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@@ -27,14 +27,14 @@ contains only a shell script.</para>
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chmod 754 /dev/make_devices</userinput></screen>
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<para>Device nodes are special files: things that can generate or receive data.
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-They usually correspond to physical pieces of hardware, and can be created by
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-issuing commands of the form: <command>mknod -m mode name type major
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+They usually correspond to physical pieces of hardware. Device nodes can be
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+created by issuing commands of the form: <command>mknod -m mode name type major
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minor</command>. In such a command, <emphasis>mode</emphasis> is the usual
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octal read/write/execute permissions triplet, and <emphasis>name</emphasis> is
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the name of the device file to be created. It may seem surprising, but the
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device name is actually arbitrary, except that most programs rely on devices
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such as <filename>/dev/null</filename> having their usual names. The remaining
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-three parameters tell the kernel what piece of hardware the device node
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+three parameters tell the kernel what device the node
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actually refers to. The <emphasis>type</emphasis> is a letter, either b or c,
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indicating whether the device is accessed in blocks (such as a hard disk) or
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character by character (such as the console). And <emphasis>major</emphasis>
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@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ numbers for Linux can be found in the file <filename>devices.txt</filename> in
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the <filename class="directory">Documentation</filename> subdirectory of the
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kernel sources.</para>
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-<para>Note that the same major/minor combination are usually assigned to both a
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+<para>Note that the same major/minor combination is usually assigned to both a
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block and a character device. These are, however, completely unrelated devices
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that cannot be interchanged. A device is identified by the type/major/minor
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triple, not just the major/minor pair, so when creating a device node it is
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@@ -79,11 +79,11 @@ system.</para>
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<para>If that didn't work either, the only option left is to create a few ptyXX
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and ttyXX device nodes. To do this, open <filename>make_devices</filename> in
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your editor, go to the section "Pseudo-TTY masters" and enable as many ptyXX
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-devices as you think you will need (one for every active xterm, ssh connection,
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-telnet connection, and so on). In the immediately following section "Pseudo-TTY
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-slaves", enable the corresponding ttyXX devices. When you are done, rerun
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-<command>./make_devices</command> from inside <filename>/dev</filename> to have
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-it create the new devices.</para>
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+devices as you think you will need (every xterm, ssh connection, telnet
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+connection, and the like, uses one of these pseudo terminals). In the
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+immediately following section "Pseudo-TTY slaves", enable the corresponding
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+ttyXX devices. When you are done, rerun <command>./make_devices</command> from
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+inside <filename>/dev</filename> to have it create the new devices.</para>
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</sect2>
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Alex Gronenwoud