Re: forcedeth generates Invalid MAC address message
On Saturday 10 November 2007, William Cooper wrote:
> On 11/11/2007, Keith Schweikhard <kschweikhard@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> > Hello,
> > I am currently configuring two identical ACER Aspire 5520 laptops. The
> > processors are AMD Turion 64 X2 dual core, Nvidia nforce 610M providing
> > the
> > ethernet connection. Atheros AR5007EG for the wireless connection.
> > I am doing a netinstall using Debian Testing (Lenny). The kernel
> > configuration is: 2.6.22-2-amd64. The version of forcedeth is 0.60. The
> > first machine configured without problems. The second machine generates
> > the
> > following error during boot:
> >
> > ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LMAC] enabled at IRQ 23
> > ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:0a.0[A] -> Link [LMAC] -> GSI 23 (level, low)
> > ->
> > IRQ 23
> > PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:0a.0 to 64
> > forcedeth: using HIGHDMA
> > 0000:00:0a.0: Invalid Mac address detected: 1d:9b:2a:38:1b:00
> > Please complain to your hardware vendor. Switching to a random MAC.
> > eth0: forcedeth.c: subsystem: 01025:0126 bound to 0000:00:0a.0
> > .
> > .
> > .
> > udev: renamed network interface eth0 to eth39
> >
> > This results in udev assigning a different ethernet interface each time
> > it
> > boots. (ie. eth1, eth2, ...... eth39). This seemingly has two effects.
> > 1. It is impossible to bring the network connection down and back up
> > again.
> > 2. It is impossible to tailor the network connection (dhcp or nothing)
> > 3. The IP address of the machine changes every time it reboots. (Result
> > of a
> > random MAC address assignment.)
> > 4. It seems to cause the ethernet configuration process to stop. As a
> > result,
> > the WAN card never initializes.
> > I have compared the boot messages generated by both machines and the only
> > differences are the invalid MAC address message, udev renaming the
> > ethernet
> > interface, and the machine failing to attempt to initialize the wlan
> > interface. I am guessing that the invalid MAC address and the failure to
> > initialize the wireless are somehow related. Because this is currently a
> > dual boot machine I checked the MAC address on the windows side and it
> > reports back the same MAC address that forcedeth is reporting as being
> > invalid. The wireless interface also works properly in windows. I have
> > done
> > some searching and have found that the forcedeth module may be
> > incorrectly identifying/ translating the MAC address. (Why it works on
> > one machine and
> > not on the other still confuses me.) Given the fact that a problem has
> > been
> > identified in forcedeth, is there a workaround that will prevent the
> > kernel
> > from giving up on the ethernet initialization so I can at least
> > initialize the wireless card and obtain a consistent network connection?
> >
> >
> > --
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>
> Hello,
> I had a similar problem with the forcedeth device but with a desktop
> motherboard without wireless. The error was the same forcedeth device has
> bad MAC address, random MAC being assigned and the card not being
> configured when the MAC changed between boots.
> My problem started when I upgraded the BIOS from one version to another and
> went away again when I downgraded back to the original BIOS. Check for mail
> in the debian-user archive subject "Asrock K8NF6G-VSTA BIOS upgrade warning
> - forcedeth fails" on the 25th of July 2007.
> You could check if both laptops have the same BIOS versions as a start.
>
> HTH
> Bill
Thanks for giving me something else to check. Unfortunately, both boards show
the same version of the BIOS V1.07. I am firing off an email to the
manufacturer to see if there is something I am missing.
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