Who edits my ifcfg-eth0 ?

[Phil Meyer]

Timothy Murphy wrote:
> Some program re-writes /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth?
> when I re-boot.
> (I'm running FC-6.)
>
> Does anyone know what program this is?
> And if it can be persuaded to desist?
>
> In principle, I don't think any program
> should modify config files without at least informing the user.
>
>   

I have been chasing this issue for new installs.

When a kickstart postinstall script sets up interfaces, they are not 
preserved after the first reboot.

It turns out that this is some new behavior in kudzu.

It is unclear to me at this time if it is intentional.

The nature of the problems is this:

If your device (in this case a network interface) is not an exact match 
in /etc/sysconfig/hwconf, kudzu will either make a new device, or 
rewrite the existing one.

In the case of network interfaces, it will either:

1. move /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1 to ifcfg-eth1.bak and 
create a new one set for DHCP.

2. create a whole new interface (eth2) and the system will attempt to 
bring that one up and ignore eth1.

Both scenarios are annoying when trying to stamp out exact matching 
systems in quantity with anaconda.

I had to move all of my kickstart post install network configuration 
scripts to a first boot post install script.

Normally, kudzu will ignore already defined devices, including stuff in 
/etc/modprobe.conf.  But this is no longer the case.

It will ignore a network interface if it is completely defined, with 
HWADDR= set correctly.  But for me, obtaining a MAC address during a 
kickstart post install can be very problematic.

Once it is set upon first boot, kudzu will leave it alone.

So, it may be that kudzu is messing with your networking config files 
every boot if you don't have HWADDR= set

 From the system-config-networking GUI, its a tab called Hardware 
Device/Bind to MAC Address.  That will find it and update the config 
file for you.

Good luck!