Hi everybody and thanks in advance!

I have installed Fedora 7 in my laptop, and during the installation I get the following message:
error opening /dev/sdaa: No such device or address,

and it gives me the option to cancel or retry. The only option that works is cancel, and after selecting this one, the same error will come up but this time with sdab, and then sdac... sdba, sdbb and so on...

After finishing the installation, when booting up, the following message comes up:
error opening /dev/sdaX: No such device or address,

and this will be shown for every sda that was created when clicking cancel in the installation (it takes more than 20 minutes to boot up).

When I check the content of the /dev folder, all those files are there, sda, sdaa, sdab... even sg0 to sg100, tty1 to tty63...

So, does anybody know why this is happening or what could I do to fix it.

Thanks!

My pathetic guess is that your kernel no longer has scsi driver support and makedev wasn't run?

Sounds like a driver issue to me, too. Devices in the /dev directory are created during bootup, and when new physical or virtual hardware is connected. I don't think it can actually be corrupted in the sense of a file system.

I see you've also posted here: http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/red...-too-long.html

In response to your intention to use VMWare Server with Fedora 8 (on the other forum), I have tried installing 8 in VMWare, and run into problems. Don't remember exactly what, but I believe it froze during udev load.

Thanks for the ideas guys.
I have tried installing Fedora8 but still the same problem.
I was thinking about manually erasing all the files in /dev that are giving me problems in the bootup sequence, and just leaving the essential ones (by the way which are these ones?)
This is how /dev looks like:

agpgart loop5 sdaa sdbu sdi sg22 sg65 tty1 tty52
bsg loop6 sdab sdbv sdj sg23 sg66 tty10 tty53
cdrom loop7 sdac sdbw sdk sg24 sg67 tty11 tty54
console lp0 sdad sdbx sdl sg25 sg68 tty12 tty55
core lp1 sdae sdby sdm sg26 sg69 tty13 tty56
disk lp2 sdaf sdbz sdn sg27 sg7 tty14 tty57
dm-0 lp3 sdag sdc sdo sg28 sg70 tty15 tty58
dm-1 MAKEDEV sdah sdca sdp sg29 sg71 tty16 tty59
fd mapper sdai sdcb sdq sg3 sg72 tty17 tty6
fd0 mem sdaj sdcc sdr sg30 sg73 tty18 tty60
fd0u1040 net sdak sdcd sds sg31 sg74 tty19 tty61
fd0u1120 null sdal sdce sdt sg32 sg75 tty2 tty62
fd0u1440 nvram sdam sdcf sdu sg33 sg76 tty20 tty63
fd0u1600 oldmem sdan sdcg sdv sg34 sg77 tty21 tty7
fd0u1680 parport0 sdao sdch sdw sg35 sg78 tty22 tty8
fd0u1722 parport1 sdap sdci sdx sg36 sg79 tty23 tty9
fd0u1743 parport2 sdaq sdcj sdy sg37 sg8 tty24 ttyS0
fd0u1760 parport3 sdar sdck sdz sg38 sg80 tty25 ttyS1
fd0u1840 port sdas sdcl sg0 sg39 sg81 tty26 ttyS2
fd0u1920 ppp sdat sdcm sg1 sg4 sg82 tty27 ttyS3
fd0u360 ptmx sdau sdcn sg10 sg40 sg83 tty28 urandom
fd0u720 pts sdav sdco sg100 sg41 sg84 tty29 usbmon0
fd0u800 ram sdaw sdcp sg101 sg42 sg85 tty3 vcs
fd0u820 ram0 sdax sdcq sg102 sg43 sg86 tty30 vcs1
fd0u830 ram1 sday sdcr sg103 sg44 sg87 tty31 vcs2
floppy ram10 sdaz sdcs sg104 sg45 sg88 tty32 vcs3
floppy-fd0 ram11 sdb sdct sg105 sg46 sg89 tty33 vcs4
full ram12 sdba sdcu sg106 sg47 sg9 tty34 vcs5
fuse ram13 sdbb sdcv sg107 sg48 sg90 tty35 vcs6
hpet ram14 sdbc sdcw sg108 sg49 sg91 tty36 vcs7
hvc0 ram15 sdbd sdcx sg109 sg5 sg92 tty37 vcs8
hvc1 ram2 sdbe sdcy sg11 sg50 sg93 tty38 vcsa
hvc2 ram3 sdbf sdcz sg110 sg51 sg94 tty39 vcsa1
hvc3 ram4 sdbg sdd sg111 sg52 sg95 tty4 vcsa2
hvc4 ram5 sdbh sdda sg112 sg53 sg96 tty40 vcsa3
hvc5 ram6 sdbi sddb sg113 sg54 sg97 tty41 vcsa4
hvc6 ram7 sdbj sddc sg12 sg55 sg98 tty42 vcsa5
hvc7 ram8 sdbk sddd sg13 sg56 sg99 tty43 vcsa6
initctl ram9 sdbl sdde sg14 sg57 shm tty44 vcsa7
input ramdisk sdbm sddf sg15 sg58 snapshot tty45 vcsa8
kmsg random sdbn sddg sg16 sg59 sr0 tty46 VolGroup00
log root sdbo sddh sg17 sg6 stderr tty47 X0R
loop0 rtc sdbp sddi sg18 sg60 stdin tty48 XOR
loop1 scd0 sdbq sde sg19 sg61 stdout tty49 zero
loop2 sda sdbr sdf sg2 sg62 systty tty5
loop3 sda1 sdbs sdg sg20 sg63 tty tty50
loop4 sda2 sdbt sdh sg21 sg64 tty0 tty51

I'd say quite a mess. If you have any other ideas please let me know.
Thank you very much!!

I don't know what this "VMWare" thing is, some kind of virtual machine you're running fedora on? If so, then that's assuredly the problem.

Device files in /dev are each, as I recall, coded with a minor and a major device number and a device type. These are registered with the kernel as devices are loaded so that the proper writes and reads get to the proper device drivers meant to implement those reads and writes.

Look into how and when those files are created, if they're being created by this VMWare to link the virtual machines devices to the actual hardware devices then that's where the screw up is happening.

And chances are, you're trying to do something special, something a little different from the vanilla in terms of your setup and there's some little option you need to set in a config file to get things running.

Besides that, maybe SlowCoder or someone else has specific VMWare relevant suggestions.