Isn't /tmp mounted with option nodev, by chance?
Would not explain it failing in /dev
but a good thought.
uhmm on this computer, /tmp is on the root partition, did not make a
separate mount in fstab for it, ... yes,
probably should have made a /tmp partition so as to be able to add
options like nodev and nosuid against /tmp, but that is another story....
I looked at my /etc/fstab and / is not mounted with nodev
either.
So that is not it. I think "upgrade" from cdrom would fix the /dev
folder... and replace /sbin/mknod, and replace the kernel and important
userland.
Then I ran the port mergemaster just in case I missed something in /etc...
but the problem persists, so my question, does the operating system use
some kind of protection (other than nodev in /etc/fstab) that might
prevent mknod from creating devices? it can create fifos
