[U-Boot] [PATCH 1/4] net: extend the netdev to have a common way to set the hw mac address

[Detlev Zundel <dzu@denx.de>]

Hi Mike,

> On Tuesday 12 May 2009 04:48:28 Detlev Zundel wrote:
>> >> > > how do set a mac for NFS Rootfs?
>> >> >
>> >> > use initramfs
>> >>
>> >> don't you think it's overkill to use a initramfs just for set a mac
>> >> address??
>> >
>> > no, i think it's perfectly reasonable.  and considering you have no other
>> > option here that'll get merged ...
>>
>> Can you please explain to me, why you think it to be reasonable to
>> demand providing an initramfs in the order of 100s of k to set an
>> attribute of a hardware device which has its own driver?
>>
>> Apart from being constantly repeated, I do not understand this reasoning
>> at all.  My (old-school) belief was that an operating system deals with
>> abstracting the hardware thus userspace does not need to (nor should)
>> know too many hw details.
>>
>> Knowing that there is not a clear distinction line, I still fail to see
>> why a mac address of a network interface should be handled by
>> userspace.  Can someone enlighten me here?
>
> no one said it must be done in userspace, that was just one method for doing 
> it.  read the FAQ for other possibilities.

No you lost me completely.  The question cited above was whether you
find it plausible to use initramfs - and thus userspace - to set a mac
address.  You answered that you find this plausible.  This is what I do
not understand.  

I never ran across this outside of linux arm where people seriously
repeat the statement over and over that a whole initramfs with an
initial userspace and a pivot_root is plausible for nfs root whilst
patches of a few lines float around doing the same in the kernel.

Now proof by repetition is not my preferred form of understanding a
problem, so I was asking for an explanation from someone arguing along
the same lines.

Cheers
  Detlev

-- 
We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not
admire it.  The only excuse  for making  a useless  thing is that one
admires it intensely.
                                    --- Oscar Wilde
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