Re: plug in and out USB card reader several times, ran out of /dev/sd*

From: Dances With Crows (danSPANceswitTRAPhcrows_at_gmail.com)
Date: 07/23/05 

Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2005 18:36:10 -0500

On Sat, 23 Jul 2005 06:07:40 +0800, Dan Jacobson staggered into the
Black Sun and said:
> I notice when I plug a USB four in one flash card reader in and out
> several times, successively higher /dev files are assigned. sda sdb
> sdc sdd...

Hm. Which version of which distro are you using? (Always include that
information!) This sounds like a bug that should've been fixed a long
time ago, so post the output of "uname -a".

> before long (sdh), I have exceeded the /dev/sd* files on the machine.
> [Does this mean] I must reboot if I want to mount the device?

Nope. /usr/src/linux/Documentation/devices.txt lists the major and
minor numbers for SCSI disks up to /dev/sdiv (256th SCSI disk). Use
mknod with the right numbers and you can create more device nodes for
more SCSI disks if you need them. Like "mknod /dev/sdq b 65 0" creates
/dev/sdq , 17th SCSI disk whole disk. Or use the MAKEDEV script which
may be in /dev if you're using a distro that hasn't moved to udev yet.

The best long-term bet is to figure out why this is happening and fix
it. A kernel upgrade may be the best way to do that. 

-- 
Matt G|There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see
Brainbench MVP for Linux Admin /    mail: TRAP + SPAN don't belong
http://www.brainbench.com     /
-----------------------------/        This space sort of for rent.