[U-Boot] net, kirkwood_egiga: init mac address before using network commands

[Simon Kagstrom]

On Tue, 30 Mar 2010 10:26:59 +0200
Wolfgang Denk <wd at denx.de> wrote:

> > Personally, I'd prefer using Heikos approach until Arm Linux has moved
> > to device trees. I know it's a deviation from how it's supposed to
> > work, but it also solves a real problem without introducing kludges
> > elsewhere.
> 
> If we do not even raise issues with the current Linux code with the
> Linux developers they will not even be aware that there are problems.
> In the end, things will never change.  

I believe they are aware of this especially since many developers work
on both projects anyway. If I remember the discussion on ARM device
trees a year ago or so correct, this was one of the issues brought up
in support of the device trees (or it should have, anyway).

> > I think most people (myself included) would just "solve" the problem by
> > carrying a private patch to setup the MAC address in U-boot anyway.
> 
> Interesting.  Why would you do this?  Why would you not rather fix the
> Linux driver instead? [This is what I would do.]

Basically two reasons: First, it's a simpler fix in U-boot (a oneliner
for Kirkwood), and secondly because (as far as I understand, correct me
if I'm wrong), it lacks any well-defined protocol to transfer this
knowledge to the kernel driver.

I know mostly how it looks on the OpenRD board, where the MAC address
is stored in the U-boot environment. Easy to access in U-boot, but a
lot trickier from Linux. Sure, you could transfer it via a command-line
parameter or something, but personally I think this is uglier than
setting it up in U-boot anyway.

// Simon