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

[Mike Frysinger]

On Tuesday 12 May 2009 10:18:25 Detlev Zundel wrote:
> Hi Mike,
>
> > On Tuesday 12 May 2009 04:48:28 Detlev Zundel wrote:
> >> >> > > 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?
> >
> > no one said it must be done in userspace, that was just one method for
> > doing it.  read the FAQ for other possibilities.
>
> No you lost me completely.  The question cited above was whether you
> find it plausible to use initramfs - and thus userspace - to set a mac
> address.  You answered that you find this plausible.  This is what I do
> not understand.
>
> I never ran across this outside of linux arm where people seriously
> repeat the statement over and over that a whole initramfs with an
> initial userspace and a pivot_root is plausible for nfs root whilst
> patches of a few lines float around doing the same in the kernel.

i never said that a completely populated initramfs was needed.  it can be 
accomplished pretty easily with very little code.  
-mike