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My Gigabyte H270-HD3 comes with an on-board Ethernet.

00:1f.6 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Ethernet Connection (2) I219-V
        Subsystem: Intel Corporation Ethernet Connection (2) I219-V
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 128
        Memory at f7f00000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128K]
        Capabilities: [c8] Power Management version 3
        Capabilities: [d0] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
        Capabilities: [e0] PCI Advanced Features
        Kernel driver in use: e1000e
        Kernel modules: e1000e

But the weird thing: the MAC address is stuck at a weird 88:88:88:88:87:88 address.

I tried re-flashing the BIOS, but after the re-flash, the problem persists.

Why does my Ethernet have this weird MAC Address? And how can I change it back to what it is supposed to be?

enp0s31f6: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        inet 10.0.3.39  netmask 255.0.0.0  broadcast 10.255.255.255
        inet6 fe80::7b57:d563:8263:6e11  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x20<link>
        ether 88:88:88:88:87:88  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 1237  bytes 1072985 (1.0 MB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 818  bytes 83867 (83.8 KB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0
        device interrupt 16  memory 0xf7f00000-f7f20000
Bram
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2 Answers2

3

Oh, boy, this is a hard nut to crack, but I got there. This is what to do:

There is a BIOS flashing bug that affects all sorts of motherboards, ASUS, MSI, GIGABYTE. It leaves the Intel NIC with an invalid MAC after BIOS flash.

Great.

To fix it, you need a utility called eeupdate.exe

And as an insult to the consumer, Intel will not give it to you, and refers to the motherboard manufacturer, who only hands it out to privileged partners.

So, you are pretty much screwed, and at the mercy of random strangers leaving a copy of the executable on the Internet.

After visiting many dodgy links, I managed to find a source for the EEUPDATE.EXE utility. Note: if you download a version that is too old, it most likely wont work with your NIC.

Before you can run the tool, you need to create a DOS environment on a USB stick.

This is far from trivial. It starts with partitioning your drive as DOS. Then formatting it as FAT.

Once you have a FAT disk, you need a copy of dos.

There is a tool for that, unetbootin, but that is not available in Ubuntu.

$ add-apt-repository ppa:gezakovacs/ppa
$ apt install unetbootin

That tool will let you create a FreeDOS install.

Copy the EEUPDATE tool to this DOS drive.

Then boot into the USB drive.

Then on the DOS prompt:

C:
EEUPDATE.EXE /NIC=1 MAC=YOURMACGOESHERE.

To find your real MAC address, look at the sticker on the Ethernet jack.

Phew... I went through this convoluted path of jank, so that you don't have to, or at least will have an easier time.

PS: I also tried to change the address with the MAC.EXE DOS tool, but that did not work. Only EEUPDATE.EXE did.

Bram
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1

You can use the linux tool for this. Found in the latest LAN driver Package from MSI. Intel Network Drivers 25.0.0.02020-09-15 230.71 MB

you need to unload the current driver (watch out, no more networking)

sudo modprobe -r e1000e

or you get a error message about strict MMIO memory settings in the kernel.

Set execute bit for Tool found in directory "LAN Tools/EEupdate_5.35.12.0/linux64e"

chmod +x eeupdate64e

run as sudo to update the MAC. Dont use the same..

sudo eeupdate64e /NIC=1 /MAC=888888888788

Connection to QV driver failed - please reinstall it!

Using: Intel (R) PRO Network Connections SDK v2.35.12 EEUPDATE v5.35.12.00 Copyright (C) 1995 - 2020 Intel Corporation Intel (R) Confidential and not for general distribution.

Driverless Mode

NIC Bus Dev Fun Vendor-Device Branding string === === === === ============= ================================================= 1 0 31 06 8086-15B8 Intel(R) Ethernet Connection (2) I219-V

1: Updating Mac Address to XXXXXXXXXXXX...Done. 1: Updating Checksum and CRCs...Done.

Reload the network drivers and enjoy networking with your new MAC Address

sudo modprobe e1000e
Jackfritt
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