On Tue, 1 Apr 1997 23:50:42 -0500,
Steven Campbell <campbel@istar.ca> wrote:
> At 10:53 AM -0500 1/4/97, Allen Briggs wrote:
> >SONIC doesn't quite work in current kernels for several machines.  We
> >aren't getting the MAC address correctly on the PB5xx machines, and folks
> >have reported problems on the second-generation Quadras (610/650/etc).
> 
> On my PB550C, with the kernel available at
> ftp://ftp.aa.ap.titech.ac.jp/pub/yanagisw/NetBSD/netbsd_PB550c_SONIC.
> tar.gz, done by Takeshi Yanagisawa, my PB can find the 550c's MAC address
> if I boot with extensions, especially the Onboard ethernet extension
> loaded.  If I boot with extensions disabled, hold the shift key down, or if
> the machine crashes and never tried to access SONIC, the machine will boot
> without knowing the MAC address.  It's purely cosmetic though.  SONIC works
> fine on this machine, even under heavy FTP and X server loads...

Is it the case that it "works" with a bogus MAC address, or is it the
case that the kernel doesn't get the MAC address but the hardware
somehow continues to work with the correct MAC address?

If it's the former, I wouldn't say it's "purely cosmetic"...  If you
say it's the latter, it's rather hard to believe, given the way the
driver sets the MAC address...

Ken