Re: how to keep eth0 etch0 and not change

[This message has also been posted to linux.debian.user.] In article <8VsSR-65I-15@gated-at.bofh.it>, Michael Kerwin wrote:
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> I am seeing some strange behavior on a debian etch stable computer that I
> just installed using the new debian 4.0 r1 disc.
>
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>
> 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

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