FreeBSD 8.2-stable: devd fails to restart

[Warren Block]

On Sat, 4 Feb 2012, Torfinn Ingolfsen wrote:

> More data:
> root at kg-v2# service devd status
> devd is not running.
> root at kg-v2# service devd start
> Starting devd.
> devd: devd already running, pid: 808
> /etc/rc.d/devd: WARNING: failed to start devd
> root at kg-v2# rm /var/run/devd.pid
> root at kg-v2# service devd start
> Starting devd.
> root at kg-v2# service devd status
> devd is running as pid 30165.
> root at kg-v2# service devd stop
> Stopping devd.
> root at kg-v2# service devd status
> devd is not running.
> root at kg-v2# ll /var/run/devd.pid
> -rw-------  1 root  wheel  5 Feb  4 16:45 /var/run/devd.pid
> root at kg-v2# service devd start
> Starting devd.
> root at kg-v2# service devd status
> devd is running as pid 30206.
>
> Let me try to install the webcamd port again... done.
> Now testing again:
> root at kg-v2# service devd status
> devd is running as pid 30206.
> root at kg-v2# service devd stop
> Stopping devd.
> root at kg-v2# ll /var/run/devd.pid
> -rw-------  1 root  wheel  5 Feb  4 16:48 /var/run/devd.pid
> root at kg-v2# service devd status
> devd is not running.
> root at kg-v2# service devd start
> Starting devd.
> root at kg-v2# service devd status
> devd is running as pid 35551.
>
> Not really sure what's going on here.

Possibly relevant:
http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=140462&cat=

(Using DHCP from /etc/rc.conf leaves a lock on devd.pid.  SYNCDHCP does 
not.)

And the thread:
http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-current/2009-October/012749.html