[Linux-disciples] Recognizing a new NIC

[Adam Rosi-Kessel]

Jason A. Smith wrote:
> On Mon, 2005-01-24 at 10:40 -0500, Adam Rosi-Kessel wrote:
>> Jason A. Smith wrote:
>> > I have a machine with a NIC built-in. I think it is crapping out. So, I
>> > have installed another NIC. Now, I need my machine to recognize the new
>> > NIC on boot. I was pointed to /etc/network/interfaces as the locale for
>> > this information... I am unsure how to proceed at this point.
>> First step is to see if your network card is recognized.  Run 'dmesg' and see if any 
>> network cards show up there.  It should tell you the name of the interface that is 
>> created if it sees the card--typically the first card is eth0, and then if there are 
>> additional ones they will be eth1, eth2, etc..  Wireless cards often have a different 
>> naming convention, for example, my wireless card is ath0; I've also seen wlan0.
> It is recognized. I used the GNOME ui to add the other card. It is eth1.

Ah, good.  Those graphical front-ends are getting more and more useful these days. I 
learned the old fashioned way, though, so I never know how to give directions about 
finding this stuff with, e.g., GNOME.

>> If your system sees your card and has created an interface for it, then you can set a 
>> default configuration for the card in /etc/network/interfaces.  You should have a 
>> stanza there for your old card; you just need to substitute in the new interface name 
>> if there is one.
> So, I would just replace "eth0" with "eth1" - yeah? Oh, I hooked up with

Indeed, just changing eth0 to eth1 should do it. Or you could duplicate the eth0 
stanza and change it to eth1 in the duplicate--this would give you access to both 
cards, but if the first one is broken you might as well just change it.

I'm sure there is some way to do this through a control panel as well, but it is 
probably easier to just change the file.

> the man pages for interfaces... not very helpful. I am sure that the
> information is in there, it is just not accessible prose.

Yeah, the problem with man pages is they are generally intended as reference 
materials and not as tutorials/introductions/'how-to' guides.  The man page often 
assumes you already know how the thing works, and it is just reminding you of the 
options, syntax, etc..  Sometimes you can get a better introduction by googling for 
HOWTO and the name of the thing you're looking at.  There are also 'info' pages which 
are sometimes more detailed (which you get by typing info and the command line).
-- 
Adam Rosi-Kessel
http://adam.rosi-kessel.org
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