[oclug] network issue with Debian Woody

[Dennis Gardner]

Hello All,

I was able to setup a debian woody pc no problem with one IBM (tulip 
based) network card.  During installation, the NIC was configured as eth0 
and the tulip driver was configured/installed as a module.  

Now, I'd like to start setting up this pc as a firewall/gateway for my
house (temporarily while I do upgrades on the current firewall/gateway).  
Therefore, I am trying to add a second network card.  I've got a realtek
8139 card.  It comes up during boot and takes eth0.  The 8139cp and
8139too drivers are complied into the kernel (2.4.18-bf2.4) on the system.

here is a snip from dmesg:

8139cp 10/100 PCI Ethernet driver v0.0.6 (Nov 19, 2001)
8139cp: pci dev 00:0d.0 (id 10ec:8139 rev 10) is not an 8139C+ compatible 
chip
8139cp: Try the "8139too" driver instead.
8139too Fast Ethernet driver 0.9.24
PCI: Found IRQ 10 for device 00:0d.0
eth0: RealTek RTL8139 Fast Ethernet at 0xd081a000, 00:50:bf:39:86:34, IRQ 
10
eth0:  Identified 8139 chip type 'RTL-8139B'

My problem with this install and other linux installs, to be honest, is
that I don't understand how/when the ethX names get assigned to the
network cards.

Why did the realtek card take over eth0?  I still want the IBM card to 
have eth0.  I don't know how to do that.  Physically swapping the two 
cards in their PCI slots did not change the ethX assignments.

If you know how to fix the problem, I'd like to avoid compiling my own 
kernel.  I'd like to continue to use the ones from the Debian packages (if 
possible).

Anyway, for the time being, I changed all entries of eth0 in 
/etc/interfaces to eth1 and the system is fine.

BTW, does anyone know what I should put in /etc/interfaces for an 
interface that will run as a pppoe device (using rp-pppoe)?  

Sorry if these questions should have been posted to the novice list.  I'll 
move them over there is that is the case.

Thanks,

Dennis