Re: [PATCH] sky2: Add module parameter for passing the MAC address

[Liviu Dudau <Liviu.Dudau@arm.com>]

On Wed, Aug 05, 2015 at 05:40:57PM +0100, Stephen Hemminger wrote:
> On Wed,  5 Aug 2015 16:50:54 +0100
> Liviu Dudau <Liviu.Dudau@arm.com> wrote:
> 
> > For designs where EEPROMs are not connected to PCI Yukon2
> > chips we need to get the MAC address from the firmware.
> > Add a module parameter called 'mac_address' for this. It
> > will be used if no DT node can be found and the B2_MAC
> > register holds an invalid value.
> > 
> > Signed-off-by: Liviu Dudau <Liviu.Dudau@arm.com>
> 
> Yes, I can see that this can be a real problem, and other drivers
> solve the problem. The standard method is to assign a random mac address
> (and then let scripts overwrite) rather than introducing module parameter.
> Module parameters are discouraged because they are device specific.
> 

I agree. However, in my case, the boards people have assigned MAC addresses
to the chip, they just didn't built the board in such a way as to allow one
to store that MAC address in a permanent way :( And no, I can't use the DT
because the chip is actually on the PCIe bus.

Even with the generation of a random address, it still needs to be copied
into the device, so I would guess that a version of the patch I've sent is
still relevant?

Best regards,
Liviu

>  
> 

-- 
====================
| I would like to |
| fix the world,  |
| but they're not |
| giving me the   |
 \ source code!  /
  ---------------
    ¯\_(ツ)_/¯