[ltp] WG511 PCMCIA with 2 Mac addresses (Mandriva)

[Richard Neill]

Mauro Maroni wrote:
> I have a Netgear WG511 but never saw that behaviour...The only issue I have is 
> that sometimes the card disconnects from the access point, but I only have to 
> run '/etc/init.d/net.eth0 restart' (I am using Gentoo) in order to reconnect 
> it. I will try to see if that issue is also related to a changing MAC 
> address.
> 

Dear Mauro,

Thanks very much for your help. That's interesting that it doesn't
happen on Gentoo. The question is, why?
 a) Gentoo's ifup/ifcfg script is smarter than Mandriva's.
 b) Your version of the prism driver always reports the true mac, even
without the firmware being uploaded.
 c) We have different revisions of the hardware.

Could you check for me what happens if you do the following:
[I'm assuming your interface is called eth0, although it could be eth1
or wlan]

0)Stop ifplugd if you have it running.

1)rmmod prism54; cardctl eject; physically eject the card.

2)reinsert the card.

[At this point, the eth0 interface will not be up]

3)Check which MAC address you have with:
  cat sys/class/net/wlan/address
and
  ifconfig -a

4)ifup wlan

5)Repeat (3).

6)Ifdown eth0;

7)ifup eth0

8)Repeat (3).


I would expect that the results are these:

[3]  00:30:b4:00:00:00   #the "default" bogus mac.

[5]  your_real_mac_address

[8]  I don't know, because step 7) fails for me.


You might also try repeating steps 1-4 after temporarily moving
/usr/lib/hotplug/firmware/isl3890 somewhere where it cannot be found.

Lastly, is the MAC you have in  ifcfg-eth0  your real one, or the bogus one?


Thanks very much,

Richard



> Regards,
> Mauro
> 
> On Friday 31 March 2006 21:28, Richard Neill wrote:
> 
>>Dear All,
>>
>>I wonder whether I could consult the collective wisdom about this. My
>>Netgear WG511 card works perfectly with the prism54 driver, once the
>>binary firmware has been loaded.
>>
>>However, the MAC address (as reported by ifconfig, or udevinfo) changes
>>between 2 different values depending on status:
>>
>>1)Without the firmware installed, or before the network interface has
>>been brought up (for the first time since boot or plugging in the card):
>>  	00:30:b4:00:00:00
>>
>>2)Once the firmware has been loaded, and the interface has been  brought
>>up at least once:
>>      00:09:5b:c1:3a:b1
>>
>>The problem is that restarting the network no longer recognises the
>>card, since the MAC address has now changed:
>>   "interface 'wlan' not foundDevice wlan has different MAC address
>>   than expected, ignoring."
>>
>>
>>
>>All the config tools (iftab, ifcfg-wlan) need to refer to the first
>>(un-initialised) MAC. But once initialised, they don't recognise the
>>card anymore.
>>
>>The simple solution is to cardctl eject, and physically unplug/replug
>>the card each time I restart the network. But that's ugly!  I think I
>>need to bind one interface name to 2 different MAC addresses.
>>
>>Does anyone know the correct solution, or can point me to an appropriate
>>resource?
>>
>>Thanks very much,
>>
>>Richard
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>--
>>rn214@hermes.cam.ac.uk  **  http://www.richardneill.org
>>Richard Neill, Trinity College, Cambridge, CB21TQ, U.K.