4.21. biosdevname

When NPAR (NIC Partitioning) is enabled, the partition number should be appended as a suffix to the interface name. Previously, biosdevname did not add partition numbers to interface names, for example, instead of naming an interface "em3_1", the interface was named "em3". Consequently, partitioned network interfaces were missing the suffix necessary to describe the partition. Now, biosdevname correctly recognizes the VPD (Vital Product Data) suffix and full interface names are created correctly.

When biosdevname ran in a guest environment, it suggested names to new network interfaces as if it was in a host environment. Consequently, affected network interfaces were incorrectly renamed. Now, biosdevname no longer suggests names in the described scenario.

When biosdevname was reading VPD information to retrieve NPAR-related data, the read operations failed or became unresponsive on certain RAID controllers. Additionally, biosdevname sometimes attempted to read beyond the VPD boundary in the sysfs VPD file, which also resulted in a hang. This bug has been fixed and biosdevname now performs the read operation correctly in the described scenarios.

Previously, the "--smbios" and "--nopirq" command-line parameters were missing in the biosdevname binary. Consequently, consistent network device naming could not be enabled because biosdevname exited without suggesting a name. This update adds support for these parameters and enables the device naming.

Previously, NICs (Network Interface Cards) on biosdevname-compatible machines were given traditional "eth*" names instead of "em*" or "p*p*" names. This bug has been fixed and biosdevname now provides correct names for the NICs.

With this update, "--smbios" and "--nopirq" command-line parameters have been added to biosdevname.

The biosdevname man page has been updated to explain the functionality of the "--smbios" and "--nopirq" command-line parameters.