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kapelrud

Member

From: Trondheim, Norway

Registered: 2004-11-19

Posts: 6

Website

[SOLVED] Lost MAC address on network card

It seems that my wired ethernet card has lost its MAC address. Some information/output:

# lspci|grep Ethernet
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8055 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller

The card uses the sky2 kernel module

# dmesg|grep sky2
sky2 0000:02:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
sky2 0000:02:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
sky2 0000:02:00.0: v1.22 addr 0xf7dfc000 irq 16 Yukon-2 EC Ultra rev 2
sky2 eth0: addr 00:00:00:00:00:00

Adding a line

#ifconfig eth0 hw ether <random-address-here>

to the startup-scripts makes it possible to use the nic, but it seems like a very temporary solution.

I don't know what can have caused this. Maybe the winter cold here in Norway erased some part of the nic's ROM?

- Does anybody have any idea how I can remedy this?
- Do I have to send the laptop in for repair to get it restored?

Last edited by kapelrud (2008-12-05 16:35:54)

iBertus

Member

From: Greenville, NC

Registered: 2004-11-04

Posts: 2,228

Re: [SOLVED] Lost MAC address on network card

I suppose a driver bug could have corrupted the ROM on the network card. Do you have a Windows install that you can boot into to see if the card is working correctly with those drivers?

kapelrud

Member

From: Trondheim, Norway

Registered: 2004-11-19

Posts: 6

Website

Re: [SOLVED] Lost MAC address on network card

I suppose a driver bug could have corrupted the ROM on the network card. Do you have a Windows install that you can boot into to see if the card is working correctly with those drivers?

Using "ipconfig /all" on windows showed the same zeroed mac address, so I guess the problem isn't (wasn't) linux-specific.

I left the pc in my locker at school last night and when I started it up again this morning the mac had mysteriously returned! Maybe the university leprechaun was bored yesterday.

So I guess the problem is solved, for now... Thanks anyway!