Messages in this thread | | | Date | Wed, 7 Aug 2002 15:16:42 -0500 | Subject | Re: ethtool documentation | From | erik@debill ... |
| |
On Wed, Aug 07, 2002 at 07:18:17AM -0400, Richard B. Johnson wrote: > > That capability is not permanent. If you let users write to the > SEEPROM, permanently changing the IEEE Station Address, you have > let users permanently break their network boards. I do protest > when this capability is in the kernel.
Don't forget the old sun workstations that keep MAC addresses in nvram, where it's setable via the boot prom. I had one with a bad battery that I had to reset the MAC address on by hand if I unplugged it for too long.
They DID implement a check to make sure the first few bits were correct for the product, though. I couldn't pick completely random MACs (though C0FFEE fit nicely at the end).
Given a working nvram, this change was "permanent", and the only tools needed came with the system.
Erik
-- Ask not what your computer can do for you. Ask what you can do for your computer. - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
| |