Date: Sun, 9 Apr 2006 10:07:57 +0100 From: Bruce M Simpson <bms@spc.org> To: Mike Meyer <mwm-keyword-freebsdhackers.102a7e@mired.org> Cc: Ceri Davies <ceri@submonkey.net>, Scott Long <scottl@samsco.org>, hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Using any network interface whatsoever Message-ID: <20060409090757.GW80492@spc.org> In-Reply-To: <17464.16087.217524.843667@bhuda.mired.org> References: <C05CAC06.C0BD%ceri@submonkey.net> <20060407225742.GA21619@odin.ac.hmc.edu> <20060407230247.GH16344@submonkey.net> <4437C9F6.5000008@samsco.org> <17463.65076.117616.563302@bhuda.mired.org> <443811EF.2020509@samsco.org> <17464.8074.937742.701480@bhuda.mired.org> <44383346.2030207@samsco.org> <17464.16087.217524.843667@bhuda.mired.org>
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Mike, Tell me about it, I know exactly what you mean! On Sat, Apr 08, 2006 at 06:53:11PM -0400, Mike Meyer wrote: > My question about labels for ethernet devices wasn't meant to be > rhetorical. Ethernet device names on Unix are pretty much > worthless. They tell you basically nothing about which device you've > got. On FreeBSD, different card types have different names, which is > better than nothing - but that's about all it's better than. We need > something akin to labels for ethernet devices. The LAN it's plugged > into is the equivalent of the data on the disk - but there's no > equivalent for the label. > > What do I want for that? I identify ethernet boards by which slot on > the back of the system I plug the cable into. Currently, I have to map > that to board types to and which board is plugged into which slot to > know which name to use. I want a name that tells me which slot I plug > a cable in to plug it into that interface. I investigated this problem when doing research on XORP. The behaviour you describe is a functional requirement for a router chassis. What it really comes down to is that one needs a PCI variant which supports what's known as 'geographical addressing', and for FreeBSD's device / ifnet framework to support naming cards according to the geographic i.e. physical address. If you look at the very bottom of the man page pci(9) you'll see I've left a footnote about this. Unfortunately the only systems which tend to implement this feature at the moment are CompactPCI based chassis systems. Although there is support for geographical addressing in a recent ACPI spec but as far as I know it may only really have made its way into blade systems. Hope this helps. Regards, BMS P.S. If etiquette were taken more seriously then society as a whole might function better -- I think of it as part of the 'operating system' of the human spirit!
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