I've had endless trouble with WiFi on one laptop (ThinkPad T43)
out of four - it works perfectly on the other three.
Reluctantly, I'm trying to work out how WiFi works,
or is meant to work.
My initial thought is that it is an incredible mess,
at least under Fedora.
To start with, there seem to be a large number of files involved,
each of which may or may not have a vital role to play.
I'm assuming for the purposes of this exercise that NM (NetworkManager)
is not running, but the network service is.
(I think this is the default under Fedora-8?)
As far as I can see, the most important files
are /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth?
(or ifcfg-<if> if some other interface is called).
But there are also the files in /etc/sysconfig/networking/devices
and /etc/sysconfig/networking/profiles/default .
I don't understand the relation between these
(or how anyone in their right mind could have introduced them all).
But as well as these, and earlier in the booting story,
are various other files, listed in the order I think Linux reads them:
1. /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules
with lines like
SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*",
ATTR{address}=="00:02:2d:1d:43:b7", ATTR{type}=="1", NAME="eth0"
2. /etc/modprobe.conf
with lines like "alias eth0 orinoco_cs"
3. /etc/dhclient-eth0.conf
which in my case is empty.
Assuming it is not necessary, why is it there?
4. /var/lib/dhclient/dhclient-eth0.leases
But I get my present headache by reading in /var/log/messages:
--------------------------------------------
Mar 9 13:10:32 elizabeth kernel:
udev: renamed network interface eth0 to eth2
Mar 9 13:10:32 elizabeth kernel:
udev: renamed network interface eth1 to eth0
--------------------------------------------
Why?
Who or what and why decides what interface is what?
Can I do anything about it, or is it an act of God?
--
Timothy Murphy
e-mail (<80k only): tim /at/ birdsnest.maths.tcd.ie
tel: +353-86-2336090, +353-1-2842366
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland
