Bug 7398

Summary:	random nic selected on boot in a wired setup
Product:	Mageia	Reporter:	Bit Twister <bittwister2>
Component:	RPM Packages	Assignee:	Mageia Bug Squad <bugsquad>
Status:	RESOLVED FIXED	QA Contact:
Severity:	major
Priority:	Normal	CC:	cjw, davidwhodgins, djmarian4u, ftg, mageia
Version:	Cauldron
Target Milestone:	---
Hardware:	x86_64
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:	3alpha1 3beta1
Source RPM:	systemd ?	CVE:
Status comment:

Description Bit Twister 2012-09-08 07:38:22 CEST

Description of problem:

random nic selected on boot in a wired setup.
I have two nic cards, tulip and Realtek.
Since there is no persistent rule file in /etc/udev/rules.d for -net 
device selection is random.

Also missing *persistent-cd for dual cd/dvd drives.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):


How reproducible: Most of the time.


Steps to Reproduce:
1. clean install with updates
2. reboot system
3. ifconfig eth0
4. check HWaddr to see which nic was selected for eth0
5. run steps 2 through 4

Temp Workaround solution:
copy /etc/udev/rules.d/*persistent* from a release 2 installed system

Comment 1 Bit Twister 2012-09-08 08:04:02 CEST

workaround solution did not work.

I have no idea where eth0 should be associated with 8139too and eth1 with tulip.
Thought they used be set/associated/ in /etc/modprobe.conf

Comment 2 Dave Hodgins 2012-09-08 16:58:45 CEST

Did you run "dracut -f", after creating the persistent rules?

CC: (none) => davidwhodgins

Comment 3 Bit Twister 2012-09-08 17:17:55 CEST

(In reply to comment #2)
> Did you run "dracut -f", after creating the persistent rules?

No. I have no idea what I am doing. 

New/Improved temp Workaround solution:
copy /etc/udev/rules.d/*persistent* from a release 2 installed system and do a
dracut -f


I'll keep an eye out to see if that solves my problem. I do not know if the Source Rpm: should be udev or systemd. Looks like bug 4352 might jog someone's memory.

Comment 4 Manuel Hiebel 2012-09-09 13:19:06 CEST

seems I have a similar issue, wifi should be eth1 and sometimes it's eth0


colin, something for you ?

CC: (none) => mageia
Source RPM: (none) => systemd ?
Whiteboard: (none) => 3alpha1

Comment 5 Colin Guthrie 2012-09-09 14:41:53 CEST

Yeah this is actually a known issue since the persistent net generators were dropped. It's on my todo to speak to Kay upstream about the alternative (which is biosname ethernet devices).

Comment 6 Bit Twister 2012-09-10 13:04:32 CEST

(In reply to comment #2)
> Did you run "dracut -f", after creating the persistent rules?

Yes, but network configuration is still fluid/broke/random.

It took 3 boots to get the network connection correct. :(
First boot picked nic 2, second boot pick nic 1 but nic 2 was picked as gateway.
Third boot picked nic 1 with gateway on nic 1 and I had internet connectivity.

This is a static setup for both nics and ifcfg-eth0/1 have NM_CONTROLLED=no

Manuel Hiebel 2012-10-20 20:20:51 CEST

Whiteboard: 3alpha1 => 3alpha2

Comment 7 Bit Twister 2012-11-16 16:49:49 CET

alpha2 and alpha3 good news and bad news.
Good news: Nic selection has improved dramatically. snippet from my reboot.log:
2012_10_03_18:50 reboot: 6
2012_10_04_15:35 reboot: 5
2012_10_07_13:53 reboot: 2
2012_10_08_18:47 reboot: 1
2012_10_10_07:49 reboot: 2
2012_10_11_16:03 reboot: 2
2012_10_12_20:45 reboot: 6
2012_10_13_19:16 reboot: 5
2012_10_14_19:19 reboot: 1
2012_10_15_07:26 reboot: 3
2012_10_15_10:20 reboot: 1
2012_10_17_20:50 reboot: 1
2012_10_17_21:05 reboot: 2
2012_10_20_19:23 reboot: 1
2012_10_21_15:06 reboot: 1
2012_10_23_14:44 reboot: 5
2012_10_31_15:52 reboot: 1
2012_11_01_03:35 reboot: 1
2012_11_02_19:10 reboot: 1
2012_11_09_04:51 reboot: 1
to reboot: 0

Bad news: still needs workaround fix to work:
copy /etc/udev/rules.d/*persistent* from a release 2 installed system and do a
dracut -f

Manuel Hiebel 2012-11-17 14:33:32 CET

Whiteboard: 3alpha2 => 3alpha3

Comment 8 Manuel Hiebel 2012-12-09 12:39:38 CET

*** Bug 8338 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

CC: (none) => djmarian4u

Comment 9 Christiaan Welvaart 2012-12-09 15:25:59 CET

Two different parts of this feature were removed from upstream systemd/udev:
  - support for generation of the persistent net rules
  - support for switching the names of two interfaces  a <-> b
    (upstream udev now only supports renaming a -> c , b -> d)

I fixed the second part in systemd 194-3.mga3 so with the persistent network rules and a recent systemd package network renaming should work reliably again. I guess this is what's described in comment #7 .

Now the rule generation needs to be fixed. It shouldn't even be very hard to revert the upstream changes, but apparently it still looked complicated to me, probably because it's auto-detection stuff which I don't know much about.

Note that I reported this regression on Aug 16 to the development mailing list so it was already known at the time when this bug was created. Breakage was fully expected so I don't really think waiting is a good strategy.

CC: (none) => cjw

Comment 10 Manuel Hiebel 2012-12-20 18:24:26 CET

*** Bug 8451 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

CC: (none) => ftg

Manuel Hiebel 2012-12-20 18:25:37 CET

Summary: 3_a1: random nic selected on boot in a wired setup => random nic selected on boot in a wired setup
Whiteboard: 3alpha3 => 3alpha1 3beta1

Comment 11 Colin Guthrie 2013-03-12 14:33:06 CET

This should be fixed now as I've added back in the (horrible, ugly, evil) persistent-net rules generator.

We will be removing this in Mageia 4 for good (yippee) and will replace it with the predictable network device names system provided by newer systemd/udev: http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/PredictableNetworkInterfaceNames

Please reopen if this is still a problem.

Status: NEW => RESOLVED
Resolution: (none) => FIXED