On Tue, Mar 24, 2009 at 05:02:19PM +0000, Scott James Remnant wrote:

On Tue, 2009-03-24 at 10:46 -0500, Matt Domsch wrote:

quoted

biosdevname (http://linux.dell.com/projects.shtml#biosdevname) takes a
stab at this.  It can be integrated into udev, such that the
70-persistent-net.rules file is never used, and the naming for each
device comes from several different policies.  Its primary drawback is
that it changes the device namespace, which some sysadmins, and tools,
may not like.  Names for devices become eth_s0_0 for the first
onboard NIC, eth_s0_1 for the second; eth_s3_3 for the fourth port
on PCI Slot #3, etc.

While this works for PCI slots, it already doesn't scale to other buses.
For example what slot number is the pccard slot?  If you have two
different pccard devices, would they get assigned the same name (udev
currently assigns them different names).

actually biosdevname handles this already, using eth_pccard_X.Y where
X = socket and Y = function.

Now consider USB.  Would the device name change depending on which USB
port you plugged it into?  Or is USB just a single slot, in which case
what happens when you have two USB ethernet devices?

The Apple USB Ethernet device in my iPhone is not the USB Wireless
adapter I own, both have very different networking configurations.

we would obviously need a solution.  eth_usb_{something} perhaps.

-- 
Matt Domsch
Linux Technology Strategist, Dell Office of the CTO
linux.dell.com & www.dell.com/linux