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Subject: Re: rtw88 driver support for rtl8723ds does not work on Radxa
 RockPi-S
To: Kalle Valo <kvalo@kernel.org>, Larry Finger <Larry.Finger@lwfinger.net>
Cc: linux-wireless@vger.kernel.org, martin.blumenstingl@googlemail.com
References: <9f47e65e-35f1-b090-cad1-4d8333293b00@mbari.org>
 <9f7c6005-e9c5-4691-87c2-fee8641f02a4@lwfinger.net>
 <f8d31d74-fdfe-8706-6748-273b8c3674ca@mbari.org>
 <b9a4df4e-4b1f-436f-ae4b-90fc0c68ae81@lwfinger.net>
 <878r3hc6hy.fsf@kernel.org>
From: Brent Roman <brent@mbari.org>
Organization: MBARI
Message-ID: <42772df2-32b3-2b37-045d-b528a752bef7@mbari.org>
Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2024 23:43:19 -0800
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Yes, that's all true.=A0 However...
Random MAC address assignment tends to cause devices to be assigned a=20
different IP address on each reboot.
This often doesn't play nicely with port forwarding.

It's difficult to "prove" the RK3308 cpu serial numbers are unique, but=20
they should be and the few I've tested have been.

- brent

Kalle Valo wrote:
> Larry Finger <Larry.Finger@lwfinger.net> writes:
>
>> On 2/17/24 23:13, Brent Roman wrote:
>>> Larry,
>>> Radxa confirmed that they do not program the eFUSE on these boards.
>>> We do not get a sensible MAC from the chip, so I derive a one from
>>> the CPU's unique serial number.
>>> It's a hack, but it works well and is standard's compliant.
>>> The RockPI-S a *very* inexpensive board, so I can understand Radxa
>>> wanting to minimize the time spent configuring each one.
>>> https://shop.allnetchina.cn/products/rock-pi-s
>>> The vendor driver seems to deal with this by applying typical gain
>>> parameters when the eFUSE is invalid.
>>> With that driver, this board's WiFi performs beautifully, despite
>>> the unprogrammed eFUSE.
>>> Would you accept a patch to add this logic to RTW88?
>> Of course a patch would be accepted. Ultimately, the changes should be
>> made to the wireless-next code base, and sent to this mailing list. To
>> make things easier, you can send me a patch file for the rtw88 repo,
>> and I can reformat it for wireless-next and send it to the mailing
>> list under your signed-off-by. Either one would work.
>>
>> Thanks for sorting this out. I like the idea of deriving the MAC
>> address from the CPU serial number. That is unique and reproducible.
> But make sure that the CPU serial number is really unique. If it's not
> that can cause MAC address collisions which is not good.
>
> Usually wireless drivers create a random address if a stored MAC address
> is not available.
>


--=20
  Brent Roman                                   MBARI
  Software Engineer               Tel: (831) 775-1808
  mailto:brent@mbari.org  http://www.mbari.org/~brent