Assumed MAC address of a Linux bond member may cause incorrect NIC vendor extensions to be loaded

[wowczarek]

Scenario:

• Bonded interface on Linux, member A) is vendor X (say Solarflare) for which libcck loads vendor extensions
• Bonded interface member B) is vendor Y, for which libcck also loads vendor extensions

...or vice versa (A<->B).

The MAC address of all bond members becomes the same once bonded. This will cause incorrect extensions to be loaded, or no extensions to be loaded, if mixing NIC vendors. The only way around this is to try acquiring the actual burned-in hardware MAC.

[wowczarek]

ETHTOOL_GPERMADDR, Linux 2.6.14+