HP-UX 11.31 (PA-RISC) /dev/lan0 vs /dev/dlpi0

[Kingbee76051]

Having an issue with older FlexLM recognizing the NIC's MAC address and am thinking that it may be related to the system using dlpi.  Is there a way to reintroduce true /dev/lan(0,1,2,etc) LLA instead of being forced to use the new DLPI standard?  I heard that this may be resolved in a bundle named "HP-UX 11.31 Networking Compatibility" - is this available?

Thanks,

Brian

[Azr_geek · Accepted solution]

Hello @Kingbee76051,

What you’re running into is (unfortunately) a fairly common pain point when dealing with legacy code (like old FlexLM routines) on modern HP‑UX: the /dev/lan0 + LLA (Link Level Access) interface is largely obsolete, and in HP‑UX 11.31 (11i v3) the full native support for LLA has been removed (or at least severely curtailed) in favor of DLPI.

- The /dev/lanN device nodes were part of the older LLA / 9000-era networking interface. That interface was deprecated and HP has long pushed migration to DLPI.

- In versions of HP‑UX prior to 11.0 (and into early 11.x), HP retained legacy compatibility in many drivers so that older software expecting /dev/lanN and using LLA-style ioctls could still work. But in 11i v3 (11.31), the legacy LLA support is largely gone, especially for newer NIC drivers. Many newer drivers are pure‑DLPI and don’t maintain the old LLA device interface.

Regards.
Azr_geek