I'm working on Debian SID x86 and cross building for an arm system. I have a rootfs for arm in a directory on the host system and I want to modify the /dev contents a bit. For one thing, mmcblk0 nodes have the wrong major device number (254 instead of 179).I've been trying to figure out how to change that number but can't seem to figure out how.

Is there something I can use to change the major/minor numbers or do I have to delete the node and try again? If it has to be deleted, how can I do that safely? I have visions of deleting the myarmroot/dev/hda and wiping out my x86 HD contents!

Thanks!

No, you can't modify the major/minor numbers, you need to delete it and remake it. Just use rm. rm acts on the directory entry, not the contents of the "file".

Thanks!

Early on I was messing with a chroot to run sid from etch that used bind for devices. When I was done I just did a sudo rm -R /sid-chroot and wiped out half my drives! I've since found a different tutorial that doesn't use bind but I've got a phobia about deleting things that probably won't go away for years!