[ale] Q: How do I make permissions on /dev/* 'sticky'?

[rstory-l at revelstone.com (Robert Story)]

AOn Tue, 29 Nov 2005 09:09:06 -0500 John M. wrote:
MJM> ALErs -
MJM> 
MJM> I notice that access permissions of '/dev/*' devices are reset to
MJM> defaults when my systems reboot, losing access for ordinary users where
MJM> I may have set it manually (i.e., /dev/ttyS* for 'minicom', etc). I
MJM> conjecture this is an effect ("feature"?) of the '/dev' filesystem since
MJM> such permission changes used to be persistent, but that's only a guess.
MJM> 
MJM> Q1: How can I define these permissions so they receive my new settings
MJM> on reboot, instead of the system defaults?

Change the system defaults. see /etc/security/console.perms. run
pam_console_apply after updating.

MJM> Q2: How can I add new devices to those created on reboot? I could add
MJM> 'mknod' lines to rc.local, or similar, but is there a less "clunky" way
MJM> to do it?

Careful, on newer systems dev devices are created automatically by udev. This
lets devices be created dynamically as devices are plugged in and removed. But
it can cause headaches.