Public SourceMage Discussion List

[Chris Dombroski <cdombroski AT icanttype.org>]

Quoting Juuso Alasuutari <iuso AT sourcemage.org>:

> Udev will not load modules in a set order, which results in network   
> interfaces
> and sound devices popping up with randomly ordered names. This is not a bug
> but a fact resulting from various conditions. This wisdom was revealed to me
> on linux-hotplug-devel in this message:
> http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-hotplug-devel&m=114488954524629&w=2
>
> Although SMGL does not imply udev, and udev's module autoloading does not
> imply having set interface names, I feel this is a nagging issue
> nevertheless. While adding udev rules to bind interface names is easy for
> anyone to do with simple instructions (which we don't have btw), it's a bit
> embarrassing for us when a relatively helpless new user can't keep his
> networking in one piece after initial SMGL install. Most if not all distros
> can at least fulfill this "little" requirement to ensure a pleasant start.
>
> What I've described here is imho the last and most annoying thing standing
> between us and The Future(TM). Yes, kill the beast that is hotplug. So I'm
> asking for ideas on how we could at least ensure that the network interfaces
> are consistent from boot one. Maybe add a script to the udev spell which
> automatically creates 00-binding.rules to carve the interface loading order
> in stone? I don't think it would be difficult.
>
> Juuso

I don't know about an automatic way of doing something intelligent,  
but writing persistent device rules looks to be pretty simple (#1).  
I've written rules for the cards on my firewall; I haven't tested them  
outside of udevtest yet, but they should work:

root@creator:~# cat /etc/udev/rules.d/00-persistent-net.rules
KERNEL=="eth*",SYSFS{address}=="00:20:18:d9:49:19",NAME="eth0"
KERNEL=="eth*",SYSFS{address}=="00:04:5a:7a:d3:01",NAME="eth1"

Unfortunately, it looks like the MAC address is the only useful  
identification information in SYSFS. Anyhow, I've lost track of where  
I was going with this so here's some information from udevtest:

root@creator:~# udevtest /class/net/eth0
main: looking at device '/class/net/eth0' from subsystem 'net'
udev_rules_get_name: rule applied, 'eth0' becomes 'eth0'
root@creator:~# udevtest /class/net/sit0
main: looking at device '/class/net/sit0' from subsystem 'net'
udev_rules_get_name: no node name set, will use kernel name 'sit0'

#1: http://reactivated.net/writing_udev_rules.html#example-iface

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