/etc/init.d/networking does not respect hwaddress

[Mike Brown]

/etc/network/interfaces (see interfaces(5)) allows for setting hwaddress on ethernet adapters. This is needed by users whose ISPs restrict handing out DHCP leases to a fixed MAC address. In earlier releases this worked fine. Here is an example interfaces:

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp
    hwaddress ether 0cdb128acfe5

However on feisty this is completely ignored by /etc/init.d/networking. Further complicating matters is that it seems we have yet another file that stores static networking information (/etc/iftab) which also wants to store MAC addresses. Anytime you store the same information in multiple places you're asking for trouble. Please consolidate /etc/iftab and /etc/network/interfaces and also make sure users can set MAC addresses on boot via this file.

A workaround is to do this by hand i.e.:

ifconfig down eth0 hw ether 0c:db:12:8a:cf:e5
ifconfig up eth0
dhclient

[Jayson Vaughn (thedonvaughn)]

Hello,
I believe that hwaddress is an option that is only allowed if you use "static".
I.e.
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
    hwaddress ether 0cdb128acfe5

Please try this.

[Jayson Vaughn (thedonvaughn)]

I apologize, you are correct it does work with "dhcp".
Can you please include your /etc/network/interfaces file as well as your /etc/iftab file.

[Rapha (raphha2)]

Hello,
I have the same problem. Wenn I run "ifup eth0" (which uses interfaces, doesn't it?), I get an error message: "SIOCSIFHWADDR: Device or resource busy". I googled and found this, which might be helpful for this bug, too: "http://bugs.busybox.net/view.php?id=880"
best regards,
Raph

[Kjell Braden (afflux)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. The issue that you reported is one that should be reproducible with the live environment of the Desktop CD of the latest release - Hardy Heron. It would help us greatly if you could test with it so we can work on getting it fixed in the next release of Ubuntu.
Thanks again and we appreciate your help.