> 	1. Provide a dev.tgz
> 	    Extract with gtar (if system's native tar failed on dev nodes)

This would be useful, and was suggested by Simon Gerraty (?) in the
discussion attached to the problem report I mentioned.

> 	2. Make init use mfs /dev as needed
> 	    It already has magic to cope with an msdosfs root. This could
> 	    be made generic. The only problem would be converting an mfs
> 	    /dev system to a normal /dev, but as long as a procedure was
> 	    documented it should be OK. Or could use a devfs.

I think this would be the cleanest solution.  The only problem might be
that when the system is up and running, I still want access to the /dev
directory of the root filesystem to make the more permanent device
nodes.  If it was already overmounted by the mfs /dev, this might be a
problem.

> 	3. Make MAKEDEV work on 'legacy' systems
> 	    Back to previous status quo as of 1.2 (I believe).

Whilst using the $(()) and ${i#sd} constructs might be cleaner than
firing off a load of subshells to run expr, if we want MAKEDEV to run
on as many systems as possible, I think it is probably the only
solution...

Cheers,
Robert