NAME

       biosdevname - give BIOS-given name of a device

SYNOPSIS

       biosdevname [options] [args]...

DESCRIPTION

       biosdevname  takes a kernel device name as an argument, and returns the BIOS-given name it
       "should" be.

OPTIONS

       -i, --interface
              Treat [args] as ethernet devs

       -d, --debug
              Enable debugging

       --policy [physical|all_ethN]

       --prefix [string]
              string use for embedded NICs in the physical policy (default=em)

       --nopirq
              Do not use $PIR table for mapping PCI device to  slot.  Some  BIOS  have  incorrect
              values.

       --smbios [x.y]
              Require minimum SMBIOS version x.y

POLICIES

       The  physical  policy  is the current default.  However, when invoking biosdevname in udev
       rules, one should always specify the policy you want, as  the  default  has  changed  over
       time.
       The physical policy uses the following scheme:

       em<port>[_<virtual instance>]
              for embedded NICs

       p<slot>p<port>[_<virtual instance>]
              for cards in PCI slots

       The    all_ethN  policy  makes  a  best  guess  at  what  the device order should be, with
              embedded devices first, PCI cards in ascending slot order, and ports  in  ascending
              PCI bus/device/function order breadth-first.  However, this policy does not work if
              your PCI devices are hot-plugged or hot-pluggable, including the virtual  functions
              on  an  SR-IOV device.  In a hot-plug scenario, each separate udev instance will be
              invoked in parallel, while the device  tree  is  still  being  populated  with  new
              devices.  Each udev instance will see a different PCI tree, and thus cannot provide
              consistent enumeration.  Use of this policy should be  limited  to  only  scenarios
              where all PCI devices are present at boot (cold-plug).

EXIT CODES

       Returns 0 on success, with BIOS-suggested name printed to stdout.
       Returns 1 on provided device name lookup failure.
       Returns 2 if system BIOS does not provide naming information.  biosdevname requires system
       BIOS to provide naming information, either via SMBIOS or sysfs files.
       Returns 3 if not run as root but requires root privileges.
       Returns 4 if running in a virtual machine.

SEE ALSO

       http://linux.dell.com/wiki/index.php/Oss/libnetdevname
       http://linux.dell.com/files/biosdevname/
       git://linux.dell.com/biosdevname.git

RELATED PROGRAMS

       The dmidecode  package  contains  two  tools  useful  for  debugging  BIOS  features  that
       biosdevname uses, specifically dmidecode to read the SMBIOS Type 9 and Type 41 tables, and
       biosdecode to read the PCI IRQ Routing Table.  Please include the output of each of  these
       programs in any bug reports.

AUTHOR

       biosdevname was written by  Matt Domsch <Matt_Domsch@dell.com>

       This  manual  page  was  written  by  Rudy Gevaert <Rudy.Gevaert@UGent.be>, for the Debian
       project (but may be used by others).

                                           Nov 28, 2010                            BIOSDEVNAME(1)