Infrastructure Software

Hi All,
i have machine (VM) with oracle linux 5 , kernel : 2.6.18-308.el5 .
I want to add more loop devices ( the system comes with 0-7 , 8 in total as default) .
i have added max_loop=16 in both /boot/grub/grub.conf and /etc/modeprob.conf - rebooted the system
then I run :
losetup /dev/loop8 /u01/asmdisks/_file_disk_08 - to create the virutal device and I get /dev/loop8: No such device or address

if I do ls on /dev/loop* i get
[root@oracle dev]# ls -al loop*
brw-r----- 1 root disk 7, 0 Apr 25 2012 loop0
brw-r----- 1 root disk 7, 1 Apr 25 2012 loop1
brw-r----- 1 root disk 7, 2 Apr 25 2012 loop2
brw-r----- 1 root disk 7, 3 Apr 25 2012 loop3
brw-r----- 1 root disk 7, 4 Apr 25 2012 loop4
brw-r----- 1 root disk 7, 5 Apr 25 2012 loop5
brw-r----- 1 root disk 7, 6 Apr 25 2012 loop6
brw-r----- 1 root disk 7, 7 Apr 25 2012 loop7
brw-r----- 1 root disk 7, 8 Apr 25 2012 loop8

any idea, someone ?

by the way if I boot the same machine with the uek kernel - i can use mknod , losetuop to create the loop devices ....
but I need not to run the uek kernel .
any advice will be appreciated

thanks

Sahar