what's the best way to deal with a disconnect eth0?

[Eric van der Paardt]

I’m setting up a laptop for my companies president.  He likes techy things and asked me to setup a linux/winxp dual boot for him to play with and compare.   So I have it all setup, I’ve got a nearly apples to apples setup running (except the windows partition is available under Linux but not vice versa).   The biggest thing holding me back is eth0, w/o a cable connected you get a bunch of ugly DHCP connection junk on startup and it takes a long time to time out.  This will almost NEVER be connected, but I don’t want to just remove the auto setup for that interface in case someday he does plug it into something…    So is there a way with the /etc/interfaces stuff to only try to auto-configure eth0 if there is a cable plugged in?   Eric G. van der Paardt Systems Administrator 715-485.9312x3198 Bishop Fixture & Millwork 101 Eagle Dr. Balsam Lake, WI 54801