Re: [PATCH 3/6] d80211: add a perm_addr hardware property

[Johannes Berg <johannes@sipsolutions.net>]

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On Fri, 2006-11-03 at 16:49 -0500, Michael Wu wrote:

> Shouldn't you add something to ieee80211_set_mac_address so the driver/d80211 
> can find out what MAC address the user actually wants?

Hmm? d80211 already handles the case of the user changing a net_dev's
mac address fine. And it'll tell your driver about it whenever it
matters, at the time the user tries to UP that interface. And other than
that, the driver doesn't care.

> Might be easier to just point perm_addr to dev_addr, but that would make it 
> obvious that perm_addr is a bit messy. A wrapper for drivers that returns a 
> pointer to dev_addr might be a better idea.

I don't understand this. perm_addr is a field in the ieee80211_hw struct
reflecting the permanent mac address of the card. What's wrong with
that?

> Also, do we need to update interfaces associated with the master interface 
> when the master MAC address changes?

No. The interfaces are allowed to have differing mac addresses. But I
think they should all start out with the permanent mac address which is
why I put that field there. I guess you could argue for always using the
master's mac address. I would prefer new devices to start out with the
permanent mac address, but we can change that.

johannes

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