OLPC where to go development advice.

[Mikus Grinbergs]

>> But I have *not* been able to assign a static ip address when a "real"
 >> network was involved - Network Manager intervenes and "destroys"
 >> whatever setup I've configured.  [And if I stop Network manager,
 >> the XO manages to 'vanish' the *hardware* device to which I would be
 >> assigning my static-address communications interface.]
>
> 
> A little OT, a hint for you: I think you need to learn about more
> about interface state. By default, the kernel boots with interfaces
> down, and something in userspace (e.g. networkmanager) has to bring
> them up. It kinda makes sense for networkmanager to bring them down
> when it exits as well.
> 
> By default, ifconfig only shows interfaces that are up. When you say
> that they are vanishing, I guess you mean that they do not appear in
> ifconfig output. You can use "ifconfig -a" to show all interfaces,
> regardless of whether they are up or down. And you can use "ifconfig
> <iface> up" and "ifconfig <iface> down" to change the state.


I do realize that 'ifconfig' only shows interfaces that are up -- 
and that it is 'ifconfig <iface> up <ip-addr>' that would be used to 
configure a static ip address (and bring <iface> up).

The problem was that when I tried to assign a static address, the 
'ifconfig <iface> up' was returning "<iface>: unknown interface: No 
such device".  I even wrote this up (more than a year ago) as #5854, 
which I eventually closed myself because rather than continue to 
struggle with assigning a static ip address, I bypassed that problem 
by setting up a server to automatically assign a dynamic address. 
[There still exists ticket #8387 for "no static ip addresses".]


mikus