Subject: Re: mac-address vs. local-mac-address

From: Timur Tabi <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 07 Feb 2007 16:07:56 -0600

Kumar Gala wrote:

> The problem with u-boot is that the correct way would be to use 
> local-mac-address for what's compiled into u-boot and mac-address if 
> someone does a 'setenv' to modify the mac address.  The question is 
> anyone really going to care that much.

I don't think the compiled-in MAC address should be used at all.

For most boards, the compiled-in option is just some random MAC address.  When 
the board is shipped, the manufacturer creates his own set of environment 
variables and overrides what's stored on flash.

I actually think that storing a MAC address in a board configuration for or a 
DTS is a bad idea, because MAC addresses are supposed to be unique for each 
Ethernet device, and storing a fixed value in a source file breaks that. 
However, that's a separate issue.  I was just trying to stress that the 
compiled-in MAC address is of no value.

-- 
Timur Tabi
Linux Kernel Developer @ Freescale