Hi,
I just did a clean install of LE2006.0 . In my haste, I forgot to save the firmware for my netgear pcmcia WG511 card. So, I downloaded it from netgear and used wine to extract it. (nice!)
From there, I used harddrake via drakconf to add the wireless card. It worked, the card came up and everything. However, on a reboot, I got an error message to the effect of 'eth0 different mac address than the one configured.'
After getting this, I tried to bring the card up manually by typing 'ifup eth0' and got the same error. After looking at /sbin/ifup, it does an 'ip link show' to determine the card's mac address and then compares it to the value in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 . So I tried the same thing and got the wrong mac address from the one imprinted on the card.
The thing is, in the ifcfg-eth0 generated by drakconf, the mac address is what is printed on the card (good). However, when I run an 'ifconfig -a' or the 'ip link' command that's in /sbin/ifup, it shows a completely different mac address. Why is that?
I've tried ejecting the card, putting it back in, etc...but the hw mac address is consistently different from the true mac.
If the firmware doesn't successfully load (assumption), can it report a different mac address?
I'm so baffled.
Thanks!