How to solve “Device eth0 does not seem to be present, delaying initialization” error

Today, I encountered with a strange error after I cloned CentOS 6 guest machine in Oracle VirtualBox. After logging in to CentOS guest, my network card is disappeared. I can’t SSH to the CentOS guest anymore. I tried to check the IP address using command:
# ifconfig
Sample output:
lo Link encap:Local Loopback inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0 inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:65536 Metric:1 RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
eth0 config details doesn’t show up. It only displays the loopback interface details.
I tried to restart the network service to sort out the issue.
# service network restart
Nothing! It simply displayed the following error.
Bringing up interface eth0: Device eth0 does not seem to be present, delaying initialization
I thought that there might be any misconfiguration in network configuration file. So, I decided to dig into the eth0 configuration file to make sure if everything is correct.
# vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0
Sample output:
DEVICE=eth0 BOOTPROTO=none DEVICE=eth0 GATEWAY=192.168.1.1 HWADDR=08:00:27:DC:33:3F IPADDR=192.168.1.150 NETMASK=255.255.255.0 NM_CONTROLLED=no ONBOOT=yes TYPE=Ethernet USERCTL=no
Everything was perfect.
Again, I tried to wake up Network card using command:
# ifup eth0
But, still no luck! It keeps showing the same error message as below.
Device eth0 does not seem to be present, delaying initialisation
I added and configured an additional virtual network interface card. I restarted network service and CentOS guest several times. But, nothing helped. I keep getting the same error over and over.
After a bit searching over the Internet, I found the solution. MAC address was the problem! After cloned, CentOS guest was still using the old machine’s MAC address in the Virtual machine settings.
If you ever faced the same issue, you fix it as described in the following two methods.
Method 1:
To fix this problem, simply remove the file /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules and reboot your system.
# rm /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules
Now, you will see the network card is up.
Method 2:
If the problem is still not solved, open up the eth0 config file:
# vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0
Note down the MAC id (HWADDR).
[...] HWADDR=08:00:27:DC:33:3F [...]
Close the file. Then, power off the CentOS guest and go to Settings –> Network–> Adapter 1 –> Advanced from VirtualBox menu bar.
Replace the old MAC id and update it with new one.
After changing the MAC address, Click OK to save it. and power on your guest.
Now, Check if the network card is up using command:
# ifconfig
That’s it. It works.
Cheers!
Reference link:
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Have a Good day!!
great article buddy. thanks man
Thank you! The MAC address not matching what I had in the Virtual Box settings was the problem.
Thank you brother. This is really informative and this doc helped me to resolve my issues in the real network.
Thanks again
Nice summary! Thanks. note: it’s 70-persistent-net.rules not 70-persistant-net.rules