Christopher Head wrote: > William Hubbs <willi...@gentoo.org> wrote: > > > There is a way for users to opt out if we default this to on, but I > > think the new naming scheme has advantages over the traditional eth* > > wlan* etc names. > > I think it should be taken with a grain of salt. The page mentions how > it lets you replace a failed NIC without losing its name. But given a > simple computer with just one NIC, if the NIC fails and is replaced > (perhaps by a different type of NIC in a different slot, or perhaps an > onboard NIC disabled in the BIOS and replaced by an add-in), the name > could change, while the kernel’s automatically assigned name will not: > eth0 (this also applies to a computer with one Ethernet NIC and one > wifi NIC: eth0 and wlan0). That fact was never mentioned on the wiki > page, even though it applies to a heck of a lot of systems. Perhaps > something to include when the Gentoo docs are put together, as part of > the balance of reasons to choose one way or the other? > That's a very good point. For the vast majority of users all these "desktop" changes are supposed to help, it's not at all relevant. Obviously it's good to have the functionality should you need it, but again it appears that simple cases are being made complex, just to allow for someone else's complex cases. Which is faulty logic.
While many packages have default configurations, changing the default setup for base system packages in the absence of any configuration is not generally a good idea, unless you know for a fact it's not going to mess anything up (which is a big ask given that you're distributing source.) Especially given the arguments presented as a motivation, that all this has "serious security implications, for example in firewall rules which are coded for certain naming schemes, and which are hence very sensitive to unpredictable changing names." If you're certain that every user with a current simple setup, who uses the kernel default names, and has such a firewall setup isn't going to suddenly find their interface name changed when they reboot, fair play to you. If not, allow the admin to opt-in, rather than force them to opt-out when something breaks. That's the usual manner to introduce something new or changed, and for good reason. After all, those who are aware of it and interested, already know to configure it, or are looking for help to do so. Most other users don't care, and don't want the maintenance headache. -- #friendly-coders -- We're friendly, but we're not /that/ friendly ;-)
