Re: Supporting platforms with no EEPROM?

[Bill Gatliff <bgat@billgatliff.com>]

Lennart Sorensen wrote:
> On Fri, Sep 12, 2008 at 12:59:06PM -0400, Daniel Kahn Gillmor wrote:
>> What about stuffing an equivalent line into your initramfs?
>>
>> Something like:
>>
>>  ip link set eth0 address 12:34:56:78:9a:bc
>>
>> (assuming you've got /bin/ip and dependencies -- i can't seem to make
>> this work from busybox's implementation of ip)
> 
> Do you HAVE to have an initramfs?  If the bootloader of the platform
> correctly sets the MAC in the ethernet device, it would seem nice if the
> driver would realize that and leave it alone.  Or did I misunderstand
> the issue and nothing on the platform contains a mac address?
> 

I've verified that RedBoot properly sets up the MAC on my platform.  And Thecus
in fact adjusted the e1000 driver that ships with the box, to take out the logic
that faults if there is no EEPROM.

I agree, it would be nice if the driver would just leave things alone if it
finds them in an acceptable state...


b.g.
-- 
Bill Gatliff
bgat@billgatliff.com