Q: What is an Open Firmware devalias? How is it
different than an absolute path?
A: A devalias is a shorthand representation of a
device path. For example, on a particular machine the
devalias "hd" represents the device path
"/pci@f2000000/@d/mac-io@7/ata-4@1f000/disk@0",
which is the internal ATA disk.
You can see the defined devaliases for a machine by
entering Open Firmware and typing "devalias".
Do not depend on the presence (or absence) of a
particular devalias in your code. The devaliases will likely
be different on different models of machines. Devaliases are
provided as a convenience for navigating the device tree
from the OFUI and for Apple's BootROM programmers.
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