Description of problem:

It is impossible to use the adaptive load balancing (ALB) mode of the
Linux bonding driver with the tg3 base driver because the tg3 driver
doesn't support changing the MAC address of a running interface.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
2.4.21-9.EL and earlier

How reproducible:
always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.install system with Broadcom NIC and tg3
2.configure bonding driver with mode=6 using the Broadcom NIC
  
Actual results: the following error message:

bonding: Error: alb_set_mac_addr: dev->set_mac_address of dev eth0
failed! ALB mode requires that the base driver support setting the hw
address also when the network device's interface is open

Expected results:

ALB mode works.

Additional info:

Works with Broadcomn's bcm5700 driver, thus it is no Hardware problem

The following lines in tg3_set_mac_addr()  (tg3.c line 4523f.) seem to
be responsible:

        if (netif_running(dev))
                return -EBUSY;