network card not detected at boot

[Mike Reinehr]

On Tuesday 17 October 2006 09:52, Michael Hipp wrote:
> Mike Reinehr wrote:
> > On Monday 16 October 2006 18:54, Michael Hipp wrote:
> >> Net Llama! wrote:
> >>> On Mon, 16 Oct 2006, Bill Campbell wrote:
> >>>> On Mon, Oct 16, 2006, Net Llama! wrote:
> >>>>> On Mon, 16 Oct 2006, Bill Campbell wrote:
> >>>>>> I did an autoyast install on mine with ``insmod forcedeth'' in
> >>>>>> the ``info'' file because I knew that was going to be found while
> >>>>>> I wasn't positive about finding the Marvell driver.  Once I had
> >>>>>> the system installed, it assigned eth0 to the Marvell driver, and
> >>>>>> eth1 to the nVidia.  My SWAG (Scientific Wild-Assed Guess) is
> >>>>>> that the order eth0/1 is determined by the MAC address of the NICs.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> I always thought it was the PCI bus ID ordering.
> >>>>
> >>>> That may well be (although on this main board, both of the NICs
> >>>> are on the board -- is that in the PCI bus).
> >>>
> >>> Well sure, but each one gets its own unique PCI bus ID (/proc/pci).
> >>
> >> On Ubuntu and Debian and some others (or so I'm told) it's determined by
> >> /etc/iftab. Here's mine:
> >>
> >> /etc $ cat iftab
> >> # This file assigns persistent names to network interfaces.  See
> >> iftab(5). eth0 mac 00:c0:f0:59:c4:72
> >> eth1 mac 00:50:ba:8f:f1:17
> >> eth2 mac 00:60:08:bf:4b:f2
> >
> > There doesn't appear to be an /etc/iftab on any of my Debian systems. I
> > haven't done an exhaustive search, but my Sarge servers don't have one. A
> > brand new Etch desktop doesn't have one. Nor does my aging PC that's been
> > upgraded to/from various Debian flavors over the years.
>
> Hmm. Mine's right there in /etc. It's on all the Ubuntu boxes and I read
> that Debian was the same. Guess it was wrong.
>
> Anyway, I find it handy in case I want my eth's ordered just so.
>
> Michael

Ok, after a bit of Googling I found this: 
http://www.linuxmanpages.com/man5/iftab.5.php

It seems that /etc/iftab is used only by ifrename. It probably is created by 
an install script when you install the ifrename package. It's not on any of 
my systems as I never have installed ifrename (hadn't heard of it till now!).

This might actually solve a similar problem that I've been having, here. My 
server boards have three interfaces--two 1000base-T & one 100base-T. I've 
been using the 'hardware address' parameter in the /etc/network/interfaces 
file to match ethx address to interfaces, but it never works after a reboot 
and I have to manually use ifup/down to bring them up in the right order.

Cheers!

cmr
-- 
Debian 'Etch': Registered Linux User #241964

"More laws, less justice." -- Marcus Tullius Ciceroca, 42 BC