Configuring A Network Connection Manually - Novell LINUX ENTERPRISE SERVER 10 - INSTALLATION AND ADMINISTRATION 11-05-2007 Installation Manual

30.5.2 For More Information
Find more information about NetworkManager on the following Web sites and directo-
ries:
• http://www.gnome.org/projects/NetworkManager/—NetworkMan-
ager project page
• http://en.opensuse.org/Projects/KNetworkManager—Network-
Manager KNetworkManager project page
30.6 Configuring a Network
Manual configuration of the network software should always be the last alternative.
Using YaST is recommended. However, this background information about the network
configuration can also assist your work with YaST.
All built-in network cards and hotplug network cards (PCMCIA, USB, some PCI cards)
are detected and configured via hotplug. The system sees a network card in two different
ways: first as a physical device and second as an interface. The insertion or detection
of a device triggers a hotplug event. This hotplug event triggers the initialization of the
device with the script hwup. When the network card is initialized as a new network
interface, the kernel generates another hotplug event that triggers the setup of the inter-
face with ifup.
The kernel numbers interface names according to the temporal order of their registration.
The initialization sequence is decisive for the assignment of names. If one of several
network card fails, the numbering of all subsequently initialized cards is shifted. For
real hotpluggable cards, the order in which the devices are connected is what matters.
To achieve a flexible configuration, the configuration of the device (hardware) and the
interface has been separated and the mapping of configurations to devices and interfaces
is no longer managed on the basis of the interface names. The device configurations
are located in /etc/sysconfig/hardware/hwcfg-*. The interface configura-
tions are located in /etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-*. The names of the
configurations are assigned in such a way that they describe the devices and interfaces
580 Installation and Administration
Connection Manually