Return-path: Received: from smtp.osdl.org ([65.172.181.24]:37217 "EHLO smtp.osdl.org" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1161373AbXBZXDY (ORCPT ); Mon, 26 Feb 2007 18:03:24 -0500 Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2007 15:02:41 -0800 From: Stephen Hemminger To: Larry Finger Cc: Pavel Roskin , Alex Davis , linux-wireless@vger.kernel.org, bcm43xx-dev@lists.berlios.de Subject: Re: Patch to allow specification of interface name prefix Message-ID: <20070226150241.1b5b63b2@freekitty> In-Reply-To: <45E112F7.9090908@lwfinger.net> References: <510326.55988.qm@web50211.mail.yahoo.com> <20070224233001.3ok4k0c00ksos4sw@webmail.spamcop.net> <45E112F7.9090908@lwfinger.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Sender: linux-wireless-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: On Sat, 24 Feb 2007 22:39:19 -0600 Larry Finger wrote: > Pavel Roskin wrote: > > Quoting Alex Davis : > > > >> This patch will allow you to specify the interface name prefix of wireless > >> devices. > >> > >> On my machine, the wireless devices under the bcm43xx driver are named > >> 'ethx'; I > >> would really rather have them called 'wlanx', like bcm43xx-d80211 does. > > > > You can use ifrename from wireless tools. Use the option that checks the > > ethtool information. > > > > Jean has just released Wireless Tools 29-pre12, which can read symlinks in > > sysfs. That would allow renaming d80211 based network devices by checking the > > "driver" symlinks in sysfs. I asked Jean to do that with bcm43xx_d80211 in > > mind. > > > > It's not that I'm against your patch. I'm rather ambivalent. But I think using > > ifrename could reduce the need in kernel support for interface renaming. > > NACK. > > On my system (openSUSE 10.2), one sets the name in /etc/udev/rules.d/30-net_persistent_names.rule. I > feel that interface renaming is handled perfectly well in userland, and kernel support is not needed. > This was hashed out on netdev 2+ years ago and decided that both ethernet and wireless devices should show up as 'eth%d'. For inclusion d80211 needs to conform to existing mainline kernel practice. If this means breaking the expectation of older out of tree wireless support (ie madwifi), sorry. -- Stephen Hemminger