2.6.10 - "netdev=" kernel boot commands and the Intel e1000 nic

2.6.10 - "netdev=" kernel boot commands and the Intel e1000 nic

[Alex Upton]

Hello All,

For about 3.5 days now I've been trying to swap eth0 and eth1 devices
through use of the netdev kernel boot switch.

The scenario:

We have a system with onboard NICS and a PCI Intel e1000 Fiber NIC
installed. This particular system by default forces the NIC inside the
PCI slot to always default to eth0. We want to have ultimate control as
to which NIC is deemed worthy enough to become eth0. We are using an
entirely monolithic kernel via a PXE driven build and prefer not to
support use of modules.

Reading through the kernel-parameters.txt I found the "netdev=" command
which suggests the following usage:

  netdev=   [NET] Network devices parameters
            Format: <irq>,<io>,<mem_start>,<mem_end>,<name>
            Note that mem_start is often overloaded to mean
            something different and driver-specific.

We have tried the following methods based on this info and other peoples
examples found in google land without success.

netdev=21,0x2800,0xf6fa,0xf6fd,eth1
netdev=21,0x2800,0xf6fa0000,0xf6fd0000,eth1
netdev=21,0x2800,1,32,eth1
netdev=irq=21,io=0x2800,name=eth1

We have also tried to use "nameif" as a second approach, unfortunately
nameif seems to be limited to only having the capability to change any
logical Ethernet device name other than eth0.

We've even attempted use of the "pci=" commands with hopes of reversing
the PCI search order, and forced bios values, again without success.

If anyone has any suggestions or insight on how to work with netdev and
the e1000 properly it would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks very much
-Alex

Alex.upton@inetats.com




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Re: 2.6.10 - "netdev=" kernel boot commands and the Intel e1000 nic

[jamal]

you may need to open a bug report against nameif.
btw, too long a disclaimer.

cheers,
jamal

On Fri, 2005-03-11 at 09:00, Alex Upton wrote:
> Hello All,
> 
> For about 3.5 days now I've been trying to swap eth0 and eth1 devices
> through use of the netdev kernel boot switch.
> 
> The scenario:
> 
> We have a system with onboard NICS and a PCI Intel e1000 Fiber NIC
> installed. This particular system by default forces the NIC inside the
> PCI slot to always default to eth0. We want to have ultimate control as
> to which NIC is deemed worthy enough to become eth0. We are using an
> entirely monolithic kernel via a PXE driven build and prefer not to
> support use of modules.
> 
> Reading through the kernel-parameters.txt I found the "netdev=" command
> which suggests the following usage:
> 
>   netdev=   [NET] Network devices parameters
>             Format: <irq>,<io>,<mem_start>,<mem_end>,<name>
>             Note that mem_start is often overloaded to mean
>             something different and driver-specific.
> 
> We have tried the following methods based on this info and other peoples
> examples found in google land without success.
> 
> netdev=21,0x2800,0xf6fa,0xf6fd,eth1
> netdev=21,0x2800,0xf6fa0000,0xf6fd0000,eth1
> netdev=21,0x2800,1,32,eth1
> netdev=irq=21,io=0x2800,name=eth1
> 
> We have also tried to use "nameif" as a second approach, unfortunately
> nameif seems to be limited to only having the capability to change any
> logical Ethernet device name other than eth0.
> 
> We've even attempted use of the "pci=" commands with hopes of reversing
> the PCI search order, and forced bios values, again without success.
> 
> If anyone has any suggestions or insight on how to work with netdev and
> the e1000 properly it would be greatly appreciated!
> 
> Thanks very much
> -Alex
> 
> Alex.upton@inetats.com
> 

Re: 2.6.10 - "netdev=" kernel boot commands and the Intel e1000 nic

[P]

Alex Upton wrote:
> Hello All,
> 
> For about 3.5 days now I've been trying to swap eth0 and eth1 devices
> through use of the netdev kernel boot switch.
> 
> The scenario:
> 
> We have a system with onboard NICS and a PCI Intel e1000 Fiber NIC
> installed. This particular system by default forces the NIC inside the
> PCI slot to always default to eth0. We want to have ultimate control as
> to which NIC is deemed worthy enough to become eth0. We are using an
> entirely monolithic kernel via a PXE driven build and prefer not to
> support use of modules.
> 
> If anyone has any suggestions or insight on how to work with netdev and
> the e1000 properly it would be greatly appreciated!

I've found using a higher level script with heuristics
is the only way to order nics generically as I want. for e.g.

if ethtool eth0 | grep -q "Port: FIBRE"; then
     ip link set dev eth0 name not_eth0
     ip link set dev eth1 name eth0
fi

you get the idea...

Pádraig.

Re: 2.6.10 - "netdev=" kernel boot commands and the Intel e1000 nic

[Jean Tourrilhes]

Alex Upton wrote :
> 
> We have also tried to use "nameif" as a second approach, unfortunately
> nameif seems to be limited to only having the capability to change any
> logical Ethernet device name other than eth0.

	ifrename has takeover support, however I would still
discourage you to force an interface to use the "eth0" name.

	Jean