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Philippe Blayo
Asked: 2010-12-21 08:37:14 +0800 CST

Rebuild accidentally deleted /dev

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How to rebuild /dev/ on an Ubuntu lucid where everything in /dev/ were accidentally deleted?

MAKEDEV std and MAKEDEV pty aren't enough, which isn't surprising on a system using udev.

I haven't rebooted yet because I fear I would lose access to my system.

10.04 devices udev

3 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    I believe the contents of /dev are automatically rebuilt when you reboot.

    To quote someone else:

    When you start the system, the "udev" facility examines the hardware configuration (according to established rules) and dynamically creates the entries in /dev.

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  2. When rebooting is NOT an option (you are working remotely on a machine in usa and you are on safari) this should do the trick:

    udevadm control --reload-rules
udevadm trigger
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  3. /dev is on a RAM disk so it gets destroyed and recreated on any reboot

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