[U-Boot] [PATCH 1/4] net: extend the netdev to have a common way to set the hw mac address

Detlev Zundel dzu at denx.de
Tue May 12 10:48:28 CEST 2009


Hi,

>> > > how do set a mac for NFS Rootfs?
>> >
>> > use initramfs
>>
>> don't you think it's overkill to use a initramfs just for set a mac
>> address??
>
> no, i think it's perfectly reasonable.  and considering you have no other 
> option here that'll get merged ...

Can you please explain to me, why you think it to be reasonable to
demand providing an initramfs in the order of 100s of k to set an
attribute of a hardware device which has its own driver?

Apart from being constantly repeated, I do not understand this reasoning
at all.  My (old-school) belief was that an operating system deals with
abstracting the hardware thus userspace does not need to (nor should)
know too many hw details.

Knowing that there is not a clear distinction line, I still fail to see
why a mac address of a network interface should be handled by
userspace.  Can someone enlighten me here?

Thanks
  Detlev

-- 
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DENX Software Engineering GmbH,      MD: Wolfgang Denk & Detlev Zundel
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