[U-Boot] Linux Kernel without Ethernet (missed MAC)

[Arno Steffen]

Changing my OMAP EVM board to newest uboot 2009-11 I do have a problem
with ethernet.
Although the kernel could be loaded via tftp perfectly, the upcoming
kernel complains about invalid MAC.

Kernel command line: mem=128M console=ttyS0,115200n8
root=/dev/mtdblock8 rw rootfstype=jffs2 ip=dhcp
...
loop: module loaded
eth0: LAN9115 (rev 2) at 0x2c000000 IRQ 336
eth0: Invalid ethernet MAC address. Please set using ifconfig
i2c /dev entries driver
...
IP-Config: Failed to open eth0
IP-Config: No network devices available.
...
After Linux has booted, I don't have an /dev/ethX device

I already checked this:
http://www.denx.de/wiki/view/DULG/EthernetDoesNotWorkInLinux
but I am not expert enough to see wether the kernel has a bug.
In /driver/net/smc911x.c the devinit smc911x_probe will generate the first
message that something goes wrong

               if (!is_valid_ether_addr(dev->dev_addr)) {
                       printk("%s: Invalid ethernet MAC address. Please "
                                       "set using ifconfig\n", dev->name);

/driver/net/smc911x.c checks in smc911x_open() the validity of MAC,
which seems to fail.
/driver/net/smc911x.c calls SMC_GET_MAC_ADDR which is a macro in
/driver/net/smc91x.h


In uboot-env the Mac has been configured.
"Warning: smc911x-0 MAC addresses don't match:
Address in SROM is         ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
Address in environment is  00:19:66:cc:44:ee"

Loading via TFTP works
OMAP3_EVM # tftpboot 0x80000000 evm/uImage
smc911x: detected LAN9115 controller
smc911x: phy initialized
smc911x: MAC 00:19:66:cc:44:ee
Using smc911x-0 device
TFTP from server 192.168.90.230; our IP address is 192.168.90.200
Filename 'evm/uImage'.
Load address: 0x80000000
Loading: #################################################################
         #################################################################
         #
done

Best regards
Arno