Why doesn't rdev work?

[Kurt Wall]

Feigning erudition, Gerry Doris wrote:
% I've been playing with rdev on a Redhat 8.0 system.  If I create a
% bootdisk using mkbootdisk it works just fine.
% 
% Running rdev correctly gives the result of
% 
% /dev/hda3  (ie. root is on /dev/hda3)
% 
% If I run
% 
% rdev /dev/fd0
% 
% on the newly created bootdisk.  I don't get /dev/hda3 like I was
% expecting.  I get a hex value like /dev/0x3da5.  If I do a
% 
% rdev /dev/fd0 /dev/hda3
% 
% and then do a
% 
% rdev /dev/fd0
% 
% I get the expected answer back of /dev/hda3.  However, the bootdisk
% won't work anymore.  What am I doing wrong.

If mkbootdisk creates a SYSLINUX boot disk, which is what I believe
it does, you don't need to use rdev because syslinux fiddles modifies
the boot sector on the floppy and copies LDLINUX.SYS onto it. My guess
is that /dev/0x3da5 points at the first sector of LDLINUX.SYS and that
LDLINUX.SYS just Does The Right Thing (c).

Kurt
-- 
"This process can check if this value is zero, and if it is, it does
something child-like."
		-- Forbes Burkowski, Computer Science 454