[This message has also been posted to linux.debian.user.] In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Michael Kerwin wrote: > This is a multi-part message in MIME format. > > ------=_NextPart_000_0026_01C7E5A6.73D59EE0 > Content-Type: text/plain; > charset="US-ASCII" > Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > > I am seeing some strange behavior on a debian etch stable computer that I > just installed using the new debian 4.0 r1 disc. > > > > I have the static address set in /etc/network/interfaces for eth0 but then > when I ran ifconfig it said it was eth9 and it was using the dchp address > from the server not my static address. So I added eth9 to the > /etc/network/interfaces for the static address I wanted and when I rebooted > and did an ifconfig it said it was using eth10 and the dchp address. Why is > the Ethernet changing? What can I do so I can keep a satic address. I have > the address I want in the host file also.
I ran into more or less the same thing. Apparently the issue is that a fresh Etch install will use udev to assign the name to the network interface when it is discovered. The udev mechanism is trying to nail the ethN name to a particular MAC address. It adds a line to the file /etc/udev/rules.d/z25_persistent-net.rules each time it sees a new MAC address. This was a test system with various hardware under test. An Ethernet interface (motherboard or add-in card) has a factory-assigned MAC address. Each time I tried a new network card it would add another line with the ethN incremented. Edit /etc/udev/rules.d/z25_persistent-net.rules and change the first ATTRS{address}=="00:11:5b:2f:a0:75" (or whatever) to ATTRS{address}=="??:??:??:??:??:??:" and see if that stabilizes it. This will not work if you have more than one Ethernet interface. This new behavior was documented here http://www.debian.org/releases/etch/i386/release-notes/ch-whats-new.en.html#s-kernel-udev The rules file(s) is documented in the udev(7) manpage and the deamon that edits them is udevd(8). You will have a similar but more alarming problem with hard drive partitions. In the Olden Days you could call them by their /dev names in /etc/fstab. But those names are no longer stable. When you create file systems and initialize swap partitions, you should give each a unique volume label, and call them by label in /etc/fstab. This is a feature, not a bug. It lets you move your drives around without having to edit /etc/fstab again. Cameron -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]