SPARC: Systems With Multiple Interfaces Recognize All Interfaces as Usable After Installation or Upgrade (4640568)

If you install or upgrade to the Solaris 9 12/03 release on a system with multiple network interfaces, the system recognizes all system interfaces as usable. Interfaces that are not connected to the network, or that are not intended for use, appear in the output of the ifconfig -a command. Additionally, interfaces with identical Ethernet addresses might be assigned identical IP addresses. The following error message is displayed:

ifconfig: setifflags: SIOCSLIFFLAGS: qfe3: Cannot assign requested address

This problem also occurs on systems that have the local-mac-address PROM variable set to false. The problem occurs because all interfaces are configured with the same IP address.

Workaround: Choose one of the following workarounds:

• To plumb only the configured interface, reboot the system after the initial boot.

• To assign a different IP address to each network interface, set the local-mac-address PROM variable to true in one of the following ways:

  • At the ok prompt, type the following command:

    ok setenv local-mac-address? true

  • In a terminal window, type the following command as superuser:

    # eeprom local-mac-address?=true