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From my understanding, Arch Linux uses Consistent Network Device Naming where the network devices are no longer named eth0, eth1, etc. I use the proprietary MATLAB software which requires a device eth0 for activation. As a work around they suggest turning off consistent network device naming here. I don't think this will work in Arch, but maybe I am wrong, and I am not sure that is a good idea even if it does work. Is it possible to create a dummy eth0 device to fool the MATLAB activation software. Note that this is not intended to, and I don't believe that it does, violate any licensing agreements with MATLAB/The MathWorks.

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Short-term solution:

% sudo modprobe dummy
% sudo ip l set dev dummy0 name MyEth11
% sudo ip ad ad 192.168.255.254/30 dev MyEth11
% ip ad show dev MyEth11
14: MyEth11: <BROADCAST,NOARP> mtu 1500 qdisc noop state DOWN 
    link/ether 6e:73:12:ad:db:8e brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 192.168.255.254/30 scope global MyEth11
% sudo ip l set MyEth11 up
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Interesting. But how is this interface connected to the real world? The application probably binds to this interface (or its address). – Hauke Laging Apr 29 at 12:02
For MATLAB I don't need to bring the dummy interface up, but I did need to clone my mac address with ip link set dev MyEth11 address xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx. My guess is bringing the dummy interface up would cause major havoc. Can I add this as a script in /etc/profile.d/ to make it persistent? – Daniel E. Shub Apr 29 at 12:34
This can be a script, of course, placed, for e. g., into /etc/rc.local. But I said "single term" intentionally meaning that different distros have different "proper" ways to set such things up. – poige Apr 29 at 15:22
And nope, having two NICs with the same MAC addresses, but in different network segments isn't a havoc. – poige Apr 29 at 15:23

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