udev

Several time I’ve been asked how to rename a network card label on a Linux system, this can be achieve by following the steps mentioned bellow.

Stop networking

service networking stop

The network kernel module needs to be removed, but first you need to identify the right kernel module

sudo lspci -k | grep -i -A4

ethernet 04:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 07) Subsystem: Sony Corporation Device 9099
Kernel driver in use: r8169
Kernel modules: r8169

Reload rules

udevadm control –reload-rules

Edit udev rules by editing the /etc/udev/rules.d/*persistent-net.rules, in the example bellow we will set previous eth0 to eth5

# PCI device 0x10ec:0x8168 (r8169)

SUBSYSTEM==”net”, ACTION==”add”, DRIVERS==”?*”, ATTR{address}==”d4:3d:7e:xx:xx:xx”, ATTR{dev_id}==”0x0″, ATTR{type}==”1″, KERNEL==”eth*”, NAME=”eth5″

 

Remove the module in question

rmmod r8169

I’m using an realtek chip on my Vaio laptop, you should replace r8169 with the module in your system
Request device events from the kernel

udevadm trigger

Start network

service network restart

Et voila! You should have now a network card named eth5 on your system.
If you want to learn more about udev and udevadm check the info here or just type man udevadm on the command line.

Have fun,

Pedro Oliveira

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