[gentoo-server] Disabling net.eth0

[Collin Starkweather]

This is a question about my laptop, but I figure the folks on the server
list might be more in tune with the issues so please bear with me.

I recently ran into a problem where my ethernet controller on my laptop
died a grisly death.  It kinda works for a few minutes after booting,
then triggers a kernel panic.  For those who want more detail, see
today's post at

  http://www.collinstarkweather.com

Problem is, it's built into the motherboard.  If a kernel panic isn't
triggered immediately on boot, I 

  rmmod 3c59x

which keeps the problem from cropping up and use my 802.11g card for
networking.  This has led me to some interesting questions I haven't
been able to figure out.

1)  I could recompile my kernel without 3c59x, but is there a way
instead to simply keep the module from being loaded on boot?

2)  My wireless card is set up as an interface named ath0.  But no
matter what I do, net.eth0 wants to come up on boot.  `rc-update show |
grep eth0` gives

            net.eth0 |

Doesn't look like I can disable it with rc-update since it's not
explicitly associated with a runlevel to begin with.  Other than
renaming /etc/init.d/net.eth0, which seems an awful kludge, is there a
way to keep it from coming up on boot?

Thanks,

-Collin

-- 
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Collin Starkweather, Ph.D.  collin.starkweather@××××××××××××××××××.com
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