On 2011-06-19 10:27, Yasha Karant wrote:
> I fully understand that the /dev entries are created at boot time if the
> driver actually is present (generally, in kernel space, but there are
> exceptions where a driver crosses between kernel and user space). As it
> is clear that the driver is present, why is the driver not autoloaded
> during boot if the hardware is present?

The kernel team chose to stop loading the floppy driver automatically 
due to problems with certain floppy disk controllers. [0] [1]

> In which file(s) in SL6 does one make the modification to force the
> existence of /dev/fd0 at each boot? As far as I can tell, SL6 is loading
> drivers for all of the other physical hardware on the unit.

You should be able to create a file in /etc/modprobe.d that makes the 
floppy driver load automatically when a floppy drive is around, though I 
have no idea what the syntax for that is.

[0] https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=599127
[1] 
http://pkgs.fedoraproject.org/gitweb/?p=kernel.git;a=blob;f=die-floppy-die.patch

-- 
Garrett Holmstrom