Q: OpenSuSE 11.1 - how to configure a tap with IP persistent

Heho,

for some reasons i need a tap (withoout tun/bridge) configured with a static IP and up/enabled all time.

Suse seems a little bit strange.

while its no problem to configure the tap via yast (ok, drops standard gateway…), you can´t assign an IP via yast.

if i assign it on CLI by e.g.
“ifconfig tap0 192.168.100.1” works, well - but (as i would expect), it is dropped on all time a network restart is done.

i gues, it must be in the ifconfig-tap0 in /etc/sysconfig/network.

so, any advice on that ??

the dependencies (using vbox over this tap as a hostinferce due to port security an NAT/Masq-needs) of vbox, firewall, network and tap would need to modify the standard suse scripts - wich i do not prefer for update/patch reasons.

any advice, howto, format of ifconig-tap0 etc is very appriciatet.

cheers,
Ralf

for the people who can read german, that is what i do right now (including the workarround for the tap problem):

VBox auf SuSE 11

cheers,
Ralf

But in VBox 2.1 you no longer need a tap interface for host networking?

You’re not that guy whose ISP restricts the connection to only one MAC address?

i am…

well, not the only one. this provider (providerloft.de) has some advantages for us, but yes - this port security makes it impossible to use the hostinterface nativly.

so i bind the hostinterface to a tap (which builds a ethernet broadcast domain without a bridge…), assing tap and virtual guest(s) same subnet and NAT via SuSEfirewall.

only problem is realted to this tap-bugs in suse 11.1 .

cheers,
Ralf

Well if you look at /etc/sysconfig/network, it should be ifcfg-something, not ifconfig-something. Maybe that’s the simple problem.

If not, you could read /etc/init.d/network to see how it scans the directory for devices to configure. tap is mentioned in there as going into TUNNEL_IFACES. And looking at /etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg.template, you may need to set INTERFACETYPE=tap in case ifup has problems deducing the interface type from the name of the ifcfg- file.

you possibly got me wrong…

i got a misstiping with this “ifconfig” vs “ifcfg” thingy… however…

sure - i can modify some stuff. but i want to stay with the standard as close as possible.

i am looking for my personal mistake (how to use Yast) of for a patch (from a repro i maybe don´t know, or something like that).

i have to add, that the systems in quest are updatet with you as far as possible.

the main problem is:

“you can´t assign an IP via yast.”

if you assign an IP via CLI, Yast will show it !

If you configure a tap, Yast deletes all content in /etc/sysconfig/network/routes (file still there, but empty).

So, what is the suggested way to configure a tap with yast ??

Or - is this a known bug and someones knows a patch or so ?

i kow - i could search and maybe post something in a bugtracker. but i invest some 40h a wekk into another open source project (3D Web), incl. helping newbies - so it would be great if i could get a helping hand over here. :slight_smile:

cheers,
Ralf

Maybe there isn’t, it’s not every day that a user wants to configure a tap interface so maybe it isn’t supported in YaST, but don’t hold me to this. Lots of things are not supported in YaST. I maintain my own named zone files because the YaST interface didn’t do what I wanted. Maybe it does now, I should check.

Since you are already doing something special, I don’t see any problem with putting an extra file /etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-tap0, as long as you remember to keep a copy across upgrades. That’s my opinion anyway.

i agree in general…

right now i DO modify it via CLI/script and e.g. keep a copy of “routing” and copy it back on system restart just to be safe…

thankt so far.

i will wait a little bit and post my workarround in some days, if nothing elese apears…

cheers,
Ralf

i did post a (german) howto under:
VBox auf SuSE 11

Bug is reported at:
https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=483233

cheers,
Ralf