Sequence of network cards

Sequence of network cards

[Karel Kulhavy]

Hello

I have a PCI machine with 2.4.25 kernel with 4 network cards:
eth0, IRQ 11, 3Com Corporation 3c900 Combo [Boomerang] (rev 0)
eth1, IRQ 5, 3Com Corporation 3c905C-TX/TX-M [Tornado] (rev 116).
eth2, IRQ 10, nVidia Corporation nForce2 Ethernet Controller (rev 161)
eth3, IRQ 3, Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 16)

Will the sequence of network cards change when I upgrade to 2.6.13.4?
All the drivers are compiled directly into kernel, not as modules.

Is the algorithm for assignment of eth? numbers by Linux kernel
documented anywhere?

CL<

Re: Sequence of network cards

[Arjan van de Ven]

> Is the algorithm for assignment of eth? numbers by Linux kernel
> documented anywhere?

it's generally on a pci bus order. However... if you switch to acpi by
going from 2.4 to 2.6, the pci bus order might change.

The good news is that you can do a few things to mitigate this:
1) Several distros (including Fedora Core) allow you to bind ethX
numbers to mac addresses, eg effectively persistent binding of ethX
numbers to specific cards
2) you can rename ethX to ethY yourself with nameif and similar tools.

Re: Sequence of network cards

[Bill Davidsen]

Arjan van de Ven wrote:
>>Is the algorithm for assignment of eth? numbers by Linux kernel
>>documented anywhere?
> 
> 
> it's generally on a pci bus order. However... if you switch to acpi by
> going from 2.4 to 2.6, the pci bus order might change.
> 
> The good news is that you can do a few things to mitigate this:
> 1) Several distros (including Fedora Core) allow you to bind ethX
> numbers to mac addresses, eg effectively persistent binding of ethX
> numbers to specific cards
> 2) you can rename ethX to ethY yourself with nameif and similar tools.

I knew about nameif, I was unaware of the bind to MAC solution, and 
thank you much for it. As the number of cards goes up it scales easily.

-- 
    -bill davidsen (davidsen@tmr.com)
"The secret to procrastination is to put things off until the
  last possible moment - but no longer"  -me