On Mon, 17 Dec 2007, Ken Teh wrote:

> I have a Linux desktop for which lspci reports as having a realtek
> 8110/8169. I could not install it via NFS so I popped in a 3COM card
> and installed it with SL4.5. After installation, I tried to switch back
> to the onboard LAN. I removed the 3com card and modified the network
> config by editing/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 and
> /etc/modprobe.conf. Basically replacing the ifcfg-eth0 with the correct
> MAC address and modprobe.conf with the right driver. There is an r8169.ko in 
> the /lib/modules which I believe is the correct driver because I used a 
> sysrescuecd image on the box and it correctly detected the chipset, loaded 
> r8169, and activated the card without any difficulty.
>
> When I try to do an ifup eth0, I get an error message saying that the
> device has a different mac address than what was expected and it ignored
> my attempt.  I'm stumped by this.    My understanding may be dated but
> as far as I know the information to start the network correctly is in 
> ifcfg-eth0 and modprobe.conf.  I notice that a modprobe r8169 does not 
> generate any messages in dmesg.  So, it could be that r8169 is not the 
> correct driver.  Except for the fact that sysrescuecd used this driver and it 
> also has a 2.6 kernel.
>
> Can anyone shed any light on this?  Thanks

Just remove HWADDR line from ifcfg-eth0, it's not required.

>
> Ken
>

-- 
Best regards,
  Valery Mitsyn