Why Unix machines MAC address is only 8 digits?

[mesfet]

length of mac address?

Hi All,

I wonder why the MAC address my UNIX machine is 8 digits, I use lmhostid to check, while MAC address of my PCs are 12 digits??


Mesfet+

 

[FoxyRick]

Re: Length of MAC address

If I recall correctly, Solaris misses off leading zeros on the hex digits - maybe this is why?

Can't check now, I sold my Sun box

Cheers,
FoxyRick.

 

[davorin]

Re: Length of MAC address

That´s correct...

# /sbin/ifconfig -a
le0: flags=863<UP,BROADCAST,NOTRAILERS,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
        inet 10.0.0.1netmask ffffff00 broadcast 10.0.0.255
        ether 8:0:20:10:d2:ae

What matters is are the ":" (o;


Don´t run solaris anymore to ferify but the above snippet is from a solaris faq...

Today all major UNIX flavours I´m aware of are using 6 octets...(there´s no digits or bytes in networking ;o)

 

[mesfet]

Re: Length of MAC address

Hi All,

My problem is that I am going to switch from UNIX Cadence to Linux Cadence. Everything works fine, except one software which need server flexlm license and the MAC address in the license file is 8 digits only. Have anyone come across this problem before?


Mesfet+

 

[davorin]

Re: Length of MAC address

Why don´t you ask Cadence support to change your valid UNIX license to Linux?

Or can´t you keep the UNIX box running flexlm and connect from Linux box then?

And how does your 8 digits look like? (o;