Dear Josh Karabin,
In message 4A12CD18.2040608@vocollect.com you wrote:
If the kernel is loaded using some other mechanism, like flash, the smc device is never initialized. At least in the case where there is no valid EEPROM connected to the smc device, NFS boot will fail. I'm not sure whether or not a loaded MAC address has anything to do with it, or if the kernel is expecting the smc device to be in a different state.
Relying on tftpboot leaving the ethernet device in the right state doesn't seem right. Is there an existing clean way to deal with this, short of adding an initramfs to fix it up? I'll work on a patch if someone can suggest an approach that makes sense.
Please check the FAQ, especially here: http://www.denx.de/wiki/view/DULG/EthernetDoesNotWorkInLinux
Best regards,
Wolfgang Denk