[CentOS] Using eth0 on desktops with single network interface

Thu Apr 19 17:22:49 UTC 2012
Alfred von Campe <alfred at von-campe.com>

On Apr 19, 2012, at 11:25, Scott Robbins wrote:

> I don't know when CentOS started doing this--I know when I did a fresh
> CentOS 6.x install (back when 6.x was first available), it didn't do it.

I think you are right.  My one new Dell system that doesn't use em1 is the oldest one which I installed before 6.2 was available (and possibly 6.1 as well).

> Oops, that's not the solution.... that's here..
> 
> http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Talk:Features/ConsistentNetworkDeviceNaming

Removing the biosdevname RPM sounds promising, and I'll test it with a kickstart install this afternoon.  However, what's the best way to fix existing systems?  If I just remove the biosdevname RPM and reboot, I don't think that eth0 will come up, as there is no ifcfg-eth0 script.  Do I have to rename the ifcfg-em1 script and fix the DEVICE name inside the file?  Or is there a way to regenerate  the ifcfg-eth0 file from the command line?

BTW, I cannot find a single reference to the biosdevname binary in any of the startup scripts or udev rules, so I have no idea how it gets invoked in the first place, but I sure hope that removing it will fix this issue.

Alfred