How to map eth0 to a different interface

Cameron Simpson cs at zip.com.au
Thu Apr 7 06:14:20 UTC 2005


On 06Apr2005 23:01, Suraj Chandrasekaran <csuraj at gmail.com> wrote:
| Nope, it didn't work for me...

If your NICs are from different vendors the modules.conf file will
do the trick. Here's one from a two NIC machine with a RealTek and an
Intel EEPro:

	alias eth0 8139too
	alias eth1 e100

This works because the boot process modprobes for "eth0" and so forth,
and this is translated into a suitable driver name. However, it is
probable that the interface number (eth0, eth1 etc) is an artifact of
the order in which the drivers get loaded, so that the first driver
grabs eth0 and so on. So the association only works because the
startup scripts ask for eth0 before eth1.

That approach won't work if your drivers are not modules or if your
cards use the same driver because modprobe isn't involved in the first
case and the modules.conf can't express a difference in the second case.

However, why care? Annoying though it is to have no control, provided
the same card is always eth0 and so on you can just assign addresses to
each as appropriate to match the network connections.

What's the underlying technical reason behind wanting to attach specific
interface names to particular cards?
-- 
Cameron Simpson <cs at zip.com.au> DoD#743
http://www.cskk.ezoshosting.com/cs/

Careful and correct use of language is a powerful aid to straight thinking,
for putting into words precisely what we mean necessitates getting our own
minds quite clear on what we mean.      - W.I.B. Beveridge




More information about the redhat-list mailing list