Refering to devices via MAC address and not the Linux device name.

[Nima Talebi <nima talebi det nsw edu au>]

Hi,

I needed to make this change, and perhapse other will too at some stage...
I'd like to refer to a device via its MAC address, and not the device name
(eg eth0, eth1) that the OS gives it. This is specially useful where adding
a new network card pre-build results in the would-be eth0 and eth1 to become
eth2 and eth3, and the added in card to take over eth0 and eth1.



Anywho, an example...

network --bootproto static --device 00:17:a4:10:26:66 --ip 153.107.77.11
--netmask 255.255.255.0 --gateway 153.107.77.1 --hostname
penguin0.appmgmtu.det.nsw.edu.au

network --bootproto dhcp --device 00:17:a4:10:26:65



...and the patch...


============================================================================
# cat installclass.py.patch
16a17,18
> import re
> 
331a334,355
> 
>                 #XXX Nima's Patch Begin XXX#
>                 re_mac =
re.compile(r"((?:[0-9a-fA-F]{2}:){5}[0-9a-fA-F]{2})");
>                 if re_mac.match(device):
>                     hwaddr = str.upper(device)
>                     device = None
>                     f = open("/proc/net/dev")
>                     lines = f.readlines()
>                     f.close()
>                     lines = lines[2:]
>                     for line in lines:
>                         nextDev = string.strip(line[0:6])
>                         try:
>                             if hwaddr == isys.getMacAddress(nextDev):
>                                 device = nextDev;
>                                 break;
>                         except Exception, e:
>                             log("exception getting mac addr: %s", e,)
> 
>                 assert device is not None;
>                 #XXX Nima's Patch End XXX#
> 


============================================================================
# cat network.py.patch
315a316,335
> 
>                     #XXX Nima's Patch Begin XXX#
>                     re_mac =
re.compile(r"((?:[0-9a-fA-F]{2}:){5}[0-9a-fA-F]{2})");
>                     if re_mac.match(dev.get('device')):
>                         hwaddr = dev.get('device')
>                         dev = None
>                         f = open("/proc/net/dev")
>                         lines = f.readlines()
>                         f.close()
>                         lines = lines[2:]
>                         for line in lines:
>                             nextDev = string.strip(line[0:6])
>                             try:
>                                 if hwaddr == isys.getMacAddress(nextDev):
>                                     dev = nextDev;
>                                 break;
>                             except Exception, e:
>                                 log("exception getting mac addr: %s", e,)
>                     #XXX Nima's Patch End XXX#
> 


..you can then force a change in order via the /etc/mactab. Also
/etc/modules.conf file would probably need an adjustment if you do this as
the aliases the wrong way around.

Nima


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