Public bug reported: Dell systems with Type-C ports support a feature called "MAC address" pass through. This feature allows systems to set a persistent system MAC address to be used with the TB15, WD15 and Type-C ethernet adapter.
More information is available here: http://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/19/SLN301147/en This function works by a system specific MAC address (referred to as an auxiliary mac address) being programmed in the factory. When the driver for the type-c ethernet (in dock or dongle) is loaded the MAC address is supposed to be overridden with this value. To enable this in Linux I see 3 parts of the stack that need to be fixed: 1) The value of the auxiliary address needs to be exposed to the OS in the kernel. 2) The "consistent driver naming scheme" needs to rename to the auxiliary name in a udev rule. 3) Network Mangager needs to not reset to the HW address when this scenario is detected. For 1: ------ I've added support for bubbling up this information from the kernel into sysfs in: /sys/devices/platform/dell-laptop/auxiliary_mac Through this patch: https://patchwork.kernel.org/patch/9047581/ Here is a sample of what it's output looks like: $ cat /sys/devices/platform/dell-laptop/auxiliary_mac 847BEB5992D2 When that patch is accepted upstream, it will need to be backported to Ubuntu to enable exporting this data. For 2: ------ I've got a udev rule and helper script that will do this part. I'll attach it to this bug. For 3: ------ Network manager needs to know to reset the ethernet adapter to the original MAC address but rather to this value (if available). As it stands today even with the udev rule in place if network manager is running it immediately resets: NetworkManager[4513]: <info> [1462846115.2330] device (en847BEB5992D2): reset MAC address to 9C:EB:E8:30:B0:A8 squashing the udev rule. ** Affects: linux (Ubuntu) Importance: Undecided Status: Incomplete ** Affects: network-manager (Ubuntu) Importance: Undecided Status: New ** Affects: systemd (Ubuntu) Importance: Undecided Status: New ** Attachment added: "dell dock udev rule" https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1579984/+attachment/4659577/+files/75-dell-dock.rules -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop Packages, which is subscribed to network-manager in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1579984 Title: Dell dock MAC Address pass through doesn't work in Ubuntu Status in linux package in Ubuntu: Incomplete Status in network-manager package in Ubuntu: New Status in systemd package in Ubuntu: New Bug description: Dell systems with Type-C ports support a feature called "MAC address" pass through. This feature allows systems to set a persistent system MAC address to be used with the TB15, WD15 and Type-C ethernet adapter. More information is available here: http://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/19/SLN301147/en This function works by a system specific MAC address (referred to as an auxiliary mac address) being programmed in the factory. When the driver for the type-c ethernet (in dock or dongle) is loaded the MAC address is supposed to be overridden with this value. To enable this in Linux I see 3 parts of the stack that need to be fixed: 1) The value of the auxiliary address needs to be exposed to the OS in the kernel. 2) The "consistent driver naming scheme" needs to rename to the auxiliary name in a udev rule. 3) Network Mangager needs to not reset to the HW address when this scenario is detected. For 1: ------ I've added support for bubbling up this information from the kernel into sysfs in: /sys/devices/platform/dell-laptop/auxiliary_mac Through this patch: https://patchwork.kernel.org/patch/9047581/ Here is a sample of what it's output looks like: $ cat /sys/devices/platform/dell-laptop/auxiliary_mac 847BEB5992D2 When that patch is accepted upstream, it will need to be backported to Ubuntu to enable exporting this data. For 2: ------ I've got a udev rule and helper script that will do this part. I'll attach it to this bug. For 3: ------ Network manager needs to know to reset the ethernet adapter to the original MAC address but rather to this value (if available). As it stands today even with the udev rule in place if network manager is running it immediately resets: NetworkManager[4513]: <info> [1462846115.2330] device (en847BEB5992D2): reset MAC address to 9C:EB:E8:30:B0:A8 squashing the udev rule. To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1579984/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages Post to : desktop-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
