Re: arbitrary ethernet devices?

Tornaria Gonzalo (gtornari@varela.reu.edu.uy)
Thu, 8 Aug 1996 16:3:06


"Michael K. Johnson" <johnsonm@redhat.com> wrote:

> Erik Troan and I just noticed that with kerneld (at least),
> ethernet devices (at least) have to be accessed in order and be
> consecutive. That is, say that you have an /etc/conf.modules file
> containing alias eth5 3c509 kerneld will not load the module when
> you run "ifconfig eth5 <ip_address>", and so ifconfig will
> respond "SIOCSIFADDR: No such device".

> This appears to mean that interfaces must be brought up in order.

> Is there any particular reason for this?

When you insert an ethernet module, it is named in order. That is,
when you ifconfig eth5, kerneld loads the 3c509 module, but it gets
named as eth0. Thus eth5 is not present and you get SIOCSIFADDR. Do
a lsmod after the ifconfig, and you should have 3c509 loaded (but
configured as eth0).

Saludos,
Gonzalo

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