Micro Howto - Running multiple Mandrake 9 Xbox Linux machines on the same network

Micro Howto - Running multiple Mandrake 9 Xbox Linux machines on the
same network
andy@xxxxxxxxxxx  2002-11-30

The problem

Each machine wakes up with an identical MAC address (00:58:42:6F:78:4C)
for the network interface.  MAC addresses are unique fingerprints used
at the Ethernet layer.  Having multiple machines with the same MAC
address is a recipie for disaster.  The various switches and machines
map IP addresses to actual machines by using the MAC address, having
multiple interfaces respond to one MAC address is obviously a big
messup.



The solution

On ALL of the machines (all except one is not good enough):

 - su to root

 - edit /etc/rc.local  (<-- not sure this is the best place, but it
works)

 - just before the first noncomment line, add

  ifconfig eth0 hw ether xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx up

(where xx... is a pair of hex digits, forming a unique 48-bit number)

 - save the file and either reboot or type the added string at a shell
prompt

Note that this can also be done in an ssh session, ssh is robust enough
that after a long pause it will continue to communicate with the machine
even though you changed that machine's ethernet MAC address from under
it.

Note you can see what MAC addresses your machine knows about by typing

# arp




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