CentOS 5.4: System migration issue with network card
 

Hello everyone!

I hope I'm posting this in the correct forum. I recently created an image of my CentOS 5.4 install and migrated it from one machine to another. I plan on using this image for more than one machine, but have been having problems with the network driver on boot. I get the error:

"e1000e device eth0 does not seem to be present..."

I know the reason why this is happening. Modprobe.conf has the line "alias eth0 e1000e" which is the module for the network card in the original machine. I was wondering if there is a way with using udev or something else to have the correct network module auto loaded at boot and assigned to eth0. Any information on this would be greatly appreciated.

::edit::

I know it would be simple to just add the correct module to the modprobe.conf file, but it would make my life a lot easier to just have it detect the new network card on boot properly because of the project I am working on. Thanks!

Can you just enable kudzu ? ..

Is this something that can run before the network INIT scripts? I need the networking to work as it normally would on boot.

::edit::

Now that I think about it, doesn't Fedora somehow do this on boot anyway? My modprobe.conf file on my fedora box is empty, yet the driver is getting mapped correctly to eth0. Udev?

If kudzu is enabled it will prompt you to reconfigure during boot if it finds new or missing hardware, and yes, it does this prior to bringing up the network

cheers

Kudzu is in fact enabled, and is in the init scripts. I'm not getting anything on boot asking to reconfigure.

Try running it manually... it should prompt you to remove the configuration for the missing nic and ask you if you want to configure the new nic

Basically, for this project to work correctly I need the NIC to be configured at boot. When the system comes up, it will run some pre-defined tasks over the network. Kudzu is running on boot, but does not change anything in modprode.conf. It's still giving the error "e1000e device eth0 does not seem to be present..." which is the wrong module for the network card, thus kudzu is changing nothing. Any ideas as to why this isn't happening correctly on boot? also, my kudzu config file only has the option "SAFE=no" in it.

Found a tidbit that may be relevant -

.. can you please confirm whether you have a 'HWADDR' line in your network config ?

cheers

I just checked and the "network.hwaddr" line is present in /etc/sysconfig/hwconf. Still no dice. Kudzu is refusing to load the correct module. I tried manually editing modprobe.conf and adding "alias eth0 forcedeth" and the new system works perfectly. Problem is still that all the network cards are not going to be the same and I need it to detect at boot. Any other ideas? I'm stumped on this one.

You might have to try one of the alternatives to kudzu -
http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/..._configuration

cheers