I just made a new CentOS 5.4 installation. The machine has an Intel 10/100 and an Intel GB on board, and a Broadcom GB card on a PCI-X (64 bit) slot. After the install finished, I noticed that the order and naming of the Ethernet interfaces is totally screwed up. Under Network Manager, the Intel GB card shows the MAC address of the Broadcom and vice-versa. As a consequence, none of them works. When I push the Probe button, they show each other's MAC Adress. The names of the devices do not correspond to the names of the interfaces. If I correct the problem by manually editing the configuration files, they MAY get wrong again upon reboot. Only the 10/100 interface stays put.
After a remote reboot for kernel update, I just lost connection with the machine, so I guess it happened again. This NEVER happened with CentOS 5.2 or 5.3 on the same machine.
I want to manually assign a ID to the cards and let them keep it forever. Will the manual entry of the HWADDR=/ /parameter in the ifcfg-eth<x> files fix this for good or will it be overrided by some other component of the OS?
Thank you.
On Sat, Dec 12, 2009 at 6:01 PM, Miguel Medalha miguelmedalha@sapo.pt wrote:
I want to manually assign a ID to the cards and let them keep it forever. Will the manual entry of the HWADDR=/ /parameter in the ifcfg-eth<x> files fix this for good or will it be overrided by some other component of the OS?
Miguel,
I just went through this a few weeks ago myself. If you want to check the archives, I believe the subject was something like "nic order, again"
As I recall my solution was to comment out the modprobe alias created for the network cards (/etc/modprobe.conf) and then in network-scripts, use the HWADDR in each config script. Make sure the device=ethX matches the name of the file, if nothing else, for your own sanity - since the OS checks that line, and does not care what the file is named.
Good luck! Gordon
As I recall my solution was to comment out the modprobe alias created for the network cards (/etc/modprobe.conf) and then in network-scripts, use the HWADDR in each config script. Make sure the device=ethX matches the name of the file, if nothing else, for your own sanity - since the OS checks that line, and does not care what the file is named.
Thank you for your answer. I will look it up.
I found this useful article:
Linux Enumeration of NICs http://linux.dell.com/files/whitepapers/nic-enum-whitepaper-v4.pdf
The author, a Dell employee, made a script to automate the process of ordering the NICs. He also gives tips to manually solve this recurring problem.
Regards Miguel
-
Gordon McLellan -
Miguel Medalha