Interface Renaming in FreeBSD

Ok, this can be a really useful feature.  Renaming network interfaces in freebsd to something more useful.

This requires FreeBSD 7.  We are going to rename fxp0 to net0.  Edit /etc/rc.conf and add:

ifconfig_fxp0_name=”net0″
ifconfig_net0=”inet 10.0.0.1 netmask 255.0.0.0″

Yes – it’s that simple 🙂

4 thoughts on “Interface Renaming in FreeBSD

  1. BSDGuy

    This is very useful! I restored my current server to a new machine. The old machnines nic name was “bge0” and the new machines nic name was “em0. It was a pain as I had to change the nic name in rc.conf, pf.conf and a few other places I can’t remember now.

    This is a great way of avoiding all that hassle…thank you!

    Reply
  2. dan Post author

    there’s a few places where the new name doesn’t work (such as my PPPOE setup at home) but for the most part it will work fine – certainly with firewalls and rc.conf etc.
    I prefer the em0 card to the bge0. The newer igb0 cards are even nicer (MSI-X support for better multi-core performance on high-load routers/servers)

    Reply

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