diff --git a/packages/bsp/common/usr/lib/armbian/armbian-common b/packages/bsp/common/usr/lib/armbian/armbian-common
index 18af42bea..93e607eff 100755
--- a/packages/bsp/common/usr/lib/armbian/armbian-common
+++ b/packages/bsp/common/usr/lib/armbian/armbian-common
@@ -30,10 +30,17 @@ local random=$(shuf -i 0-3 -n 1)
 MACADDR=$(printf ${prefixes[$random]}':%02X:%02X:%02X:%02X:%02X\n' $[RANDOM%256] $[RANDOM%256] $[RANDOM%256] $[RANDOM%256] $[RANDOM%256])
 }
 
+
+# set fixed IP address from first randomly assigned one. If nothing is deteceted, generate one.
 set_fixed_mac ()
 {
-get_random_mac
-uuid=$(nmcli -f UUID,DEVICE,TYPE connection show --active | grep ethernet | awk '{print $1}' | head -1)
+
+local nmcli_query=$(nmcli -f UUID,DEVICE,TYPE connection show --active | grep ethernet | head -1)
+device=$(echo $nmcli_query | awk '{print $2}' )
+uuid=$(echo $nmcli_query | awk '{print $1}' )
+MACADDR=$(nmcli device show $device | grep -i hwaddr | awk '{print $2}')
+[[ -z $MACADDR ]] && get_random_mac
+
 if [[ -n $uuid ]]; then
 	nmcli connection modify $uuid ethernet.cloned-mac-address $MACADDR
 	nmcli connection modify $uuid -ethernet.mac-address ""