WiFi MAC address changes after update to 2.362

Help and Support Help
1

Hi everybody,

I have setup a DHCP reservation for the MAC address of my Raspberry PI WiFi and it was working fine.
I updated to version 2.362, and after the reboot could no longer connect with the reserved IP.
Checking the router logs, I noticed that the MAC address of the Pi has changed - See attached screenshot.

Any idea why this would happen and how to avoid it?
I know that MAC addresses are not set in stone, and can be changed by the O/S, but that requires explicit action AFAIK.

Thanks in advance,

Ami
MAC_changed.jpg

2

You haven’t given any details of your system … is it built-in wiifi or an adapter? You haven’t changed your wifi adapter?

3

Hi and thanks for your prompt reply.

The system is a Raspberry Pi 3 B, I’m using the built in WiFi adapter.
No changes to hardware, only software update from 2.348 to 2.362.

Thanks,

Ami

4

Ok, no idea why that would happen (and not seen reported before), but as long as it remains consistent now, you are good to go.

5

This new release includes an updated firmware from the Raspberry PI foundation (which should solve lot of issues).
IMHO this is probably what changed the MAC.

However it’s really really strange that they do it via firmware

6

Thanks for your replies.

I hope this won’t happen with the next update, it will be annoying if I have to change the DHCP reservations every update :slight_smile:

And… Huge Kudos and thanks for this amazing project!

Ami

7

@ami,
hum…that’s really strange indeed: have you noted the same MAC change on a plain Raspbian install?
Been tracking this firmware issue for some time in various forums , and never noticed anyone mentioning new firmware did modify MAC address…

EDIT: B8:27:EB is genuine PI Manufacturer address, while 02:0F:B5 is virtual, probably provided by your Netgear? router/repeater. Do not know why your router/repeater does that, but you may want to check documentation.
Probably more related to your network setup particularities than an Volumio/OS/firmware issue.
Maybe your Pi is sometimes accessing your router through a repeater, sometimes directly, hence different MAC addresses…(last part of address is same, so it allows identifying the actual device, eventhough the manufacturer part is spoofed).

PS: you may want to reconsider why MAC address filtering is being activated on your router.
Often it is wrongly used as a pretended security measure to avoid intrusions: as MAC addresses be easily spoofed by anyone motivated-enough to do such intrusions, it is NOT a good protection measure, and can cause unnecessary complexity in your network setup, as we see it.

8

Hi all,

I’m very happy with the new version and firmware.

Since 2.362:

1.)
The WiFi on a PI 3 now has the MAC address the PI had before on both ETH AND WIFI :exclamation:
I tried 3 different access points to be sure this is really the case.
- NOW the ETH MAC address is different from the WiFi
This is how it has to be ! :slight_smile:

Edit: At my devices not the first 3 - but the last 3 double numbers of the MAC have changed.

2.)
The following WiFi adapter is now working stable on PI 1B+ and PI 2 - which was not the case before. It always worked for some hours and then never came back, what made it unusable. (No clue what happened here)
https://www.ebay.de/itm/Mini-WIFI-WLAN-Antenne-Wireless-Adapter-Stick-USB-2-0-N-Draft-Wireless-2318/282818536446?hash=item41d94c63fe:g:m-gAAOSw8H1aZanz
( I bought 8 of these after a (too) short test for only 3€30/a piece at Gearbest - and now i can use them :slight_smile: :slight_smile: :slight_smile: - wonderful

3.)
Also other issues like not beeing able to control the other PIs from the WebUI - only after they all ran for a while - are gone :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

This is a HUGE improvement for my envoronment (consisting of about 15 Volumio devices)
Thank you so much for that.

I will love to set my IP address reservations new on my DHCP server.

Also i don’t think this will change with upcoming updates - because it seems to be a fix of a crude bug, that also disrupted the stability of my network switches. I will open up a bottle of champaign this evening.

I’m not a RaspBerry - nor a Linux Guru – but a networking gui, and trust me - never ever it is good to have double MAC addresses in a network.
You may state - why do you use ETH and WiFi simultanously ? I don’t, but i always saw this effect when just having configured WiFi by using ETH.

@macmpi: DHCP reservations are useful - it’s not DHCP filtering

I’m just about to bring out v2.362 to all my devices after testing the whole week.

Have a good weekend.

  • Josef

…i’m sooooo happy