Re: control of order of inet devices

On Wed, Apr 17, 2013 at 4:14 AM, Willy Offermans
<Willy_at_offermans.rompen.nl>wrote:

> Hello Brooks,
>
> On Tue, Apr 16, 2013 at 10:44:23AM -0500, Brooks Davis wrote:
> > On Tue, Apr 16, 2013 at 03:56:21PM +0200, Willy Offermans wrote:
> > > Dear FreeBSD friends,
> > >
> > > How can I control the order of the network devices in FreeBSD.
> > >
> > > For example, the command ifconfig lists the network devices:
> > >
> > > pcn0: flags=8802<BROADCAST,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
> > >         options=80000<LINKSTATE>
> > >         ether 00:0c:46:ea:2b:32
> > >         nd6 options=29<PERFORMNUD,IFDISABLED,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
> > >         media: Ethernet 100baseFX
> > >         status: no carrier
> > > rl0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu
> 1500
> > >         options=2008<VLAN_MTU,WOL_MAGIC>
> > >         ether 00:11:6b:99:7c:5a
> > >         inet XXX.XXX.24.4 netmask 0xffffff80 broadcast 137.226.24.127
> > >         inet6 fe80::211:6bff:fe99:7c5a%rl0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x4
> > >         nd6 options=29<PERFORMNUD,IFDISABLED,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
> > >         media: Ethernet autoselect (100baseTX <full-duplex>)
> > >         status: active
> > > nfe0: flags=8802<BROADCAST,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
> > >         options=82008<VLAN_MTU,WOL_MAGIC,LINKSTATE>
> > >         ether 00:1b:fc:df:a1:33
> > >         nd6 options=29<PERFORMNUD,IFDISABLED,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
> > >         media: Ethernet autoselect (none)
> > >         status: no carrier
> > > plip0: flags=8810<POINTOPOINT,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
> > >         nd6 options=29<PERFORMNUD,IFDISABLED,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
> > > lo0: flags=8049<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 16384
> > >         options=600003<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,RXCSUM_IPV6,TXCSUM_IPV6>
> > >         inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128
> > >         inet6 fe80::1%lo0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x7
> > >         inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000
> > >         nd6 options=21<PERFORMNUD,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
> > > tap0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu
> 1500
> > >         options=80000<LINKSTATE>
> > >         ether 00:22:19:10:8d:bb
> > >         inet XXX.XXX.24.19 netmask 0xffffffff broadcast 137.226.24.19
> > >         inet6 fe80::2bd:83ff:fe68:7200%tap0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x8
> > >         nd6 options=21<PERFORMNUD,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
> > >         media: Ethernet autoselect
> > >         status: no carrier
> > >
> > > pcn0 being first. However, I would like tap0 being first and of course
> > > without any output ordering trick.
> >
> > The order is dictated by the order the drivers are probed by the kernel.
> > When the devices are created they are added to a linked list.  There is
> > no practical way to control the order and it has little or no effect.
> >
> > -- Brooks
>
> 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.
>

What information did you give them when you registered that software?  Was
it just the MAC address of tap0?

If it was just the MAC address of tap0, you could try changing the MAC
address of pcn0 to the MAC address of tap0:

echo 'ifconfig pcn0 ether 00:22:19:10:8d:bb' >/etc/start_if.pcn0
echo 'ifconfig tap0 ether 00:22:19:10:8d:bc' >/etc/start_if.tap0