ioctl() to get MAC address from EEPROM

[<Rezwanul_Kabir@xxxxxxxx>]

Hi

    There seems to be no standard way to retrieve the MAC address of a NIC 
stored in the EEPROM ( ETHTOOL_GEEPROM ioctl may be used to do such thing but 
there's a need for a more direct standard interface).This is sometimes 
necessary when the MAC address in EEPROM may differ from the one associated 
with the software interface (i.e. dev_addr in struct net_device).For example, 
in some modes of channel bonding , the MAC address of the active NIC is 
duplicated on the rest of the members of the specific bond/team. How to fetch 
the "permanent" MAC address in this case?
    Any plan to include such commands in ethtool ioctls? Is there  a better way 
to do this?
    Any suggestions would be appreciated..
    Thanks..
         --rez