vze284qe@verizon.net wrote, on Mar 31, 2008 at 19:27 EDT:
So I shut down the computer - power off, unplug, remove battery (it's a laptop) and waited a minute. I reinstalled the battery, plugged it in and booted up the usual kernel, et voila...the /dev/sdb* files reappeared!! All looks good! Even Linux has some strangeness I guess.
I don't know what caused this in the first place...transient lightning bolts? spurrious darktrons?
I've got a flash card reader that, if it's got a card in it when the computer is turned on, will forever fail to recognise that it's got media. However, if I insert the media after Linux has recognised and reset the device, all is good. Perhaps you had a situation like that? I blame BIOS weirdness, really. -- Aaron Haviland 34 Wayne Ave, Dudley, MA