Behaviour when ethernet MAC is 00:00:00:00:00:00 ?

[Jon Masters]

On Mon, 2007-11-19 at 16:58 +0100, Jos Vos wrote:
> On Mon, Nov 19, 2007 at 04:53:38PM +0100, Ralf Ertzinger wrote:
> 
> > I have updated some BIOSes in my time, but I never had to do that.
> 
> No, and I've even never heard that story.
> 
> Usually, when MAC addresses become 00:00..., your NIC has a serious
> problem.  I've had that in a few cases, all after a power dip IIRC,
> and I had to replace them.

The response to the original poster about giving a specified MAC was
obviously assuming that the original poster was reflashing the BIOS *on
the NIC*. This is unlikely, but it is quite command for NICs to come up
with a NULL MAC if their internal flash is blown away/not updated
properly. This is highly unlikely to be the case here, however.

My suspicion is that the original mail was simply about updating the
main system BIOS, not the additional flash chip, and that something is
very wrong with the card - is it on board, or an adapter?

Jon.