Bug#357792: installation-reports: Fishy NIC prevents network install

[Roland Mas <lolando@debian.org>]

Package: installation-reports
Severity: normal

Boot method: beta2 businesscard CD
Image version: http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/etch_di_beta2/i386/iso-cd/debian-testing-i386-businesscard.iso
Date: 2006-03-19 ~14:00 UTC

Machine: Assembled PC (Duron processor, integrated NIC)
Partitions: not relevant

Base System Installation Checklist:
[O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it

Initial boot:           [O]
Detect network card:    [O]
Configure network:      [O]
Detect CD:              [O]
Load installer modules: [E]
Detect hard drives:     [ ]
Partition hard drives:  [ ]
Create file systems:    [ ]
Mount partitions:       [ ]
Install base system:    [ ]
Install boot loader:    [ ]
Installed system ok:    [ ]

Comments/Problems:

My NIC has the following dubious feature: its default MAC address is
FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF.  That doesn't prevent it from getting assigned an
IP address via DHCP (it does, after all, receive the packets, since
they are broadcast).  But when it comes to actually transmit or
receive IP packets, the broadcast address isn't exactly appropriate,
and any attempt to fetch anything over IP fails.

This is a problem I'm aware of, and I can't blame anyone for failing
to support admittedly broken hardware out of the box.  I know a
workaround: Alt-F2, then manually set a MAC address in the NIC, then
try again, which used to work (I obviously have to add a script to
/etc/network/if-pre-up.d/eth0).  Except it has ceased doing so (the
following is a mockup of what actually happens):

# ifconfig eth0
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF
# ifconfig eth0 hw ether 54:65:78:21:98:46
# ifconfig eth0
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF
#

It appears that the debian/config-udeb file in the busybox source
package (1:1.01-4) contains the following:
# CONFIG_FEATURE_IFCONFIG_HW is not set
Which, according to the source, is precisely what makes my ifconfig
invocation silently fail.

I therefore suggest turning this feature back on.

lspci -n:
0000:00:04.0 0200: 1039:0900 (rev 91)

-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Shell:  /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Kernel: Linux 2.6.15-1-k7
Locale: LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=fr_FR.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)