Forcing Linux to recognize NICS in BIOS order

[Paul Lussier]

Hi all,

All our systems have multiple NICs on them.  On some systems however,
Linux brings up the NICs in a different order than the BIOS orders
them.  For example, the BIOS orders an on-board NIC as "the first" and
a PCI add-on card NIC as "the second".  But when Linux comes up, for
some reason it swaps that order and the add-on card is seen by the OS
as eth0 and the on-board NIC as eth1.

I thought there was a way to force the OS to use the same ordering,
but can't remember the details. Anyone have pointers to an
explanation?

fwiw, Debian, 2.4.3mumble, and mostly Intel ee1000 cards 
(a few tulips, a few 3Coms, etc.)

Thanks.
-- 
Seeya,
Paul