[uml-devel] Randomize on MAC address when bringing up ethernet iface

[Blaisorblade <blaisorblade@yahoo.it>]

I've being thinking to this and I'm wondering why we shouldn't do it. When we 
have set no IP or 0.0.0.0, which is not a unique IP, and we bring it up, we 
should choose a random MAC to use.
Conditions: the broadcast bit must be 0 and the "locally-assigned address 
flag" must be 1 (as likely we already do).

For which bits they are, I've a doubt.
On Tanenbaum's book they're marked as the two most significant (leftmost) bits 
(broadcast being the most significant one), but since we've longly known the 
broadcast bit is the lowest-order one of the highest bit, I suspect that MACs 
are read in little-endian bit order (which likely implies the same for the 
whole packets). I can't verify this, but bytes in many fields are moved to be 
in network order i.e. big-endian order (MACs are always used in the network 
order).

So possibly bit-swap is also used before going on the wire.
-- 
Inform me of my mistakes, so I can keep imitating Homer Simpson's "Doh!".
Paolo Giarrusso, aka Blaisorblade (Skype ID "PaoloGiarrusso", ICQ 215621894)
http://www.user-mode-linux.org/~blaisorblade

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