netdev - Re: PATCH: Network Device Naming mechanism and policy

lists.openwall.net		lists / announce owl-users owl-dev john-users john-dev passwdqc-users yescrypt popa3d-users / oss-security kernel-hardening musl sabotage tlsify passwords / crypt-dev xvendor / Bugtraq Full-Disclosure linux-kernel linux-netdev linux-ext4 linux-hardening linux-cve-announce PHC
Open Source and information security mailing list archives

Hash Suite: Windows password security audit tool. GUI, reports in PDF.

[<prev] [next>] [<thread-prev] [thread-next>] [day] [month] [year] [list]

Date:	Fri, 9 Oct 2009 22:23:08 -0700
From:	Greg KH <greg@...ah.com>
To:	Matt Domsch <Matt_Domsch@...l.com>
Cc:	Stephen Hemminger <shemminger@...tta.com>, netdev@...r.kernel.org,
	linux-hotplug@...r.kernel.org, Narendra_K@...l.com,
	jordan_hargrave@...l.com
Subject: Re: PATCH: Network Device Naming mechanism and policy

On Fri, Oct 09, 2009 at 11:40:57PM -0500, Matt Domsch wrote:
> The fundamental roadblock to this is that enumeration != naming,
> except that it is for network devices, and we keep changing the
> enumeration order.

No, the hardware changes the enumeration order, it places _no_
guarantees on what order stuff will be found in.  So this is not the
kernel changing, just to be clear.

Again, I have a machine here that likes to reorder PCI devices every 4th
or so boot times, and that's fine according to the PCI spec.  Yeah, it's
a crappy BIOS, but the manufacturer rightly pointed out that it is not
in violation of anything.

> Today, port naming is completely nondeterministic.  If you have but
> one NIC, there are few chances to get the name wrong (it'll be eth0).
> If you have >1 NIC, chances increase to get it wrong.

That is why all distros name network devices based on the only
deterministic thing they have today, the MAC address.  I still fail to
see why you do not like this solution, it is honestly the only way to
properly name network devices in a sane manner.

All distros also provide a way to easily rename the network devices, to
place a specific name on a specific MAC address, so again, this should
all be solved already.

No matter how badly your BIOS teams mess up the PCI enumeration order :)

thanks,

greg k-h
--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe netdev" in
the body of a message to majordomo@...r.kernel.org
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html