Re: control of order of inet devices

On Wed, Apr 17, 2013 at 04:27:44AM -0500, Joshua Isom wrote:
> On 4/17/2013 4:14 AM, Willy Offermans wrote:
> > This is what I read in some of the articles or handbook as well. Can I
> > reorder this linked list? Can I control the order by creating the kernel
> > and reordering the inclusion of the device drivers?
> >
> > I am aware that the request sounds silly, but I have a third party program
> > which checks its licence against the first inet device. Since I have added
> > a new inet controller, the sequence has changed. Of course I ask for a new
> > licence, but they want to charge me for that and I do not see any reason
> > for that.
> 
> Load old inet devices like normal, in loader.conf.  Then load the new 
> device driver before networking, after rc's started.  If it'd because of 
> probe order, then you might just have to control the probe order the 
> hard way.  If the program's calling ifconfig itself, you could write a 
> wrapper to resort the output.  And call a lawyer, getting a new ethernet 
> card shouldn't void a license.

It wouldn't be particularly hard to influence the sorting of the list if
you're willing to modify the if_attach_internal() function and always
insert devices with that name at the beginning.  It just doesn't seem
very general purpose so I'd have a hard time considering including it.

-- Brooks