Jerry Geis spake the following on 4/26/2007 11:53 AM:
i believe i had mentioned this already on this list:
have had same problems with my asus m2npv-vm board (onboard forcedepth nic) the first days with the board under fedora 6 - would say no big diff's to centos-
the fedora way goes:
- move or delete /etc/sysconfig/hwconf
- move or delete /etc/modprobe.conf
- run kudzu afterwards => this writes new hwconf, modprobe.conf
- bring your nic's down: ifdown ethx
- remove the driver via modprobe -rv <your-nic-driver> (forcedepth)
5a. maybe to be sure: lsmod|grep -i <your-nic-driver> 6. reload the driver via modprobe -sv ... 7. fix your mac-addr-settings via system-config-network 8. compare your mac's in hwconf _and_ via ifconfig
steps 4-6 are also performed via reboot (grrrrrrrrrr: m$ world tasks), but your are able to exclude if this files were changed again after step 3. (ls -l /etc/sysconfig/hwconf => date/time !) a hint of another problem !
if there are still diff's, then it's another problem i don't know a solution for, yet, but i remember ethx order changes and therefore mac mismatches at late fedora 5/early fedora 6 kernels.
try and report ! okay ?
-- ronald
Ronald,
Thanks for the above. However, sadly it did not work. Also I see no way in the system-config-network to set a MAC address. I was in the character mode here not X.
This is SOOO bizzar. Again, when I started I had 2 Asus M2N-MX boards. One was giving the invalid MAC address and one seemed OK. Both had the forcedeth driver loaded for onboard network.
I bought 2 gigabyte motherboards (DIFFERENT BIOS) and I have the same issue. One board is working and the other is giving the invalid MAC address. Both gigabytes have the forcedeth driver.
I tried loading centos 4 but it does not even recognize the forcedeth device at all. even manually loading.
I'm at a loss. I have a script file that runs and sets things up the way I want after boot up. Not pretty - but I guess it works.
Jerry
This appears to be a bug in the forcedeth driver and the chipset. The driver seems to pull the current MAC address from a register, and writes it back differently. The systems with the trouble must allow this write to take place, and it changes the MAC address for the next boot. I think if you add a HWADDR: xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx command to the ifcfg script, it might stick. You will have to find your real MAC address on your own, but it might be on a sticker somewhere on the board, or in a service tag on the equipment.