    my big "devfs-die-die-die" series of patches that rip the whole thing

    out of the kernel tree.

    

    Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@suse.de>

    Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
```

Anyway, my inotify is missing too. Some time back, I noticed nautilus was no longer updating file stats like it used to (refreshing). I suspected a problem with famd, but I now realize this is the cause.

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## sanmartin

What kernel are you using?  Could it be a bug with gentoo-sources-2.6.13-r1?  I don't know if the problem existed on 2.6.13 initial.  Can anyone confrm that it does indeed work for them with -r1?

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## quantum_mechanics

I can confirm I am having the same problem with 2.6.13-ck4 (and indeed all previous 2.6.13 CK sources).

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## tweakt

$ uname -r

2.6.13-gentoo-r1

$ zgrep INOTIFY /proc/config.gz

CONFIG_INOTIFY=y

$ equery l -i udev

[ Searching for package 'udev' in all categories among: ]

 * installed packages

[I--] [  ] sys-fs/udev-068-r1 (0)

$ grep inotify /etc/udev/rules.d/50-udev.rules

KERNEL=="inotify",      NAME="misc/%k", SYMLINK+="%k", MODE="0666"

$ ls -l /dev/misc/

total 0

crw-rw-r--  1 root root 10, 135 Sep 16 07:26 rtc

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## dsd

inotify no longer uses a device node interface, it is now based on system calls. you need to use the latest version of gamin to get file monitoring working again.

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## sanmartin

Thanks for clarifying that.  Since that's not my problem let me see if maybe someone can help with that.

I'm using Gnome 2.12, Gamin 0.1.6 (latest), and a USB external hard drive.  When I turn the hard drive on my gnome disk mount applet gets new icons for the filesystems on the drive, but says they're unmounted.  actually they *are* mounted!  They are not listed in /etc/fstab and they are mounted in /media.  It must be gnome-vfs doing this, but why doesn't the mount applet know about it?

I originally though the problem was that inotify was broken, but since that doesn't seem to be the case...

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## dsd

try a simpler test, open a folder in nautilus

in a terminal (with nautilus visible on the same screen) cd into that directory and rename a file. does nautilus spot the rename in real-time and update accordingly?

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## sanmartin

Nautilus seems to be aware immediately of creation and deletion of files done in a terminal, so it seems that gamin must be working to some extent.  Why would my mount applet not know what it mounted and what it not?

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## d_m

Not sure if you figured this out, but there's a chance you aren't in the right group. When emerged, gnome talks about having to make sure you are in the "plugdev" group in order to use automounting. Maybe this it?

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