[CentOS] Problem getting eth0 up

Wed Aug 17 13:50:18 UTC 2011
Alfred von Campe <alfred at von-campe.com>

On Aug 16, 2011, at 18:37, Tom H wrote:

> If you mean after the install, what's the output of "chkconfig --list
> NetworkManager", "chkconfig --list network", and your NIC's ifcfg-X?

I ended up re-installing the system from DVD this morning (don't have my kickstart server set up yet), and this time I noticed a "Configure Network" button in one of the screens.  It was there that I enabled a setting to start the network on boot, and now it's working "out of the box".  I can't stop to wonder why upstream decided to make this optional.  Who doesn't want their network up, especially because it's not obvious how to start it once you are logged in?

But the story doesn't stop there.  When I enabled the network during the installation, the connection name was "System eth0".  When I logged in (as root, because this is just a test system and I hadn't configured local or network accounts yet), the network was running but using a connection named "Wired connection 1" and I had two ifcfg-X files:

# cat network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0
DEVICE=eth0
HWADDR=bc:30:5b:e7:a7:1c
NM_CONTROLLED=yes
ONBOOT=no
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
TYPE=Ethernet
USERCTL=no
PEERDNS=yes
IPV6INIT=no

#cat network-scripts/ifcfg-Wired_connection_1     
HWADDR=BC:30:5B:E7:A7:1C
TYPE=Ethernet
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
DEFROUTE=yes
PEERDNS=yes
PEERROUTES=yes
IPV4_FAILURE_FATAL=yes
IPV6INIT=no
NAME="Wired connection 1"
UUID=44c68048-52ba-4e5e-807f-adf8a881552f
ONBOOT=yes
LAST_CONNECT=1313586374

Why on earth would NM create another config file for the same interface?  Also, how do I tell NM to include the DHCP_HOSTNAME variable in the config file so that my DHCP server creates a DNS entry?

I think I don't like the NM "overhead" in CentOS 6.  Is it just a matter of doing a "chkconfig --del NetworkManager" to get rid off it?

I'll be working on getting the CentOS 6 installation automated via kickstart later this week and hope to resolve all these issues before then.

Thanks for all the help/pointers,
Alfred