[ale] Controlling network interface order in 2.6 kernel

[Chris Ricker]

On Mon, 13 Dec 2004, Jeffrey B. Layton wrote:

> Hello,
> 
>    I'm upgrading a machine to FC3 that has two ethernet interfaces.
> They are coming up in the reverse order compared to the 2.4
> kernel. So, the NIC associated with eth0 before is now associated
> with eth1 under 2.6. I'd like to control the order if possible. I found
> one link that might help,
> 
> http://www.xenotime.net/linux/doc/network-interface-names.txt
> 
> but I'd rather not go through this painful task of having to rework
> all of the interfaces, particularly if I have to reinstall FC3 (I don't
> want to have to redo everything again). Does anyone have any
> suggestions?

If they use different drivers, control with /etc/modprobe.conf:

alias eth0 e1000
alias eth1 tg3
alias eth2 r8169

If they use the same driver, control with the network config scripts. For 
eth0,

/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0:
DEVICE=eth0
HWADDR=eth0.MAC.address
...

For eth1,

/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1:
DEVICE=eth1
HWADDR=eth1.MAC.address
...


There are other ways, but those are the simplest.

later,
chris