This log contains some the output of a few commands in a NON-working dhcp setup. Commands are listed chronologically. As you will see further down "sudo dhclient eth0" brings up the network. mikkel@bitsplitter:~$ ping daimi.au.dk ping: unknown host daimi.au.dk mikkel@bitsplitter:~$ ls -l /sys/class/net/eth0 total 0 -r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 2005-09-01 12:15 address -r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 2005-09-01 12:17 addr_len -r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 2005-09-01 12:17 broadcast -r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 2005-09-01 12:17 carrier lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 2005-09-01 14:15 device -> ../../../devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:12.0 -r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 2005-09-01 12:17 features -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4096 2005-09-01 12:15 flags -r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 2005-09-01 12:15 ifindex -r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 2005-09-01 12:17 iflink -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4096 2005-09-01 12:17 mtu drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 0 2005-09-01 14:14 statistics -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4096 2005-09-01 12:17 tx_queue_len -r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 2005-09-01 12:15 type -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4096 2005-09-01 12:17 weight mikkel@bitsplitter:~$ mikkel@bitsplitter:~$ udevinfo -a -p /class/net/eth0 udevinfo starts with the device the node belongs to and then walks up the device chain, to print for every device found, all possibly useful attributes in the udev key format. Only attributes within one device section may be used together in one rule, to match the device for which the node will be created. looking at class device '/sys/class/net/eth0': SUBSYSTEM=="net" SYSFS{addr_len}=="6" SYSFS{address}=="00:0b:6a:12:81:f8" SYSFS{broadcast}=="ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff" SYSFS{carrier}=="1" SYSFS{features}=="0x0" SYSFS{flags}=="0x1003" SYSFS{ifindex}=="2" SYSFS{iflink}=="2" SYSFS{mtu}=="1500" SYSFS{tx_queue_len}=="1000" SYSFS{type}=="1" SYSFS{weight}=="0" follow the "device"-link to the physical device: looking at the device chain at '/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:12.0': BUS=="pci" ID=="0000:00:12.0" DRIVER=="via-rhine" SYSFS{class}=="0x020000" SYSFS{device}=="0x3065" SYSFS{irq}=="23" SYSFS{local_cpus}=="1" SYSFS{modalias}=="pci:v00001106d00003065sv00001849sd00003065bc02sc00i00" SYSFS{subsystem_device}=="0x3065" SYSFS{subsystem_vendor}=="0x1849" SYSFS{vendor}=="0x1106" looking at the device chain at '/sys/devices/pci0000:00': BUS=="" ID=="pci0000:00" DRIVER=="unknown" mikkel@bitsplitter:~$ mikkel@bitsplitter:~$ sudo dhclient eth0 Password: Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.0.2 Copyright 2004 Internet Systems Consortium. All rights reserved. For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/products/DHCP sit0: unknown hardware address type 776 sit0: unknown hardware address type 776 Listening on LPF/eth0/00:0b:6a:12:81:f8 Sending on LPF/eth0/00:0b:6a:12:81:f8 Sending on Socket/fallback DHCPREQUEST on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 DHCPNAK from 10.0.0.1 DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 6 DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 7 DHCPOFFER from 10.0.0.1 DHCPREQUEST on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 DHCPACK from 10.0.0.1 bound to 10.0.0.2 -- renewal in 102830 seconds. mikkel@bitsplitter:~$ mikkel@bitsplitter:~$ ping daimi.au.dk PING daimi.au.dk (130.225.16.1) 56(84) bytes of data. 64 bytes from daimi.au.dk (130.225.16.1): icmp_seq=1 ttl=54 time=27.3 ms 64 bytes from daimi.au.dk (130.225.16.1): icmp_seq=2 ttl=54 time=27.7 ms 64 bytes from daimi.au.dk (130.225.16.1): icmp_seq=3 ttl=54 time=26.7 ms --- daimi.au.dk ping statistics --- 3 packets transmitted, 3 received, 0% packet loss, time 2001ms rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 26.701/27.246/27.711/0.437 ms mikkel@bitsplitter:~$