diff --git a/fs/char_dev.c b/fs/char_dev.c
index a173551..2f18c1e 100644
--- a/fs/char_dev.c
+++ b/fs/char_dev.c
@@ -237,8 +237,10 @@
 }
 
 /**
- * register_chrdev() - Register a major number for character devices.
+ * __register_chrdev() - create and register a cdev occupying a range of minors
  * @major: major device number or 0 for dynamic allocation
+ * @baseminor: first of the requested range of minor numbers
+ * @count: the number of minor numbers required
  * @name: name of this range of devices
  * @fops: file operations associated with this devices
  *
@@ -254,19 +256,17 @@
  * /dev. It only helps to keep track of the different owners of devices. If
  * your module name has only one type of devices it's ok to use e.g. the name
  * of the module here.
- *
- * This function registers a range of 256 minor numbers. The first minor number
- * is 0.
  */
-int register_chrdev(unsigned int major, const char *name,
-		    const struct file_operations *fops)
+int __register_chrdev(unsigned int major, unsigned int baseminor,
+		      unsigned int count, const char *name,
+		      const struct file_operations *fops)
 {
 	struct char_device_struct *cd;
 	struct cdev *cdev;
 	char *s;
 	int err = -ENOMEM;
 
-	cd = __register_chrdev_region(major, 0, 256, name);
+	cd = __register_chrdev_region(major, baseminor, count, name);
 	if (IS_ERR(cd))
 		return PTR_ERR(cd);
 	
@@ -280,7 +280,7 @@
 	for (s = strchr(kobject_name(&cdev->kobj),'/'); s; s = strchr(s, '/'))
 		*s = '!';
 		
-	err = cdev_add(cdev, MKDEV(cd->major, 0), 256);
+	err = cdev_add(cdev, MKDEV(cd->major, baseminor), count);
 	if (err)
 		goto out;
 
@@ -290,7 +290,7 @@
 out:
 	kobject_put(&cdev->kobj);
 out2:
-	kfree(__unregister_chrdev_region(cd->major, 0, 256));
+	kfree(__unregister_chrdev_region(cd->major, baseminor, count));
 	return err;
 }
 
@@ -316,10 +316,23 @@
 	}
 }
 
-void unregister_chrdev(unsigned int major, const char *name)
+/**
+ * __unregister_chrdev - unregister and destroy a cdev
+ * @major: major device number
+ * @baseminor: first of the range of minor numbers
+ * @count: the number of minor numbers this cdev is occupying
+ * @name: name of this range of devices
+ *
+ * Unregister and destroy the cdev occupying the region described by
+ * @major, @baseminor and @count.  This function undoes what
+ * __register_chrdev() did.
+ */
+void __unregister_chrdev(unsigned int major, unsigned int baseminor,
+			 unsigned int count, const char *name)
 {
 	struct char_device_struct *cd;
-	cd = __unregister_chrdev_region(major, 0, 256);
+
+	cd = __unregister_chrdev_region(major, baseminor, count);
 	if (cd && cd->cdev)
 		cdev_del(cd->cdev);
 	kfree(cd);
@@ -568,6 +581,6 @@
 EXPORT_SYMBOL(cdev_del);
 EXPORT_SYMBOL(cdev_add);
 EXPORT_SYMBOL(cdev_index);
-EXPORT_SYMBOL(register_chrdev);
-EXPORT_SYMBOL(unregister_chrdev);
+EXPORT_SYMBOL(__register_chrdev);
+EXPORT_SYMBOL(__unregister_chrdev);
 EXPORT_SYMBOL(directly_mappable_cdev_bdi);