ifconfig and mac address modifications

ovihc · 2004-12-02 12:11:32

I'm at my university lab. I'm able to plug in my laptop to the network by copying the mac address from one of the computers to my laptop. It's a dhcp server anyways.

I've been able to do this for the last week, but today I CAN't!

1.) I type :

ifconfig eth0 down
ifconfig eth0 hw ether [mac address]

*I get this message: SIOCSIFHWADDR: Device or resource busy.

My first solution: Because of the error, I went to the rc.d folder into the alsamixer file and i added the line

ifconfig eth0 hw ether [mac address]

to the beginning of the script. I rebooted and when i logged back in, the network had the different mac address. My idea was that since the mac address change would be implemented in the beginning of the booting process, the network card would not be "BUSY" and therefore i could change the mac address. it seemed to work as i planned.

Today I came into the lab and I did the same thing. But nothing will work. As root I type in the commands manually, and I get the

SIOCSIFHWADDR: Device or resource busy

error. I rebooted and checked that alsamixer had the first line and it still doesn't work.

I know that my solution was dirty, but what else can I do? i've googled around and all I get are the manual commands i.e.

ifconfig eth0 down 
ifconfig eth0 hw ether [mac address]

but it doesn't work with my computer. is this common in arch linux? why can't i change the network manually?

Help!!

cactus · 2004-12-02 15:18:14

try /etc/rc.d/network stop
then try changing the mac...

don't know if it will work, but it might.

Arch Linux

#1 2004-12-02 12:11:32

ifconfig and mac address modifications

#2 2004-12-02 15:18:14

Re: ifconfig and mac address modifications

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