Renaming Ethx In Increments

I'm currently running OpenSuse 10.3 x86_64 on a machine with an Nforce motherboard with a built-in MCP65 Ethernet device. Every time I boot OpenSuse, a new Ethernet device is created with a new Ethernet number and set as default, resulting in a non-working network connection. I can address the problem by using the Yast network manager to delete the new device and properly configure the existing default device and then run:

#/sbin/service network restart

I've tried deleting all Ethernet cards in /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules but the problem still repeats itself, only that it starts from eth0 again whereas it would otherwise keep adding numbers.

This is very frustrating, I've tried several suggested solutions but the problem persists. Any ideas?

I've seen this problem on a few threads across several linux forums. Maybe fixed with a later driver? It seems to be as a direct result of udev misidentifying the network hardware because no valid MAC address is reported from the hardware. As a result, a new device node is created every time this interface is brought up.

The solution generally involves adding a rule like this:

SUBSYSTEM=="net", DRIVERS=="forcedeth", NAME="eth0"

rather than a rule with MAC address string matching like mine

SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", SYSFS{address}=="00:16:36:06:72:24", IMPORT="/lib/udev/rename_netiface %k eth0"

You can add a 'last rule' option to ensure that no further rule has any effect on this interface:

SUBSYSTEM=="net", DRIVERS=="forcedeth", NAME="eth0" OPTIONS+="last_rule"

Save the rule as 01-nvidia.rules or similar (so that it is processed first).

Hope this helps / works

That did the trick! It works perfectly now, thanks a million for the help!!

Good to to know the problem is solved!