Cloned machine, no network

I installed an OpenSUSE 10.3 system scratch (disk formatted first)
and created an image for cloning on 35 other PCs with 100%
identical hardware. (I have done this with OpsenSuSE 9.3, 10.1, 10.2
before).

I found the text "TID 3048119, “Cloned machine does not boot up properly”
on the NOVELL: Support webpage and followed these instructions
before creating the image for cloning.

cat< /dev/null > /etc/udev/rules.d/30-net_persistent_names.rules

this created a 0-byte file (which previously did not exist)

in /etc/sysconfig/network
the network card was already of the form ifcfg-eth0
(no MAC address in the name)

in /etc/sysconfig/network/config
there were NO lines containing FORCE_PERSISTENT_NAMES
(this was present in 10.1 and 10.2 which I then had to change to make
the cloned image work)
I also made the changes for disabling the use of persistent storage
device names as outlined in that document.

After cloning the created disk image, the clone can boot, the disks
are found OK, opensSUSE starts up into the Desktop, but there is no
network connection.

If I look into Yast / Network Devices / Network Card
I have 2 lines instead of 1 line what I would expect
(I have a single netwerk card in the system) :

One line for my unique network card, stating: Not configured’
If I hit the config button : the default settings are:
Activate device at boot time
Dynamic address: DHCP
Hardware: in the Udev rules, field ’ Matching rule’
(in grey) ATTR(address) = ‘…’ … =the MAC address of this PC

One line for my unique network card (exactly the same hardware name)
stating: ‘DHCP’
the bottom half of the screen tells me:
Ethernet controller (Not connected)
Devcice name: eth-eth0
Started automatically at boot
IP address assigned using DHCP
If I look at the configuration: it is set to
Activate device at boot time
Dynamic Address: DHCP
Hardware: Udev rules: nothing in the ‘Matching rule’ field

This second one is the one I would expect to be the ONLY one
(as was in OpenSUSE 10.2 after cloning)

I can’t delete the ‘Not configured’ line and even if I could do so, it would
let me with the second, but this has no record for the MAC address.
Also, if any manual intervention would be needed to get things working, then
this would have to be done every morning on 35 individual PCs (unrealistic!)

In /etc/sysconfig/network, there is one ifcfg* file:
ifcfg-eth0 (beside ifcfg-lo and ifcfg.template)
the parameters inside look OK (dhcp, startmode auto, name is exact name
of my network card)

The file /etc/udev/rules.d/30-net_persistent_names.rules
exists and is size 0 (as part of the cloned image)

In OpenSUSE 10.2 cloning was OK.

What’s wrong and how to remedy ??

Hi,
unfortunately I can’t help you.
I’m just replying since I believe I have a similar problem.
I moved my hard-disk into another PC (identical to the original) with, of course, a different network MAC address.
I have SuSE linux 10.2
I had to delete inside YaST the ancient network card and I configured the new (and only) one (I find this PERSISTENT thing a very stupid choice).
I removed the rename line in order to have the new card as eth0 and not eth1.
I look for any reference to the ancient MAC address inside the whole /etc folder and I found nothing.
But unfortunately I’m not able to make dhcp client work in my system. As there it was still something missing in the configuration.
Manual configuration of IP address and gateway solves the problem. But I’d like to use dhcp in order to receive updated information concerning DNS, NIS, NTP, etc…

Where is the last hidden setting that we do not find?

Max