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Mac address of embedded usb ethernet device (smsc95xx driver) is being changed on each reboot - its happening despite adding to the /boot/cmdline.txt smsc95xx.macaddr=00:11:22:33:45:67 - I know that as in dmesg I see the log with the address I provided in cmdline.txt

smsc95xx 1-1.1:1.0 eth0: register 'smsc95xx' at usb-3f980000.usb-1.1, smsc95xx USB 2.0 Ethernet, 00:11:22:33:45:67

final mac address is different on each reboot. In consequence (I believe this is secondary to the mac changing) I am unable to disable interface renaming. I was reading number of reports on that issue yet did not find anything regarding random mac despite cmdline.txt setting.

Pi is running raspbian buster and was recently upgraded from jessie (in two steps via stretch) - I'm not sure if this issue was present in jessie as was not using ethernet at that time - I've identified the issue only in stretch and buster - along with random eth interface names (wifi interfaces have persistent macs and names).

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Whilst I cannot provide direct help (yet). I have the same problem and it only affects one out of two of my rpi3B. I have opened tickets on raspberrypi.org and will try to continue figuring out the problem.

The problem is not the upgrade from jessie. I'm on buster since months and this problem was introduced with an update around May 15th for myself, according to kernel logs.

cat /var/log/kern.log | grep smsc95xx

May 15 07:32:19 raspberrypi kernel: [    1.383694] usbcore: registered new interface driver smsc95xx
May 15 07:32:19 raspberrypi kernel: [    4.244294] smsc95xx v1.0.6
May 15 07:32:19 raspberrypi kernel: [    4.341748] smsc95xx 1-1.1:1.0 eth0: register 'smsc95xx' at usb-3f980000.usb-1.1, smsc95xx USB 2.0 Ethernet, b8:27:eb:af:f3:f4
May 15 07:32:20 raspberrypi kernel: [   12.852984] smsc95xx 1-1.1:1.0 eth0: hardware isn't capable of remote wakeup
May 15 07:32:21 raspberrypi kernel: [   14.416414] smsc95xx 1-1.1:1.0 eth0: link up, 100Mbps, full-duplex, lpa 0xC5E1
May 15 23:43:17 raspberrypi kernel: [    1.406684] usbcore: registered new interface driver smsc95xx
May 15 23:43:17 raspberrypi kernel: [    3.934275] smsc95xx v1.0.6
May 15 23:43:17 raspberrypi kernel: [    4.031511] smsc95xx 1-1.1:1.0 eth0: register 'smsc95xx' at usb-3f980000.usb-1.1, smsc95xx USB 2.0 Ethernet, be:b8:2d:47:47:04
May 15 23:43:18 raspberrypi kernel: [   12.379286] smsc95xx 1-1.1:1.0 eth0: hardware isn't capable of remote wakeup
May 15 23:43:19 raspberrypi kernel: [   13.894849] smsc95xx 1-1.1:1.0 eth0: link up, 100Mbps, full-duplex, lpa 0xC5E1


b8:27:eb:af:f3:f4 Raspberry Pi Foundation
be:b8:2d:47:47:04 Vendor not Found

So you likely tried these already https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/68513/pi-using-a-random-mac-address-after-every-reboot-how-do-i-stop-this-behavior

and

https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=33252

I will try to add links here once the admins approve my troubleshooting threads there.

May I ask, do you boot from USB or SD card? Meanwhile I give this a thumbs up, this problem needs to be brought to attention. It even persists for me when I return back to old official stock images of buster.

Edit: The topic is live now https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=274220

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  • thanks so much for sharing your case. One thing I found in the last thread you've added is someone mentioned docker there and I also remember some rpi unrelated threads mentioning similar issue. Will try investigate that direction.
    – ciekawy
    May 17, 2020 at 14:23
  • I've managed to boot from USB - mac address unchanged (as set in the cmdline.txt). Also proper eth0 interface name. Now I'm trying to follow one suggestion to perform rpi-update, just need to resize my boot partition first...
    – ciekawy
    May 23, 2020 at 21:04
  • I can help you with boot partition resizes: askubuntu.com/questions/69363/… Basically you can take the image from raspberrypi.org/downloads/raspbian and write it to an empty SD card. Use your old /boot and old /root and copy them with cp -u src dest to the new partitions on the other SD card. Remember to edit the PARTUUID of your old copied files to the new PARTUUID of the new SD card. I have done this successfully before for a friend. The method works if done correctly. (Keep your original backed up!)
    – gavery
    May 25, 2020 at 10:35

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