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Mac Address?

 
mw_4
Frequent Advisor

Mac Address?

Hi all

I've been getting good helps from you ^^

I have Linux redhat 2.2.14-5.0
The linux system has 2 interface cards, eth0, eth1
but when I type ifconfig -a on system

its output like attached file
but
I am not able to understand why the Mac address are same
HWaddr 08:00:20:B8:C2:ED ,though physcal interfaces are totally different

but it seems like that functions are normal

can you give the why Mac addresses are same and How they are corrected

I think it should be solved
System have been generating messages like

messages:Mar 13 09:11:10 redhat kernel: eth0: HAPPY MEAL (PCI/CheerIO) 10/100BaseT Ethernet 08:00:20:b8:c2:ed
messages:Mar 13 09:11:10 redhat kernel: eth1: HAPPY MEAL (PCI/CheerIO) 10/100BaseT Ethernet 08:00:20:b8:c2:ed
messages:Mar 13 09:11:10 redhat kernel: eth0: Link is up using internal transceiver at 100Mb/s, Full Duplex.
messages:Mar 13 09:11:10 redhat kernel: eth1: Link is up using internal transceiver at 100Mb/s, Half Duplex.

and this morning system are hung for a while...without any messages.
It had happened several times.


Step by step
8 REPLIES 8
Stuart Browne
Honored Contributor

Re: Mac Address?

A few details from you, if you could..

What distribution of Linux are you using?

What version of 'ifconfig' are you using? ('ifconfig --version')

What type of network cards are they? (using 'lsmod', or viewing '/etc/conf.modules' (or '/etc/modules.conf', depending on the age of the 'modutils' binaries) should get the driver names).

On a number of different machines I have around the place with distributions around the same time period, none of them exhibit this behaviour.

If they are the 'cheap' card from the shop-down-the-road, then it is entirely possible that the two cards do actually have the same MAC adderss (seen this once before!). But they would have to be identical cards.

One long-haired git at your service...
Josh Owings
Frequent Advisor

Re: Mac Address?

I am going to go out on a limb and guess that he is using redhat. (maybe 6.1)

===============================
messages:Mar 13 09:11:10 redhat kernel: eth0: HAPPY MEAL (PCI/CheerIO) 10/100BaseT Ethernet 08:00:20:b8:c2:ed
===============================
Tony Contratto
Respected Contributor

Re: Mac Address?

Hi all,

The "Happy Meal" card is a Sun Microsystems NIC. Is this by chance one of the 4 port cards?

IIRC, it has been awhile since I've messed with a Sun box. All ethernet interfaces, by default, have the same MAC address on a Sun box. The driver gets the MAC from the PROM in the system and ignores the address on the card. At least that's how it works with Solaris, I'm not sure what happens with the Linux drivers.

--
Tony


BTW, The first 3 octets of the MAC address are the vendor ID.
08:00:20 = Sun Microsystems Inc.
got root?
Stuart Browne
Honored Contributor

Re: Mac Address?

Anthony,

Do you know of an online list of Vendor ID's? I can think of far too many situations where it would be helpful to know.
One long-haired git at your service...
Stuart Browne
Honored Contributor

Re: Mac Address?

Actually, don't worry..

Silly me should have done 10second search first, then asked..

http://standards.ieee.org/regauth/oui/oui.txt

*whee!*
One long-haired git at your service...
mw_4
Frequent Advisor

Re: Mac Address?

actually
I intalled redhat on sun ultra60 system

Step by step
Stuart Browne
Honored Contributor

Re: Mac Address?

That beign the case, Anthony's response seems the most accurate.

As to how to get the kernel to look at the card instead of the PROM, I don't know. Unless an Updated kernel fixes this, I'm unaware of another way to fix the issue.
One long-haired git at your service...
Tony Contratto
Respected Contributor

Re: Mac Address?

Are both of the interfaces attached to the same physical network/broadcast domain?

If the interfaces are NOT attached to the same physical network, both of them having the same MAC address should not be causing any problems.


Stuart,
Here is a lookup site I found with a quick google search:

http://coffer.com/mac_find/


--
Tony
got root?