can i completely delete and recreate my network interfaces?

[John Summerfield]

Robert P. J. Day wrote:
>   let's see if i can make a long story short.  for the sake of sheer
> experimentation, i wanted to see if i could *totally* remove all
> networking configuration from a gateway laptop running F8 x86_64, then
> use system-config-network (henceforth, s-c-n) to recreate it from
> scratch.
> 
>   the underlying hardware (from lspci):
> ...
> 02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8036
> PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller (rev 10)
> ...
> 08:07.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One
> 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)
> ...
> 
>   so i went into s-c-n, removed all traces of network configuration
> under both the Devices and Hardware tabs, saved that, removed the
> lines from /etc/modprobe.conf:
> 
>   alias eth0 sky2          (um ... i think that's what it was)
>   alias wlan0 b43	   (added previously by me for wireless)
> 
> i then unloaded the above modules from the system, and verified that
> the directory /etc/sysconfig/networking/devices is utterly empty.  so
> ... should i be able to put stuff back?
> 
>   if i invoke s-c-n again, i'm not surprised to see both the Devices
> and Hardware tabs totally empty.  so how could i recreate the wired
> interface eth0?  if i try to add a new device of type "Ethernet
> Connection", i'm given only a choice of "Other Ethernet Card", and i
> don't see a corresponding entry for that ethernet controller.  should
> i?  or am i going about this the wrong way?  what would be the correct
> recipe to restore my eth0 interface?
> 
>   i have just as little success trying to restore the wlan0 wireless
> interface, *until* i add the line
> 
>   alias wlan0 b43
> 
> back to /etc/modprobe.conf, at which point restoring the wireless
> interface via s-c-n is a piece of cake (it even handles the access
> point's WEP).
> 
>   so wireless is back, but still no wired interface eth0, although i'm
> puzzled that the directory /etc/sysconfig/networking/devices now
> contains three files:
> 
> ifcfg-eth0
> ifcfg-wlan0
> keys-wlan0
> 
> and ifcfg-eth0 contains:
> 
> # Intel Corporation PRO/100 VE Network Connection
> DEVICE=eth0
> BOOTPROTO=dhcp
> HWADDR=00:E0:B8:BF:7C:3F
> ONBOOT=yes
> TYPE=Ethernet
> 
>   so what have i messed up?  is there, in fact, any way to restore
> eth0?  thanks.

I think you need to reboot.


-- 

Cheers
John

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