SUMMARY: Network Card Increment / Counter ... Curiosity

The answer to this little question came from several people and I thank you
very much.
The sneaky file that should be taken out back and carefully beaten is called
/etc/path_to_inst

This is the file that relates the devices to their appropriate names and
such.

Beware this file as it can muck up your system, alas it can also solve your
problem much as it did this evening.  Thank you gentlemen for all your
responses.

Gurus: D Evans; D Dunham; M Baldenegro

--Brett

====================================
The remnants are in /etc/path_to_inst.  That's what ties a physical
device to a particular instance.

I try not to muck around in there too much.  Have a backup before you
do.

If you *really* want to nuke everything, (after your backup), then
1) remove the links in /dev
2) mv /etc/path_to_inst aside
3) reboot, but at the '(b) or (i) prompt', do a 'b -a'

It should prompt for all sorts of things.  When it gets to the
'path_to_inst' file, give it '/dev/null'.  It should prompt to rebuild
from scratch.  Do so.

This could potentially renumber anything on your system (ethernets, scsi
cards..)

Good luck.
========================================
You've probably got a confused system at the moment. Short a full
reinstall the only advice I can give is dangerous but may help.

First you need to "unplumb" the device. This may be all you need
to do. If that doesn't get rid of it then you need the riskier path of
having to remove the entry in /devices and /etc/path_to_inst.
The path_to_inst will help you map the device to the /device
directory.

Then try a reconfigure boot, and don't forget to plumb for the new
device. (ifconfig plumb).
=========================================
> => From: "Brett Thorson" <bthorson@ekosystems.com>
> => To: <sunmanagers@sunmanagers.org>
> => Subject: QUESTION: Network Card Increment / Counter ... Curiosity
> => Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2001 15:25:44 -0400
> =>
> => This is kind of a strange question, but one that I am dying to figure
out.
> => Here is the scenario....
> =>
> => I had two Intel network cards plugged into my Solaris box.  They were
two
> => different flavors, so I am guessing they used the same driver, just two
> => different instances.  Anyway.
> =>
> => Type A card was iprb0
> => Type B card was iprb1
> =>
> => That was all cool.  Then I got in some more Type B cards, and I wanted
to
> => make all the systems similar, so I ripped out TypeA and put in a TypeB.
> => Well at first, the system was just pissed off at me for having done
> => something so horrible.  So I took out both cards, pressed escape at
boot up,
> => made sure they had disappeared.  I had the /reconfigure in there, so it
> => would re-do everything.
> =>
> => Then what I noticed was that, it had installed the new Type B card as
iprb2.
> =>
> => Well I thought, this is just a remnant from the old system.  So I tried
> => everything in my power to get the new card to be iprb0.  I deleted all
the
> => iprb* in /dev
> => Then I went through the /devices/pci....  stuff and deleted all the
iprb
> => stuff in there.
> =>
> => Rebooted, and it came up the same way.  With only the one new Type B
card in
> => that one slot it came up iprb2.  Ok I thought, so all I have to do is
much
> => around with the file names, and make it think that iprb2 is actually
iprb0.
> =>
> => Well it didn't like that much either.  I made sure I had all my ducks
in a
> => row, but it still didn't like it.
> =>
> => I think I tried just about every combination of trying to get the
system to
> => forget about those original network cards, but it still wants to
configure
> => that new card as iprb2.  I even tried sys-unconfig.  A neat utility,
but it
> => really didn't do much for me.
> =>
> => So I am guessing that somewhere out there in the maze of all these
files
> => there is a pointer, or a incrementer that is keeping track of how many
Intel
> => cards are in the system?  Or trying to associated a card with an iprb
number
> => or something?
> =>
> => My question is...
> =>
> => How do I get this system to forget about all the network cards ever
> => installed in there, and start over from iprb0?
> =>
> => Brett M. Thorson
> => Eko Systems Inc.