On Thu, Aug 26, 2004 at 09:22:24PM +0200, Wolfgang Denk wrote: [snip]
No. Make your teste write it directly to the EEPROM if you like (but not though the "setenv" command, as this will always write to _one_ device only).
I'm getting clueless now. You don't like new command approach and you also don't like setenv ethaddr approach. I think there are people, who are solving similar problem. If there is no way to add this feature into official U-Boot, just say it directly and I'm fine with keeping patches localy.
Once set, overwriting mac address is allowed, but it is password protected. That way unexperienced user is not able to change it, but service technician is.
Such password protection is overkill. Shall I show you how an unexperienced user is able to overwrite the whole environment even if you password protect it? You just need to read the documentation and add 2 and 2 together.
1) MAC adress lives in EEPROM connected to SMC ethernet chip. This address comes from purchased range. 2) User is able to change it in enviroment, but is unable to save it together with other enviroment variables and he is also unable to store it into serial EEPROM. Think about MAC as a board id.
It is posible that board dies (it is hit by flash, etc). In that case servician comes to replace it and stores the MAC used by dead board to new one, not breaking customers setup and to save MAC addresses from purchased range.
Regards, ladis