[CentOS] centso 5 modifying my ifcfg-eth[x] files

Mon Apr 23 15:39:48 UTC 2007
Les Mikesell <lesmikesell at gmail.com>

Jerry Geis wrote:
> On Fri, 2007-04-20 at 10:21 -0500, Les Mikesell wrote:
>> / Ralph Angenendt wrote:
> />/ > Jerry Geis wrote:
> />/ >> Only thing to add here is the network card does work, however I
> />/ >> get a dmesg output that eth1 has an invalid MAC address.
> />/ > />/ > Asus mainboard? />/ > />/ >> Is that invalid MAC address 
> changing my setup? I dont think it should.
> />/ >> granted I'm still looking at finding a way to reset he MAC 
> address or
> />/ >> something but I dont think the ifcfg-eth files should be modified.
> />/ > />/ > The random address is different from the one which is in 
> ifcfg-eth* from
> />/ > installation. />/ > />/ >> This seems like a bug- that is the 
> reason for the post.
> />/ > />/ > Yes. Googling around hints at this being a BIOS bug. Also see
> />/ > <http://bugs.centos.org/view.php?id=1949>.
> />/ />/ Can you fix this by removing the:
> />/ HWADDR=
> />/ line from the ifcfg-eth* files?  Most of my machines have swappable 
> />/ drive carriers and I routinely swap them and clone machines by 
> dd'ing />/ the raw disks.  If I remove the HWADDR entry I can assign the 
> IP />/ addresses when building the disks and have it come up correctly 
> when the />/ disk is installed in some remote machine.  I suppose 
> someday this will />/ break when I'm not looking, but it has saved me a 
> lot of trouble over />/ the last several years.  Now if the kernels 
> would just be consistent />/ about the order they probe the devices and 
> assign the eth* names....
> /
> 
> I actually tried setting the HWADDR= to another NIC's value, did not 
> matter file still replaced with a DHCP type file.
> I tried removing the HWADDR and file was still replaced with a DHCP type 
> file.
> 
> Strange thing is I have 2 identical motherboards M2N-MX ASUS, two 
> identical network cards. the other machine
> appears to running fine... Its just this one machine that gives the bad 
> MAC message in dmesg and will not keep its IP address.
> 

Do you have files under /etc/sysconfig/networking/profiles/default/? 
I've seen those override the ones in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts but 
I've never found documentation for the circumstances that cause them to 
be used.  I usually delete them all to avoid surprises.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
    lesmikesell at gmail.com