2 files changed, 7 insertions, 2 deletions
diff --git a/perl-install/detect_devices.pm b/perl-install/detect_devices.pm
index 0ea650e1f..f324bca8c 100644
--- a/perl-install/detect_devices.pm
+++ b/perl-install/detect_devices.pm
@@ -354,12 +354,12 @@ sub check {
 
 sub tryOpen($) {
     local *F;
-    sysopen F, devices::make($_[0]), c::O_NONBLOCK() and *F;
+    eval { sysopen F, devices::make($_[0]), c::O_NONBLOCK() and *F };
 }
 
 sub tryWrite($) {
     local *F;
-    sysopen F, devices::make($_[0]), 1 | c::O_NONBLOCK() and *F;
+    eval { sysopen F, devices::make($_[0]), 1 | c::O_NONBLOCK() and *F };
 }
 
 sub syslog {
diff --git a/perl-install/devices.pm b/perl-install/devices.pm
index d8b561310..0423e5813 100644
--- a/perl-install/devices.pm
+++ b/perl-install/devices.pm
@@ -168,6 +168,11 @@ sub make($) {
     my ($type, $major, $minor) = eval { entry($_) };
     $@ and die "unknown device $_ (caller is " . join(":", caller()) . ")";
 
+    if ($file =~ m|/dev/| && -e '/dev/.devfsd') {
+	#- argh, creating devices is no good with devfs...
+	die "devices are handled by devfsd, and $file doesn't exist";
+    }
+
     #- make a directory for this inode if needed.
     mkdir dirname($file), 0755;