"could not find a spare loop device"

Hello all,

I was following some instructions in the Wiki pages to extend my
usable 'disk' space by shunting /usr to the CF card:

 
- use dd to make a file on my CF card, (worked fine)
- make an ext2 file system in that file (I used ext3)
- move /usr to another name and link /usr to that name (fine)
- make a new usr directory as a mount point ("/usr.extended")
- mount the ext3 file as /usr.extended as:

mount -t loop /mnt/hda/system/usr.extended /usr/extended

but it comes back with "could not find a spare loop device".
I note in /dev that there are no /dev/loop devices.

In the Wiki page, the writer says they needed to make the
loopback devices, and put them in a script (with lines like
this):
mknod /dev/loop0 b 7 0
...
mknod /dev/loop9 b 7 9

This has now exceded my knowledge, and although I'm happy enough
to try 'mknod' as above, I don't know what I'm doing.

I am running an Ipaq 3650 and bought a 256Mb CF card, and more
recently
        upgraded my bootldr to 2.18.54
        installed familiar v0.6
        bought the extended sleeve with battery and 2 pcmcia
        bought a network card and got that going (life is faster now!)
        got the stowaway keyboard going

... all I want now is Emacs, but I need the space on the CF to do
that.

I saw those happy buttons on the bootldr indicating I could boot
from the CF directly (perhaps)? but I don't know where to look
for instructions on that (help?). Hence I was following these
earlier (seemingly clever enough) instructions for using the space on the
CF card.

Suggestions? comments? Just tell me where to RTFM and I'll be
happy to look.

I appreciate all the work that's gone into this project, both
from the user perspective and the labor perspective. I never
would have tried this if weren't for the web pages.

Thanks for the help so far, and in advance,

Jules
Received on Tue Nov 12 2002 - 16:45:31 EST