IPv6 on Ben Nanonote

[EdorFaus]

On 06/16/2012 02:17 AM, David Kuehling wrote:
> Next problem: the IPv6 link-local address changes after every boot!  The
> IPv6 address is generated from the MAC-address; the MAC adress changes,
> too.  Why???
>
> Any chance we can give the Nanonotes a permanent MAC-address by default?

I remember hitting the same problem of non-static MAC addresses (though 
for IPv4 networking) a while ago, and I believe I sent some emails to 
this list about it, but apparently it never really took. (Hopefully 
you'll have better luck.)

 From what I remember, Qi doesn't have a MAC address range to assign to 
the devices, and are using the dynamic ones on purpose - but my 
suggestion was that the devices don't *need* unique MAC addresses - as 
the MAC addresses really only need to be unique on the same network, and 
each host-to-ben USB link is a separate network (on the link layer 
anyway, which is where MAC addresses are used).

I wanted the static MAC address so that NetworkManager could recognize 
the device and automatically start its network sharing, so the NanoNote 
could access the internet via the host without having to fiddle with 
config files or do any further manual setup.

This works perfectly now that I've configured my NanoNote to use a 
static MAC address (which is not overly difficult, see [1]), but I 
figured it might be a good idea to make that the default (or at least 
the (10.42.43.x) static IP that I also had to set on the NN). It seems 
like the maintainers either weren't listening or didn't agree though.

Of course, my proposal was for a change in how the IPv4 networking 
worked - you might have better luck, as your IPv6 proposal doesn't 
change a currently (mostly) working status quo, but makes something work 
that didn't previously.

-- 
Regards,
Frode Austvik

[1] http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/Ethernet_over_USB#Static_Mac_Address