DSL Embedded :: uci/cloop problem

This is a new one for me.

I've been merrily running 2.2 on my thumbdrive for ages. Yesterday I tried to load python.uci, which I've done plenty of times before, along with various other uci's including openoffice, etc.

This time, however, I got an error message. I popup window says "Please mount media containing optional dir and try again." and at the prompt (where I was using mydsl-load to load it) I got a "/dev/cloop[x]: no such device or address"

Same message from within emelfm.

I downloaded 2.4 ISO and copied the KNOPPIX file over to my thumbdrive, verified the new version by calling tcc. Same error messages.

ls /dev/cloop* shows all 64 cloops.

Double checking the md5sum shows all is okay on that front.

Trying to load another uci (ace.uci) shows the same results.

.dsl and .tar.gz load fine.

I peeked at mydsl-load, mountci, and cloopmap.lua, but can't really make too much out of 'em.

And this is where I'm stuck. Any insight/suggestions?

---Edit---

I spun a livecd (3.0rc1b) and booted up a "qemu frugal fromhd=/dev/sda1 mydsl=harddisk restore=harddisk" and was able to load the python.uci. I did notice a message, though, that read something like python.uci: ~65k blocks/byte, largest block ~45k blocks

Couldn't see it all as it flashed by and couldn't find the log.

I still can't load the extension when embedded, though. I get the following message at startup:

python modprobe: modprobe: Can't locate module block-major-240

---Further Edit---

Doing something totally unrelated, I discovered that /dev/cloop is protected. Got a "permission denied" when I tried to mess with it.

I realize that everybody is probably busy playing with the release candidates, but this thing is still driving me batty. Anybody out there have any ideas?

original here.