iftab is not working for me

[Ben Stringer]

On Tue, 2006-06-27 at 12:37 +0200, Ambrogio wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> after upgrading kernel to 2.6.17 I have a change in binding network card
> with alias eth0 eth1. This is because now there is a bcm43xx driver
> working in the kernel.
> 
> I used iftab (read in some messages on list) to make the association
> static after reboot, but it don't work for me.
> 
> My iftab is:
> eth0    mac     00:16:36:20:ce:52
> eth1    mac     00:16:ce:1b:14:68
> 

Hi Ambrogio,

The manpage for iftab recommends against using eth0, eth1 as interface
names. 

<quote>
 It is discouraged to try to map interfaces to default interfaces  names
 such  as eth0, wlan0 or ppp0.  The kernel use those as the default name
 for any new interface, therefore most likely an interface will  already
 use this name and prevent ifrename to use it. Even if you use takeover,
 the interface may already be up in some cases.  Not  using  those  name
 will allow you to immediately spot unconfigured or new interfaces.
 Good  names are either totally unique and meaningfull, such as mydsl or
 privatehub, or use larger integer, such as eth5 or wlan5.   The  second
 type is usually easier to integrate in various network utilities.
</quote>

Perhaps the order of the interface discovery, and the use of ifrename in
this way is leading to the inversion.

Cheers, Ben