[Bug 656878] Re: network interface does not come up when configured as "manual"

[Stéphane Graber]

I had a quick look at the code and it's clear that ifupdown will never
do anything to an interface marked as manual, including bringing it up.
As far as I can tell, this is the intended behaviour and you should
indeed us an "up" line to bring it up.

The only thing ifupdown will do with an interface marked as manual is
load the ipv6 module if the interface is marked as IPv6.

Marking the bug as Won't fix as it's always been ifupdown's behaviour
(AFAICT) and so would likely break some setup if it was to be changed.

** Changed in: ifupdown (Ubuntu)
       Status: New => Won't Fix

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/656878

Title:
  network interface does not come up when configured as "manual"

Status in “ifupdown” package in Ubuntu:
  Won't Fix

Bug description:
  Binary package hint: ifupdown

  This affects ubuntu 10.04
  I configure a network interface as "auto" and "manual" in /etc/network/interfaces .
  But it is not "up" after a reboot. "ifconfig" does not show it in its list.
  The thing is, i only need the inet6 (link-layer) address on this interface, nothing else.

  /etc/network/interfaces:
  --- 8< ---
  auto eth0
  iface eth0 inet manual
  --- 8< ---

  if i do a "ifconfig" the interface is not listed. "dmesg | grep eth" gives me:
  [    1.161468] eth0: RTL8168b/8111b at 0xf8060000, 00:e0:f4:17:42:a0, XID 98500000 IRQ 27
  but no "link up"

  just after a manual "ifconfig eth0 up" the device is listed with
  ifconfig, has ipv6 address and dmesg says "r8169: eth0: link up"

  the manpage for interfaces says:
  "Lines beginning with the word "auto" are used to identify the physical interfaces to  be  brought up when ifup is run with the -a option." 
  There is no depency on a static address or something else. So this is a bug. The interface is not up.
  Also, this worked fine with ubuntu 8.04!!!

  as a workaround in /e/n/i i can say:
  --- 8< ---
  auto eth0
  iface eth0 inet manual
  up ifconfig eth0 up
  --- 8< ---
  but this should not be the intended method to bring an interface up, is it?
  Versions:
  ifupdown 0.6.8ubuntu29.1 (10.04.1)
  ifupdown 0.6.8ubuntu8 (8.04.4)

  maybe this is not in ifupdown but somewhere else in upstart/init .

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