lfs-book/chapter06/makedev-inst.xml

<sect2>
<title>Creating devices</title>

<para>
Note: the MAKEDEV.bz2 file you have unpacked is not an archive, so it 
won't create a directory for you to cd into.
</para>

<para>
Create the device files by running the following commands:
</para>

<blockquote><literallayout>
	<userinput>chmod 755 MAKEDEV &amp;&amp;</userinput>
	<userinput>cp MAKEDEV /dev &amp;&amp;</userinput>
	<userinput>cd /dev &amp;&amp;</userinput>
	<userinput>./MAKEDEV -v generic</userinput>
</literallayout></blockquote>

<para>
MAKEDEV will create hda[1-20] and hdb[1-20] and such but keep in mind
that you may not be able to use all of those devices due to kernel 
limitations regarding the max. number of partitions.
</para>

</sect2>