MAC address Workaround

[don389]

It seems one of the biggest headaches when installing Xpenology is centered around matching the MAC address(es) in the vender file (or GRUB kernel line) to your installed NIC(s). If the addresses don't match, Synology Assistant can't make a connection and the installation aborts. But what if you don't know your NIC's MAC address?

 

Fortunately, there is a simple workaround. Set the MAC address in the vender file (or grub.conf) to ffffffffffff, When the install boots, networking will use the MAC address of the installed NIC and the installation completes without complaining.

 

@Trantor: Thanks for all your efforts! If the MACs in the vender file you provide were set in this manner it would save a lot of headaches and questions.

[Trantor]

I will look about this.

The best will be that xpenology only use real mac adresses, so no headaches ^^

[stanza]

I have had no issues with MAC address

 

Easiest way I found is

 

Make usb stick

 

Pop it in and boot up

 

Install xpenology pat file

 

Reboot

 

Once up and going, ssh into box and use dmesg output to find your REAL MAC address

 

Then edit the grub.conf file on the usb stick to reflect the real MAC address

 

Eg

Vi /volumeUSB/......./boot/grub.conf

 

Change the number of interfaces MAC address's and serial

 

Save and reboot

 

Then ssh back in and edit both synoinfo.comf files to your liking

For wake on LAN and number of internal/usb/esata ports etc

 

And your away and going

 

.

[gnoboot]

or patch /etc/rc.network to ignore mac address changes. My boot image has been working w/out the hassle of editing vender files or manually setting the mac address in grub.conf.

[don389]

My issue was Synology Assistant wouldn't let me install the pat file due to connection errors.

No install = no known login from the console, ssh not enabled, etc.

This precludes the suggestions above.

 

However, since I had a console, I press 'e' at the GRUB boot screen. Delete hw and vender lines and add mac1=ffffffffffff to the kernel line.

Boot and now I can install the pat and try some of the suggestions above.

[Trantor]

or patch /etc/rc.network to ignore mac address changes. My boot image has been working w/out the hassle of editing vender files or manually setting the mac address in grub.conf.

 

Can you help me with that ?

[gnoboot]

Here's the patch for /etc/rc.network. It's kinda funny that function will generate a random mac address if you don't set one from vender or grub.

@@ -961,7 +961,7 @@
                       continue
               fi

-               set_mac_address ${ifn}
+               #set_mac_address ${ifn}

[Trantor]

Thank you for the tip

 

If I remove the vender file and add sn=xxx in grub, Synology Assistant show empty sn

 

Any idea ?

[don389]

Thank you for the tip

 

If I remove the vender file and add sn=xxx in grub, Synology Assistant show empty sn

 

Any idea ?

 

I am able to add sn= to grub and it shows in Synology assistant.

Using SA 4.3-4359

 

My grub modification

 

[Trantor]

@gnoboot : How did you managed to remove the vender file and get sn working ?

 

As I said above if I remove the vender file and put sn in grub, sn is not showed (dsm and Synology Assistant)

[gnoboot]

@gnoboot : How did you managed to remove the vender file and get sn working ?

 

As I said above if I remove the vender file and put sn in grub, sn is not showed (dsm and Synology Assistant)

 

You need to patch /etc/rc.network in hda1.gz as well, and stick the sn GRUB option as per don389.

[Trantor]

Forgot to patch it in hda1 ^^

I will try this

 

But I don't understand how the mac adresses fix can also fix the sn not showing