newbie ethernet address

[bluepepper]

first time linux user , please help!

my ethernet address keeps changing after every boot , i need a fixe ethernet address for hardware lock for maya, how to work this one out???

eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr A6:08:FD:B5:5F:B2
inet addr:192.168.11.41 Bcast:192.168.11.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::a408:fdff:feb5:5fb2/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:1869 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:1837 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:2
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:1668422 (1.5 MiB) TX bytes:287428 (280.6 KiB)

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:6 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:6 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:300 (300.0 b) TX bytes:300 (300.0 b)

hwaddr keeps changing, i have a wired adsl cionnection.

thanks

[Kilz]

That depends. Did you setup a home network with a router, or is your computer hooked strait to the adsl modem? If its strait to the modem you may not be able to do it because the address is under control of your isp. If you setup a home network with a router you will have to configure the router/network to use static addresses. Your router manual might be able to help you do that.

[Natr0n]

hwaddr keeps changing

I don't see how the OP's HWaddr is changing on reboot; regardless of router/network configuration. If the OP meant "IP address" that might make some sense.

[bluepepper]

thanks for your replies, yes i have home network with my pc connected on wire and another pc via wireless, to an air sation modem with g/b bandwidth.
i am dual booting xp pro and ubuntu, xp sees the network card but ubuntu does not i wonder what may be the reason.

mobo asus p5k
built in lan attansic gigabit L1


hth


thanks again

[louieb]

Originally Posted by bluepepper ... wireless, to an air sation modem with g/b bandwidth... xp sees the network card but ubuntu does not i wonder what may be the reason.

If you have internet with Ubuntu then it sees your card just fine.

eth1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr A6:08:FD:B5:5F:B2  
          inet addr:192.168.11.41

the HWaddr is the MAC address of your card. It is unique to that card: no other card in the world has that address. The only way it can change is if you have two cards or the card you have is screwed up. There should be a sticker with the MAC address somewhere on th PC. If it doesn't match what ifconfg in Linux or ipconfig in XP displays then you probally have a hardware problem.

The inet addr is the current IP address as assigned by your DHCP server. (Probably your modem/router is your DHCP server). Through my routers lan IP setup I can make it assign a certain IP address based on the MAC address of the card. Thats how my home network Ip address are assigned.

[bluepepper]

tahnks i shall give it a try and just install anew ethernet card

[jcliburn]

Your kernel is apparently old.

For historical context, early versions of the atl1 driver tried to read the MAC address only from eeprom, and if it didn't get a valid address, it grabbed a random one provided by the kernel. We discovered that some motherboards didn't store the MAC address in the NIC's eeprom, but instead the BIOS dumped the MAC address directly into a register on the NIC. For these motherboards, the user experienced the variable MAC address issue. We resolved it by a driver change in February 2007.

commit fd8c5a7da3c48e53c7859d9f0c1d82ba02ca0a20
Author: Jay Cliburn <jacliburn@bellsouth.net>
Date:   Wed Feb 14 20:14:55 2007 -0600

    atl1: read MAC address from register
    
    On some Asus motherboards containing the L1 NIC, the MAC address is
    written by the BIOS directly to the MAC register during POST, and is
    not stored in eeprom.  If we don't succeed in fetching the MAC address
    from eeprom or spi, try reading it directly from the MAC register.

If you're using a recent kernel and you're encountering a random MAC address, I'd like to know more about your setup.

[radu.c]

I have an ASUS computer that also changes its MAC address when running Linux. The network card uses the atl1 driver. Happens in 8.04 too.

It seems that the atl1 driver no only doesn't get the correct MAC address, but moreover it writes a new, random one in the EEPROM. I say that because if I keep rebooting it, without loading the atl1 driver, the PXE-reported MAC address remains the same. After the atl1 driver is loaded, the PXE MAC changes.

Any ideas why this behavior?

[jcliburn]

I'm not an Ubuntu user, so I don't know which kernel Ubuntu 8.04 uses. Can you tell me which kernel you're running? Also, what is your motherboard model number?

[radu.c]

Originally Posted by jcliburn I'm not an Ubuntu user, so I don't know which kernel Ubuntu 8.04 uses. Can you tell me which kernel you're running? Also, what is your motherboard model number?

2.6.24 is the kernel in 8.04. But it did the same with 2.6.22, which was in 7.10.

I just unplugged the power cord form the machine, then plugged it back in, and the MAC got restored to the original one. Booting from the 8.04 LiveCD changes the MAC address and stores it somewhere where the BIOS PXE bootloader can read it later. The generated MACs don't follow any pattern, and seem random.

This is an ASUS Esentio 5110 machine, details here: http://asus.com/products.aspx?modelm...56&l3=680&l4=0. I don't know what motherboard it is using. The manual doesn't specify, and I'm not at liberty to open it up.

Seems more like a driver problem than a card problem in this case.