# Bonding problems.

## relpats_eht

I am trying to implement load balancing over two AP's via bonding two wireless card--one with an Agere chipset using the orinoco-usb driver and the other with an Atheros chipset using the madwifi driver--but it continually fails.

I am, for the moment, just trying to get this working manually, running the following instructions:

```
modprobe bonding mode=balance-alb miimon=100

iwconfig wlan0 ...

dhcpcd wlan0

iwconfig eth1 ...

dhcpcd eth1

ifconfig bond0 ...

ifenslave -f bond0 wlan0 eth1 #<- This line fails and generates the kernel messages
```

The kernel messages are as follows:

```
ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): bond0: link is not ready

ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready

bonding: bond0: Error: dev_set_mac_address of dev wlan0 failed! ALB mode requires that the base driver support setting the hw address also when the network device's interface is open

ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready

bonding: bond0: Error: dev_set_mac_address of dev wlan0 failed! ALB mode requires that the base driver support setting the hw address also when the network device's interface is open

eth1: New link status: Disconnected (0002)

ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth1: link is not ready

bonding: bond0: Error: dev_set_mac_address of dev eth1 failed! ALB mode requires that the base driver support setting the hw address also when the network device's interface is open

ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth1: link is not ready

bonding: bond0: Error: dev_set_mac_address of dev eth1 failed! ALB mode requires that the base driver support setting the hw address also when the network device's interface is open
```

Do the madwifi and orinoco drivers support setting the mac address and I am just doing something wrong, or is this a lost cause?

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## mimosinnet

I have been able to bond an Atheros Communications, AR5006EG with my ethernet card. I do not assign an ip to the interfaces before the bonding. 

Cheers!

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