r8169: MAC address programmed by coreboot to onboard RTL8111F does not persist

[Paul Menzel]

Dear Linux folks,


Keith Hui reported the issue *MAC address programmed by coreboot to 
onboard RTL8111F does not persist* [1] below when using coreboot:

> I am producing a coreboot port on Asus P8Z77-V LE PLUS on which this
> issue is observed. It has a RTL8111F ethernet controller without
> EEPROM for vital product data.
>
> I enabled the rtl8168 driver in coreboot so I can configure the LEDs
> and MAC address. Lights work great, but the MAC address always
> revert to 00:00:00:00:00:05 by the Linux r8169 kernel module. I
> would then have to reassign its proper MAC address using ip link
> change eno0 address <mac>.
>
> The device appears to be taking the address I programmed, but r8169
> reverts it both on init and teardown, insisting that
> 00:00:00:00:00:05 is its permanent MAC address.
>
> Survival of coreboot programmed MAC address before r8169 driver is
> confirmed by a debug read back I inserted in the coreboot rtl81xx
> driver, as well as by temporarily blacklisting r8169.
>
> Vendor firmware is unaffected.

Do you have an idea, where in the Linux driver that happens?


Kind regards,

Paul


[1]: https://ticket.coreboot.org/issues/579#change-2029