[U-Boot-Users] MAC address question...

[Ladislav Michl <ladis@linux-mips.org>]

On Thu, Aug 26, 2004 at 09:22:24PM +0200, Wolfgang Denk wrote:
[snip]
> No. Make your teste write it directly to the EEPROM if you like  (but
> not  though  the "setenv" command, as this will always write to _one_
> device only).

I'm getting clueless now. You don't like new command approach and you
also don't like setenv ethaddr approach. I think there are people, who
are solving similar problem. If there is no way to add this feature
into official U-Boot, just say it directly and I'm fine with keeping
patches localy.

> > Once set, overwriting mac address is allowed, but it is password
> > protected. That way unexperienced user is not able to change it, but
> > service technician is.
> 
> Such password protection  is  overkill.  Shall  I  show  you  how  an
> unexperienced user is able to overwrite the whole environment even if
> you  password protect it? You just need to read the documentation and
> add 2 and 2 together.

1) MAC adress lives in EEPROM connected to SMC ethernet chip. This
   address comes from purchased range.
2) User is able to change it in enviroment, but is unable to save it
   together with other enviroment variables and he is also unable to
   store it into serial EEPROM. Think about MAC as a board id.

It is posible that board dies (it is hit by flash, etc). In that case
servician comes to replace it and stores the MAC used by dead board to
new one, not breaking customers setup and to save MAC addresses from
purchased range.

Regards,
	ladis