Why can't I change my MAC address?

Question

Here's what I got:

audrianore@HP-Mini-210-1000:~$ sudo airmon-ng stop eth1
[sudo] password for audrianore: 


Interface   Chipset     Driver

eth1        Unknown         wl (monitor mode disabled)

audrianore@HP-Mini-210-1000:~$ sudo ifconfig eth1 down
audrianore@HP-Mini-210-1000:~$ sudo macchanger --random eth1
Permanent MAC: 00:00:00:00:00:00 (Xerox Corporation)
Current   MAC: ee:68:56:21:3b:2a (unknown)
ERROR: Can't change MAC: interface up or not permission: Too many open files in system
audrianore@HP-Mini-210-1000:~$ 

I don't know why, the Chipset is Unknown, but that doesn't matter (I think).
I was just curious with macchanger's error.

What I did today are:

1. sudo apt-get install build-essential
2. sudo apt-get install libssl-dev
3. sudo apt-get install aircrack-ng
4. sudo apt-get install macchanger

Hardware:

02:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY (rev 01)

I've been googling, and I found out that this is a hardware problem (Broadcom).
Is there anything I can do with it?

Answer 1

To change your mac address you can try this:

1. sudo service network-manager stop
2. sudo ifconfig eth0 hw ether xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx - Here you have to add a mac address you want. If you are connecting to the Internet over a wireless connection, then replace "eth0" with "wlan0" (wlan1, wlan2, etc.)
3. sudo service network-manager restart
4. ifconfig - check is mac changed

You can read more here.

If this is a hardware problem, I'm not sure if it will work, but try.