I've compiled my own kernel, and networking doesn't work after the upgrade. The modules load fine, and the network card is visible. I get problems with getting a DHCP connection. It seems to look for host 255.255.255.255 and then bombs out since it's getting no requests. Thing is, it worked fine in 2.6.10, what do I need to change? I'm running Debian Sid if that helps.

EDIT:
After looking at the boot process, I see that with the new kernel, my ethernet card is configured as eth1 and some firewire networking device is configured as eth0. With my old kernel, my network card was eth0. I've been able to get networking by using eth1.

Now, my question is: How do I get eth0 as my network card? How does Linux determine which network interface gets what number?

Thanks.

there should be a file either

/etc/modules.conf

or

/etc/conf.modules

that you can place aliases in like:

alias eth0 e100
alias eth1 3c59x

you just have to know which module loads for at least one of the devices, lsmod might help there.


P.S. Posting the distribution you are using is helpful, or better yet also put it in your profile. In different Linux distros there may be easier ways to resolve certain issues.