[U-Boot] at91sam9g20 MAC address in EEPROM?

[Reinhard Meyer]

Dear Jim Sheldon,
>> May I ask WHY you are not comfortable with using the U-Boot
>> environment? Usually it's a very convenient place to store
>> configuration data, and a pretty reliable one (especially when you
>> use redundant environment).
> 
> We're not concerned about u-boot's environment not being reliable, we just want the ability to completely erase the nand without worrying about losing essential data (like a MAC address).  I suppose we could work around that area of the flash if/when erasing the nand is necessary, but then we would have to keep track of each environment variable that could be stored there.

That is exactly my concern as well.
> 
>> I have seen _way_ more cases where data in EEPROM got lost than data
>> loss from the environment.
> 
> That's discouraging, do you have any advice for where to store the MAC outside of nand, and not in an EEPROM?

I cannot second that, we have always stored environment and vital product
data in EEPROM (AT24C64). But VPD (includes MAC adresses) is never writen
by u-boot; only read and made into respective setenv() variables. Check
boards/emk/common/vpd.c for an idea.

Greetings,
Reinhard