Five thin client machines with same MAC Address?

3

I have Purchased five thin clients. Every time I connect them together, just one remains connected. When I check their MAC addresses, they all have the same one!

The thin client is "computer cloud fl300". It is is Linux based, but I can't reach any terminal in it. It just states "Booting OS" and then connection manager appears.

My question is: Can I reach for terminal in such like systems so I can change MAC address for each one?

Or can I configure boot devices in it?

nux

Posted 2014-05-29T14:13:45.367

Reputation: 57

According to the manual, when you go into "Control Panel" / "Peripherals & Start", you can run a program after connection is done. If this program is run inside the router, then this could be your way into the Linux console. – harrymc – 2014-06-02T11:37:33.450

Ty for your reply , can you give me a good explanation , just answer so i can give you +100 – nux – 2014-06-02T11:40:22.430

Have you managed to get into the console using this ? – harrymc – 2014-06-02T11:50:47.847

no , what should i run in router to get linux console ? you know they just give me a message " booting linux" as if they disabled user to see what is happening . – nux – 2014-06-02T12:04:26.333

They probably boot directly into X for graphics. Try to execute xterm& (graphics terminal) or /bin/sh& (bourne shell). The ampersand is to ensure that the fl-300 is not blocked. I hope it can be factory reset in any case. – harrymc – 2014-06-02T13:01:23.057

Where i can execute :) , that's the question – nux – 2014-06-02T15:14:30.840

Try "Control Panel" / "Peripherals & Start" in "Start Setting". – harrymc – 2014-06-02T15:26:03.810

Start Setting for RDP session – nux – 2014-06-02T15:28:21.033

You might be able to get a login prompt by pressing Ctrl + Alt + F1, or if that doesn't work you can also try Ctrl + Alt + F2 through F6. If you are successful in getting to a prompt, you can get back to X by trying Ctrl + Alt + the other F# keys until you see X show up. The login prompt may also have the type / version of Linux installed included even if you can't actually log in, which should help. You can also try pestering the manufacturer / the person you bought the clients from for login creds. – Parthian Shot – 2014-06-02T18:00:11.320

You might also be able to find out more information by doing screwy things to get error messages, like disconnecting it from the network while it's booting or while it's trying to connect to the server. In cases like these, error messages can be your friend. – Parthian Shot – 2014-06-02T18:04:55.663

when local update , it go to android recovery system <3e> , does this Help . – nux – 2014-06-02T18:26:08.833

Answers

5

The MAC address must be different on each device. The manufacturer should have seen to this.* Basically your thin clients do not conform to the standard. They are in error/broken.

You can do two things:

  1. Return them as broken.
    Or at the least create a fuss at the manufacturer. This sort of thing should not happen and they need to be aware that they screwed up.

  2. Try to work around it by changing the MAC after booting but before you bring the network up. (e.g. ifconfig eth0 hw ether 00:11:22:33:44:55 somewhere in your boot scripts.

Your question is basically if you can do this: The answer to that is yes.
However if you do this then:

  • Check all thin client for a sticker which proclaims which MAC they (should) use. Almost all network devices have such a sticker.
  • Make sure you do not cause a conflict with another NIC.. If you already had a sticker with a unique value on them use that. Else carefully select some which are not already in use on your network. (And be prepared for unexpected conflicts if someone brings a new device to work which just happens to have the address which you just used).
  • Document this.
  • Do not use the MAC which those five client are using atm. Change all five. (Just to prevent surprised in the future. E.g. when a 6th device gets bought and added. Or when something fails and that device reverts to its illegal MAC).


* Having said that I have seen NICs in the wild which all had the same MAC.

Hennes

Posted 2014-05-29T14:13:45.367

Reputation: 60 739

My problem is can i configure this embedded Linux in that thin client so then i can change the mac , i tried but with no success – nux – 2014-05-29T15:24:41.053

1

I cannot seem to find out which OS this thing runs or how to access the OS stored in the flash. The best I found so far is this page which merely states "Embedded linux 3.0 OS" and "Upgrade: flash". The manual has no information either. That leaves out contacting the vendor to have him fix the broken clients.

– Hennes – 2014-05-29T16:21:51.810

I have seen many cheap Chinese NICs come with the same MAC address. They obviously are not part of the IEEE standards. – Keltari – 2014-06-01T22:44:23.307

A few more questions: 1) Can you ssh to the IP of the thin client? 2) Is there anything in the TF port (and what is a TF port? Is that a double typo for SD? The manual has enough typo's to make that semi-believeable). 3) Does a restore to factory settings do anything? – Hennes – 2014-06-02T20:01:18.463

factory reset doesn't make any sense , but when i tried to update locally it enter in "Android Recovery System <3e>" i think i can work from their like installing a new rom , Does that mean my device has android Os based on linux kernel ? – nux – 2014-06-02T20:53:52.333

It could be, but I am really out of my depth here. I never owned or used an Android device. Thus all I can do is guess or Google for posts like this one. Which might or might not be relevant.

– Hennes – 2014-06-02T21:01:25.577

I once installed a NIC in an XP PC. XP saw it, assigned it an IP address, and I thought everything was fine. Then intermittent funnies started: PCs would lose connection to printers, internet, server etc, at random. I finally realised the NIC had an all-zero Mac address. This was corrected by running the installer on the NIC's CD. Could something similar be happening here? – hdhondt – 2014-06-04T04:16:11.977

Could or should? The NIC should have an unique key in it ROM. No drivers are needed for that. In this case either the creator of the NICs messed up, or the firmware on the thinclient is overriding the NICs MAC with its own settings and has this value hardcoded in its flash. (And if you flash the same firmware with the same overide value in multiple clients then you end it with a broken situation). – Hennes – 2014-06-04T05:51:08.017

1

Although in theory, different machines ought have different MAC addresses, the reality is that this is at a network level. Because most machines end up on different networks, it is not an issue to have the same MAC on different networks. So some OEMs will make batches of machines with same MAC number.

It comes a problem when you buy random lots out of contracts, say to fill a room with boxes for a casual project. Such machines are just taken from the general stock, which might include duplicate MAC addresses.

We had 20 machines supplied with the same MAC.

The fix is to contact the reseller of the boxes to supply alternate boxes.

A similar but non-fixable problems comes if a machine goes to sleep, and the router assigns the IP address to a different machine that has just joined. When the first machine is woken up, it looks for the same IP.

wendy.krieger

Posted 2014-05-29T14:13:45.367

Reputation: 660

1"Some OEMs will make batches of machines with same MAC number." Which means they make non-compliant devices and they should be smacked hard. – Hennes – 2014-06-07T23:52:30.020

0

If you are using embedded systems then you will have to return them to the manufacturer unless you are prepared to flash the ROMs.

Gaurav Joseph

Posted 2014-05-29T14:13:45.367

Reputation: 1 503

0

Since no firmware update is available, and you can't access the system, a dirty fix could be putting the devices on different Vlans so they do not collide.

Have you tried the upgrade option from the interface?

Bruno9779

Posted 2014-05-29T14:13:45.367

Reputation: 1 225

0

Hope I'm not too late, but I found the solution to that problem. I had the same thing with 8 Thin Client FL300. In the link I've shared the necessary files to change the MAC address from the support of the company.

Link

enrique parada

Posted 2014-05-29T14:13:45.367

Reputation: 11

Could you please translate your answer to English, so everyone can understand? Also, please include the main content of external sources to work around link decay. – Daniel B – 2014-08-25T19:04:39.863

the link is on my own drive where I have the necessary files, I could get the dealer who gave me support – enrique parada – 2014-08-25T19:14:46.533

It doesn’t matter where it is, if it isn’t here. Your answer has to be complete. – Daniel B – 2014-08-25T19:17:23.667

It's bad enough that you've posted just a link, rather than posting the actual answer, but that link is unusable *right now*. Please post the information from your document to [su]. – Scott – 2014-08-25T19:42:35.433

I is not read as expected real answer, the fact is that I have some files I could get by support service, I had the same problem and my intention is to help the person who needs them.

The procedure is simple and is described in a short paper that is inside the zip.

only have to download the document put the files in a usb stick I insert in the thinclient automatically change the mac address of thincleint. ready and that's it.

if you can not view or download the document and I'll upload it to mega posteare the download link – enrique parada – 2014-08-25T20:16:22.337

I get a

"Sorry, the file you have requested does not exist.

Make sure that you have the correct URL and that the owner of the file hasn't deleted it." – Hennes – 2014-08-26T08:15:11.203

@Hennes: Yeah, well, enrique parade posted this link, which still gets the “You need permission” error that I experienced and reported 18 hours ago. But then nux edited the answer and corrupted the URL, changing /edit to edit/. (BTW, MaQleod and Rhys Gibson approved the edit.)

– Scott – 2014-08-26T14:39:42.360

@Hennes: This is not the first time I've seen suggested edits with real problems get approved. One time before, I found an unrelated post by one of the approvers and attached a comment telling him what he had done. He responded with an indication of indifference. What should I do in cases like that? – Scott – 2014-08-26T14:47:14.830

@Scott Ty for pointing my mistake , i have corrected it . – nux – 2014-08-27T00:45:31.443

@enriqueparada , please did you face password forgot , is there any solution for that . – nux – 2014-08-27T00:47:09.930

Asked: 2014-05-29T14:13:45.367

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Active: 2014-08-27T03:35:46.517