diff --git a/src/system/kernel/disk_device_manager/KFileDiskDevice.cpp b/src/system/kernel/disk_device_manager/KFileDiskDevice.cpp
index ac6ac708c2..1fb7676233 100644
--- a/src/system/kernel/disk_device_manager/KFileDiskDevice.cpp
+++ b/src/system/kernel/disk_device_manager/KFileDiskDevice.cpp
@@ -173,7 +173,8 @@ KFileDiskDevice::GetGeometry(device_geometry *geometry)
 status_t
 KFileDiskDevice::_RegisterDevice(const char *file, const char *device)
 {
-	return devfs_publish_file_device(device, file);
+	return devfs_publish_file_device(device + 5, file);
+		// we need to remove the "/dev/" part from the path
 
 	// TODO: For now we use the virtualdrive driver to register a file
 	// as a device and then simply symlink the assigned device to the
@@ -222,7 +223,8 @@ KFileDiskDevice::_RegisterDevice(const char *file, const char *device)
 status_t
 KFileDiskDevice::_UnregisterDevice(const char *_device)
 {
-	return devfs_unpublish_file_device(_device);
+	return devfs_unpublish_file_device(_device + 5);
+		// we need to remove the "/dev/" part from the path
 
 //	// read the symlink to get the path of the virtualdrive device
 //	char device[B_PATH_NAME_LENGTH];
diff --git a/src/system/kernel/disk_device_manager/KPhysicalPartition.cpp b/src/system/kernel/disk_device_manager/KPhysicalPartition.cpp
index c397dfc281..b491189dae 100644
--- a/src/system/kernel/disk_device_manager/KPhysicalPartition.cpp
+++ b/src/system/kernel/disk_device_manager/KPhysicalPartition.cpp
@@ -90,7 +90,8 @@ KPhysicalPartition::PublishDevice()
 		return B_NAME_TOO_LONG;
 	}
 
-	return devfs_publish_partition(path.Path(), &info);
+	return devfs_publish_partition(path.Path() + 5, &info);
+		// we need to remove the "/dev/" part from the path
 }
 
 // UnpublishDevice
@@ -103,7 +104,8 @@ KPhysicalPartition::UnpublishDevice()
 	if (error != B_OK)
 		return error;
 
-	return devfs_unpublish_partition(path.Path());
+	return devfs_unpublish_partition(path.Path() + 5);
+		// we need to remove the "/dev/" part from the path
 }
 
 // Mount
diff --git a/src/system/kernel/fs/devfs.cpp b/src/system/kernel/fs/devfs.cpp
index 2c08e7a1c5..949bb6bd91 100644
--- a/src/system/kernel/fs/devfs.cpp
+++ b/src/system/kernel/fs/devfs.cpp
@@ -2107,9 +2107,11 @@ devfs_publish_partition(const char *path, const partition_info *info)
 	// the partition and device paths must be the same until the leaves
 	const char *lastPath = strrchr(path, '/');
 	const char *lastDevice = strrchr(info->device, '/');
-	if (lastPath == NULL || lastDevice == NULL
-		|| lastPath - path != lastDevice - info->device
-		|| strncmp(path, info->device, lastPath - path))
+	if (lastPath == NULL || lastDevice == NULL)
+		return B_BAD_VALUE;
+
+	size_t length = lastDevice - (lastPath - path) - info->device;
+	if (strncmp(path, info->device + length, lastPath - path))
 		return B_BAD_VALUE;
 
 	devfs_vnode *device;
diff --git a/src/system/kernel/fs/vfs.cpp b/src/system/kernel/fs/vfs.cpp
index 754e1d4d3c..7b78511155 100644
--- a/src/system/kernel/fs/vfs.cpp
+++ b/src/system/kernel/fs/vfs.cpp
@@ -2759,9 +2759,14 @@ vfs_get_fs_node_from_path(mount_id mountID, const char *path, bool kernel, void
 	strlcpy(buffer, path, pathBuffer.BufferSize());
 
 	struct vnode *vnode = mount->root_vnode;
-	inc_vnode_ref_count(vnode);
 
-	status = vnode_path_to_vnode(vnode, buffer, true, 0, &vnode, NULL, NULL);
+	if (buffer[0] == '/')
+		status = path_to_vnode(buffer, true, &vnode, NULL, true);
+	else {
+		inc_vnode_ref_count(vnode);
+			// vnode_path_to_vnode() releases a reference to the starting vnode
+		status = vnode_path_to_vnode(vnode, buffer, true, 0, &vnode, NULL, NULL);
+	}
 
 	put_mount(mount);