Re: Two network cards both assigned eth0

[Rick Stevens <rstevens vitalstream com>]

Andrea Manica wrote:
> I am slightly puzzled. I installed RH9 2.4.20-8 on my desktop, and the 
> network cards don't want to play. I have both a Gigabit 82545 EM on the 
> motherboard and an Intel ProS 100card in one of the PCI slots. Both 
> cards were assigned eth0 on install, and I don't seem to be able to 
> change that. Only the ProS works, but the onboad NIC doesn't. If I use 
> the network config tool in red hat, it simply keeps the two cards on 
> eth0 (both defined as OK) and adds an phantom eth1 (which is defined 
> "configured" rather than OK). If I try to use eth1 card on any profile, 
> I am told at boot up that the card is not set up. Trying to play with 
> modules.conf didn't help. Can anyone offer some wisdom?

The configuration of the cards is handled by data contained in the
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 and -eth1 files.  That's where
you set the IP address, netmask, network and such for each card.

/etc/modules.conf should have lines such as:

	alias eth0 e1000
	alias eth1 3c95x

in other words, the alias followed by the driver name.  It's possible
both cards use the same driver, but you'll still have two alias lines:

	alias eth0 e1000
	alias eth1 e1000

You still have to modify the /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-ethx
files to set them up:

	# cat /etc/modules.conf         (note: extra data removed)
	alias eth0 e1000
	alias eth1 e1000

	# cat /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0
	DEVICE=eth0			<<--NOTE: Unique device name
	BOOTPROTO=static
	BROADCAST=64.7.196.127
	IPADDR=64.7.196.71
	NETMASK=255.255.255.192
	NETWORK=64.7.196.64
	ONBOOT=yes

	# cat /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1
	DEVICE=eth1			<<--NOTE: Unique device name
	BOOTPROTO=static
	BROADCAST=10.24.1.255
	IPADDR=10.24.1.2
	NETMASK=255.255.255.0
	NETWORK=10.24.1.0
	ONBOOT=yes

You should also be aware that generally Linux will recognize your PCI
NIC BEFORE your motherboard NIC (the PCI card will be eth0 in most
cases).
----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens vitalstream com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-   UNIX is actually quite user friendly.  The problem is that it's  -
-              just very picky of who its friends are!               -
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