ioctl() to get MAC address from EEPROM

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